First, you need to visit an art salon or stationery store and purchase paints, outlines for work, buttons for attaching the material to the stretcher, and brushes. And, of course, fabric. The ideal option for batik is natural silk. I advise a beginning artist to choose cheaper materials - rayon, crepe de chine, cambric, chiffon. The selected material must be washed and ironed. Many fabrics shrink after washing, so you should take care of this in advance. Factory impregnation on the surface can greatly harm the cleanliness and beauty of the design - it must be removed with a soap solution.
Let's start with the circuit or reserve, as the professionals call it. The outline is used to ensure that the colors on the fabric do not spread or mix with each other.Professional batik masters have developed their own personal reserve compositions. But a tube bought in a store is enough for us. You can use a liquid reserve, which is applied to the drawing using a special glass tube. It contains gasoline, so it is not recommended to use it in residential areas.
In order for the design to be neat, and the image to be exactly the way you intended it, the fabric needs to be secured to a stretcher, stretching it well. You can buy a stretcher or make it yourself from an edged board or plywood, wrapping it with tape so as not to damage the fabric. The material is attached to it with ordinary pushpins, preferably with high heads, to make it easier to remove.
So, everything is ready to get creative. The fabric is washed and stretched on a stretcher. The most interesting art begins. You can create a sketch on a piece of old wallpaper, you can use a picture found on the Internet, or you can simply make a fantasy drawing without specific contours. Any incarnation of yours on fabric will be magnificent thanks to the shimmer of color and originality. It is advisable to tuck the sketch between the stretcher and the material so that it fits tightly to the fabric.
Slowly, trying not to miss the connections of lines in the drawing, draw the contours of the future masterpiece. Be extremely careful and attentive - an outline that ends up in the wrong place cannot be washed off and can ruin the integrity of your painting. After the reserve has dried, be sure to check that all connections are closed so that paint leaking into an undetected loophole does not spoil the mood. This is done very simply with a damp brush, draw along the entire contour in the drawing - where the moisture begins to leak - paint on it.
Batik paint is liquid, so you just need to pick it up on a brush and transfer it to the drawing.
Brushes should be used only natural ones - made from squirrel hair or kolinsky. Try an interesting effect - sprinkle a little kitchen salt onto the still wet paint and leave it until dry - the effect will amaze you. When you have completely filled the drawing with color, give it the opportunity to dry on a stretcher for at least a day.
Afterwards, remove and iron for 5-10 minutes with a hot iron without steam and wash. Don't be alarmed if the water is colored during washing - all the paint will not be washed off, only the excess. The dried product needs to be ironed, edges processed and put on to the envy of others.
