Dye Painting: Lights, Mediums and Darks

PAINTING WITH DYES ONTO MERCERIZED COTTON FABRIC

10 Painted Fabric Pieces Ready for Quilters

CONSIDERING VALUES WHEN PAINTING

Considering the value of colours is as important when creating fabric for quilting, as it is when painting a picture. Here is one approach.

I have laid in the lightest yellow. Remember when painting with dyes your colours will be slightly lighter when washed so put the colour down a little stronger than you want the finished piece to be. In the lightest yellow, I have also left so speckles of white (areas without dyes)

Next I put in the darkest shade of yellow. I put it towards a green. I might also have painted with a colour created from yellow and it's complement purple but in this instance I didn't want to chance greying the piece.

For contrast with the cool yellows, I decided to add a little warm yellow (Lemon Yellow Procion MX dye with a small amount of  Fuschia) to the flower.

The medium value of yellow was added to complete the flowers.



  

Now for the cactus itself. I mixed up three values of green. I find for mixing the darkest value, I have to add a lot more black than one would think.



Completed piece. After this step, the piece is placed onto a sheet of plastic. I allow it to dry a little before closing it up in plastic. Then the piece is cured at 70 degrees for 24 hours and then washed.

A similar process was used with the red blooms.

If you are interested in having a piece of fabric created for you, email me at egidman@kootenay.com These fabric pieces are easy to mail and make great reasonably priced gifts.