A FEW MORE STEPS TO A BATIK ROSE

The next step, after the background has dried and you’re happy with it, go into the petals, a bit at a time and very wet and juicy, letting the colors flow and dry and drop in more plain water.  Using a hairdryer to help the drying process speeds it up and you don’t have to stand over the painting for the whole time it takes to dry naturally.

This is a slower way to paint as you have to watch and judge the drying and batik look as it goes before moving on (and you don’t want to do a large portion of anything at a time so you can control the flow better (tilting the paper, moving things, blowing air with a hairdryer, etc.).  But I’ve got nothing but time so...

Here’s how it looks as it’s dried.  I think it’s worth the extra time spent on each section to get this look and it works for this subject.  It wouldn’t work for all subjects (like portraits, etc.).  

What do you think?  Worth trying?

Remember, this is on hotpress paper which helps with the granulating and separation of colors as you keep adding water.