batik

my 3rd attempt trying out batik
first during the malacca trip, 2nd and 3rd during nafa
the 2nd one was a tryout and it was done on cloth. whereas this one is done on silk (cheap silk i guess-__-)
first, we were given a light wooden frame and we had to 'stretch' the silk canvas over the frame and staple it, it was kinda easy however i had to make sure that the silk was not slanted :/

then use the tjanting (which we were forced to buy) and wax(provided by teacher) and draw on the silk (used pencil to draw first) the theme was interior design
my initial drawing was very simple (just focus on the darker lines
then i decided to add in more detail because it was just too plain and plain batik are usually never nice cause batik is somewhat about the patterns
so the waves on the doors came in, the sakura on the outer doors were drawn, a little pond was added in and the table and painting in the innest room
i painted on like 3 layers of batik paint
the first one was quite light, about 30% paint 70% water, then back to waxing to seal the colours, then next layer 50-50 paint and water, then waxing/sealing again and finally 100% paint for the very last layer
because we did sealing, this means that you need to know what colours you would want to use, because there should be all colours (mainly red blue yellow green purple and black) or else the painting would look very dull, and yellow would not show up if painted over the dark colours. but i didnt really plan the colours for this one, it sort of was a follow-your-feelings kind of thing? im not a planning person sigh
then when its fully fully dried, just layer a stack of newspaper and put the painting on top and another 3-2 layer of newspaper on top of the painting, turn on the iron and iron over to welt the wax. the newspaper would absorb the wax and tah dah!
oh i forgot to mention that drawing with wax is difficult. steady hand is needed. control too! or else you may spill the wax, which i did for the 2nd attempt.
the painting's done. the white lines(where the wax where) were very very white and nice~ im happy with my work. batik's like liu kang's work
the white lines are really strong yet it has a softer feel as compared to black outlines
im sure not many of you (if anyone is reading this) have tried batik besides the malacca trip (which is not really counted cause you only paint it, didnt even draw with wax!) i encourage you all to go and try, its really fun and its a new experience, totally different from painting, be it watercolour or oil or arcylic, though i would like to try more oil painting cause i don't know/never tried blending using oil. im not the blending type but i would like to try~

so tata
sy

medium: wax and batik paint (BATIK!!)
info: 49cm x 39cm painting on silk