Beginner's Guide to Silk Painting

Renowned silk painter, Mandy Southan demonstrates all the techniques you need to get to grips with this intriguing medium, beginning with clear artistic advice on materials and using colour and then moving on to basic techniques, all shown through 12 lovely, achievable projects. Proceed through textured effects and using resists, discharge paste, diffusing medium, and other products to create scarves, cushions, pictures, wall hangings and panels. Build skills while producing lovely silk paintings in a variety of styles. Perfect for the complete beginner but also ideal for experienced silk painters wanting to learn new techniques.

Mandy Southan trained at Ravensbourne College Of Art And Design and has a BA Hons. in Fashion/Textile design. She is president of the Guild of Silk Painters and a member of The Sussex Guild. She has painted on silk for many years and is particularly interested in traditional Japanese resist techniques. She experiments continually to find new ways of using old methods and her work on silk often combines different resist processes. Mandy teaches silk painting, rozome (Japanese wax resist) and Shibori at West Dean College and at her home studio in Hastings. You can see Mandy’s work on her website: mandysouthan.co.uk

Introduction
Basic materials
Using colour
Colour mixing
Sunflower scarf (painting on damp silk)
Textured effects (using salt)
Using resists
Using gutta
Fossil scarf (using outliner)
Autumn leaves (using gutta with a blended wash)
Sea spray scarf (using wax)
Kingfisher cushion (using wax)
Moving on
Velvet cushion (using discharge paste)
Striped scarf (using diffusing medium)
Exotic orchid wallhanging (using dye-tinted gutta)
Greek mountain landscape (using salt solution)
Flower and grape panel (using anti-spread)
Finishing off (adding detail)
Glossary
Common mistakes
Index