My first dyeing experiment
First the dyeing
I hadn’t dyed anything since I tie-dyed a shirt at daycamp. But as I started scaling up my liquid acrylic experiments I wondered if dyeing could help.
I love the colour harmonies I get when I use a coloured background. Lots of painters “tone in” to create undertones in a portrait or to bring pops of bright colour to a landscape. The colour underneath immediately creates harmony—because every paint colour (unless it’s totally opaque) includes the background colour.
Spreading around lots of hot pink paint is easy on a 24 square inch canvas, but when you start getting up to 48 or 60 inches you need a lot of paint. What would happen if I dyed the canvas?
Another steep learning curve
Took me a while to get all the materials and the information I needed. While I do love learning new things, figuring it all out can be daunting. The results had to be lightfast and I wanted precise control over colour. This wasn’t some t-shirt for a 9 year-old where anything goes (though I did love that hot pink shirt!).
I was afraid to dye in the washing machine, so I stirred and stirred by hand in a tub. Result—I am no longer afraid of the washing machine technique! That much stirring dispelled any concerns I had about dyeing the inside of my washer.
Anyway, it worked. I got a colour I’m pleased with for a length of canvas that will yield 3 new 24 inch square canvases. There was a touch of shrinkage, which made stretching the canvas a bit tricky, but I’ll be sure to account for that next time.
Success?
Is this a time saver—the jury’s out on that, maybe if I go the washing machine route? I did spend a good chunk of time ironing, spraying, and ironing some more. Is it economical—probably though I haven’t done the math yet (though once you factor in time…).
But it is interesting. Anything to do with colour fires me up. Maybe dyeing becomes a thing I do all the time. Maybe I’ll just do something strange to one of my white shirts. No need to decide that now.
But the willingness to try, to learn something new—I think it’s good for my work, good for my brain, good for me as a human being. It is so easy to get stuck in the same old. To become efficient, smart, and careful. Experimenting or trying something new is like doing your mobility exercises, but for your spirit, your creativity—and for fun.
Smail Grey: a complex violet-leaning grey mixed (left) and separated (right)
New way of painting = new problems
I know a fair bit about colour. But it’s a big topic and there’s always more to learn. Recently I ran into a problem I hadn’t experienced before.
The problem
With my new liquid acrylic paintings I’ve noticed that some pigments drop out of the mix after a minute of sitting undisturbed. My favourite blue in particular has a tendency to settle on the bottom of the mixing container (see photo above).
I wrote to Golden Artist Colors (manufacturer of the liquid acrylics I use) to ask about pigment weight, lighter alternatives, and if there was a medium that would help.
They recreated my colour in their lab (which they called Smail Grey, much to my amusement) and asked a lot of questions. Eventually, after much detailed back and forth, I got an incredibly thorough response. And all this happened quickly.
Pigment density
Density, which I knew a little about from the relative weight of my oil paint tubes, has a big impact on more liquid ways of painting. Golden sent me a density chart, suggested a lower density blue pigment, and suggested a medium that might help stabilize my mixes. Amazing customer service.
Pigment density is pretty nerdy stuff—but I wanted to shout out the Golden team, who are amazing fellow colour nerds—and to highlight how deep colour studies can go.
There’s more to pushing paint around than meets the eye!
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