All about a line

I’m playing around with some linear drawings first as I work up some new paintings.  My favorite gutta to work with is by Silkpaint.  It’s water soluble- I love that, and love the non-toxic quality as opposed to the gutta that needs to be dry cleaned to be removed.

I know some people really don’t like that the line quality of the water soluble gutta is somewhat thicker, and that the line can be permeated by the dye more easily.

Actually I think that it can be an interesting quality to cultivate, with dye seeping into or texturing areas of gutta.  But to keep the water soluble gutta sharp, let it dry before starting to paint! (That’s the hardest part for me!)

I use a light blue fabric marker which washes out, to start sketching on the silk.  Then I jump in with the gutta, using my squeeze bottles to draw.   I use the thin tip for thin lines, and just the cap of the bottle for thick lines.  Sometimes I use gutta in other ways, but for this painting I am using it just for the line quality.  At this point, I make myself walk away until it dries- that way it will stand up to being saturated with dye, and still give a sharp line.