Silhouettes on silk

Hand-painted fabrics have become a favourite with designers across the world. Mukund V Kirsur & Y C Radhalakshmi tell us about this humble and simple technique that gives artists a free reign...

India is known for its marvelous textiles from times immemorial. These textiles with their intricate design vocabulary, motifs, colour contrasts, golden zari work, have been legendary. Hand-painted textiles are yet another artistic expression of our highly-talented artists.

The increasing demand of hand-painted products reflects their popularity. Use of hand painting on pure silk collections are creating waves on the global fashion ramps. This art form probably finds its inspiration from the cave paintings. The cave paintings of Ajanta in Maharashtra, for example, remain popular.

It is said that the art of hand brush painting using ink originated in China. However, artists throughout the world have been experimenting with new material, techniques, colours etc. India too has a diverse and rich hand-brush painting tradition. Many works of the Indian artists are legendary.

Infinite possibilities

The freedom of artistic expressions is the speciality of this art form. With this technique, infinite variety of beautiful designs can be painted directly on the fabric. Different methods and materials give artists an opportunity to experiment and come out with innovative and intricately designed products.

Secondly, hand-brush painting requires just a handful of basic equipment — a brush, colours and fabric. If the artist wants to add special effects, he could also use sprayers, sponges, rollers, pens etc. It is a known fact that all the weaving and block printing centres rigidly stick to their designs, patterns, colours and leave little scope for modification.

But, hand-brush painting can be effectively used to enhance the beauty of products in order to cope with the demand of the ever-changing fashion market.

Some of the advantages of hand-brush painting are: Each piece produced is unique and cannot be replicated; brush stroke effect is the ultimate identity; several combinations of colour mixing, matching and style are possible with this technique; needs minimum equipment — brush, paint and the cloth, and it can be employed in small as well as large textile production centres.

To dye for

As mentioned elsewhere, this art needs — from a simple, humble brush to an ultra modern air brush. Good brushes help achieve good effects. Brushes made of camel, horse, squirrel tail hair in different sizes create new effects. Plastic squeeze bottles can also be used to apply dye or resist.

Metal nibs for gutta work can be attached to the rims of small bottles for drawing fine lines with print pastes. Fabric crayons and pens can be used to decorate the fabrics. Special felt-tip pens filled with fabric dyes instead of ink are also available to draw directly on the fabric.

Selection of dyes is important in hand-brush painting. Though the dye types used may vary, they are acid, basic or reactive dyes, pigment, readymade dyes and metallic shades.

In hand-brush painting, special effect is prominently achieved on silk. Viscosity of a dye or paint affects the final patterning. One must keep in mind that colouring substances react in different ways. Print paste can be thinned to facilitate spreading. While fabric paints can be thinned with water organic solvent dye, pastes can be used without a thickener. An alcohol and water solution (50:50 ratio) can be used.

Prabhu S I, a reputed hand-brush painting artist of Bangalore says, “Silk is the best compared to many other fabrics for such painting techniques. Indeed, she is the queen of textiles.”

He feels that the demand for such painting, especially on silk, is increasing in the recent years. It is mainly because the customers crave for such unique and natural products. He appreciates the efforts of Central Silk Board in reviving and popularising such art forms. He recalls one such effort of the Central Silk Technological Research Institute of Central Silk Board, which organised a national workshop on traditional silk printing techniques of India in 2007.

“It was an exclusive attempt of projecting such rare art forms to the outside world, at the same time exposing and encouraging the artists of such schools,” he feels.

Special effects

Gutta is a polymer or starch base that prevents the dye from reaching the fabric or from bleeding with other dyes. In other words, it resists the dye. Some special effects can be achieved by using materials like alcohol, bleaches, salts, sugar, urea etc.

For example, adding alcohol to dye can give greater depth to a design. A small drop of alcohol applied at the centre of the painted colour can disperse the dye away from the middle, leaving a paler shade surrounded by darker rims. However, this can work well with steam-fixed dyes, but not with fabric paints. Similarly, some bleach solutions can be applied on to the fabric to give faded affects to part of the dyed fabric.

While sugar attracts the moisture and pulls dyes in various directions creating beautiful textures, different types of salts like sea salt crystals, powder salt and granulated sugar can produce different effects. Table salt gives a feathery effect and pearl round effect.

Different types of pads, masks, pens, crayons, decorators, rollers and stencils can be used directly on the fabric to produce specialised effects. Designs cut on foam roller can produce various patterns. Lamb wool rollers can create a fine texture on the cloth. Sprayers, atomisers and air brushes can be effectively used to create dreamy patterns and designs.

Although experienced designers or painters know about the dyes or colours, the colour index in the form of a book or CD can give exact information on dyes, their fastness etc. Hand-brush painting involving skill, creativity and imagination of the artist has no boundaries at all!