5 - Painting Striped Backgrounds

Example: Whitby Boat

I discovered quite early on with my “liquid under-painting” that any fold or crumple in the fabric influenced the distribution of paint as it dries. So I developed various techniques for introducing stripes and other features deliberately. I tried folding the fabric, either before or after applying the paint and got some interesting effects. Also tried laying the fabric on bamboo pea-sticks. But my best method was to fold a sheet of thin card in concertina fashion to act as a “former“. Wet and paint the fabric as before, on a polythene sheet. Then transfer the polythene sheet onto the former. Make sure that the fabric and polythene drop into the furrows. Allow the paint to dry completely before ironing it and sticking it to a board. Surprisingly, the paint dries darkest along the ridges and palest in the furrows.