Using Derwent Inktense on Fabric

Derwent is renowned for great quality art products and their Inktense pencils and bars certainly rank among the best watersoluble products on the market today. I fell in love with Inktense on first use because if its intense vibarant colours. I had read that it could be used on fabric, but remained so fascinated by the beautiful results I got on paper, that I never bothered with using them on fabric. Then I started making hand-painted handbags and suddenly my interest was peeked by everything that promised to put colour on fabric. I dove into my art supplies and pulled out the Inktense sets.

A good starting place is always to gather all the necessary materials. I cut a piece of tabling to size, gathered a selection of paint brushes, my Inktense pencils and bars, a masonite board, eraser and sharpener, and masking tape.

I secure the fabric to the masonite board with masking tape. This will give me a slighly more stable surface to work on. It will also make it easier to turn the fabric around as I go about my painting. This is sometimes important when you wish to avoid working over wet areas. The design I had in mind would make this a real possibility.

I start off with the Derwent Inktense Pencils and will not use the bars until right at the end. I draw my design on the fabric using the outliner that is conveniently included in the set. The flowers are very simple shapes that can be easily reproduced. Try to vary the sizes and shapes of the flowers as well as the petals to avoid monotony.

Once the design is in place, I use Poppy Red to outline the petals on a scattering of flowers. I also colour the inside of the petals closest to the centres.

I repeat the same steps in Sun Yellow on some more flowers.

The remaining flowers are done in Shiraz.

I colour the centres of the flowers by hatching and cross-hatching them with Tangerine.

I use my Pentel Aquash brush with the water reservoir in the handle to paint the flowers with water. I start on the centres and do all of these before moving on to the next colour.

I do each colour in succession until all of the flowers have been painted/wetted with water. I now draw upon one of the features that makes Inktense such a great product. Once the colour is wetted and left to dry, it can't be picked up again and remains set forever. It is for precisely this reason that Inktense products can be used with such outstanding results on fabrics. It won't wash out. I allow the colours to dry thoroughly before moving on to the next step, not wanting the colours to mix into a third colour, which is possible when you work wet on wet.

Once the fabric is dry, I go back to my Poppy Red flowers. I colour their tops with Fuchsia.

The Sun Yellow flowers' tops are done with Baked Earth.

The Shiraz flowers are topped with Violet.

I now once again paint the newly laid down colours with water using the Pentel Aquash brush.

I once again wait patiently for the colours to dry before I continue.

I now turn my attention to the Inktense bars. This is simply for convenience sake, for I could certainly have achieved the same results with the pencils with a tad more effort, I wet the Leaf Green bar with the Pentel Aquash brush, picking the colour up on the brush and painting the background with it.

When I am done I stand back and decide there is nothing more to do, except to sign my name in Ink Black.

This is the final result which I will use in a future blog.

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Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.

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