Final Steps in Batik

When the final color is the value you want it to be, dry it all well and put a final coat of wax over the entire piece of rice paper. (see below)

Freeze it for 5 minutes. While it is freezing, mix up some strong color in a separate cup (this is to keep the wax out of your palette.) In the past, I have used a black mixture, but you can also use dark green, blue, violet, or blue.

Remove the painting from the freezer and crumble it up in a ball. This will loosen some of the wax. Shake excess into the trash.

With a stiff (OLD) brush, push some of the dark color into the cracks. You can do all of the page, or you can pick and choose the places you want this dark batik look. In the picture below, you will see black lines in the snow...I'm wishing I'd used some blue instead for a gentler look.

IRONING OFF THE WAX

You will need lots of newsprint or paper bags or brown packing paper. Set an iron to a medium setting.

Lay about 3 layers on the bottom, set your picture on the top, then top that with three more layers of paper.

Be sure to cover all the painting. Iron until you see the wax melt onto the paper.

Change the paper and iron again.

Repeat until you see no wax residue coming from your painting.

MOUNTING THE BATIK

You can now mount your batik onto a WHITE surface. I usually just use my less expensive watercolor paper (Like Canson XL, Strathmore, etc.). I use Matt medium for the glue, but other glues will work. Just please don't use Elmers school glue.

Next week I am showing how I mount it on a piece of hard panel with a gallery wrap.

Step One:

Prepare the board by brushing on GAC or other prep that will protect the surface from any oils or color in the wood. (If you already have a board primed and gessoed, you don't have to do this) Put two coats of gesso on top of that and dry completely.

Step Two:

Find the center of the painting. Cover the board with Matt medium gel. (IF the painting is large, you may have to do that in stages so it doesn't dry too quickly) Center the painting on the board, and gently smooth out the wrinkles. I usually put a piece of wax paper over the painting and use a brayer to smooth it out. This prevents the paint from coming off onto the brayer and your fingers. 

Dry this completely. When the batik is mounted and dried, you are ready to make any corrections you want to make.

Angela Fehr does a video about mounting on a panel. She shows how to do it with regular WC paper. My steps are similar (she uses a commercial primer first, which replaces the GAC sealant and gesso). Also, with rice paper, I do not seal with wax. I just use a Kamar varnish. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B82Vs0XBcII

MAKING CORRECTIONS

Any time you want to make corrections, which should be on a dry, mounted paper, try using watercolor first. Sometimes there is a wax residue that resist the watercolor, but often it is fine. Mounting the batik gives the paper some stability and also allows some control over the paint.

If You lost some whites try: white gouache; posca pen; bleed proof white.

If you want a light color over a dark color, you can use gouache, or even pastels.

Other things you can try for small corrections are: watercolor pencils; inktense sticks or pencils; tiny bits of white fluid acrylics; posca pens; black permanent pens; pastels.