From sketch to scarf - creation proces!

Working with customers

This is probably the best thing about my job - silk painter - I am creating wearable art for ppl from around the world. I mean it! I had my scarfs sent to USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Brazil, RSA, China, Russia, all of the UE countries and so on and I appreciate every order I get. But sometimes the fun begins one step before painting. Sometimes I get to work with my customer on a custom scarf.
It is amazing, to have your ideas talked over with someone living in the other side of the globe. I am sitting here, in cold Cracow and there is someone thousand miles away, creating with me.

The Peacock Feathers scarf - custom order

Peacock silk scarf - on ETSY here!

It started with an Etsy message.
Nice lady inquired about a custom scarf for her mother. We decided on a size, silk type, an inspiration and color set, so I could present her with first sketches.

VERY rough sketches for the Peacock Feathers silk scarf - colored pencils

She chose one of the designs and told me what needs to be worked on. Based on her ideas I drawn bigger, more detail sketch.

More detailed sketch for Peacock Feathers silk scarf

We talk a bit more about colors. It was vital to my customer that the scarf will be vivid.

Once the design was accepted, I started painting.

Painting the custom order

It all begins with a gutta outline. The Peacock scarf is so big, that it took all of my studio!

It's me, MinkuLUL with the Peacock Feathers scarf

Here you can see half painted scarf. It has to be ironed, washed, put on stencils one more time and... yes, painted again, so the outline will be colorful. It enriches the design if you use colors instead of just leaving it white.

Huh, half done!

So here it is! Ta-da! 

As Sheldon from BBT says "Short form of Ta-ta-da-da!"

Close - up for the Peacock Feathers silk scarf!

Peacock Feathers silk scarf

Peacock Feathers silk scarf - on Etsy HERE

Wanna work with me on a custom scarf specially painted for you?
Please visit my ETSY shop and click the REQUEST CUSTOM ORDER button or just drop me a line in the comment and I will gladly contact you.

Peacock hand painted silk scarf - the second day of painting!

The Peacock scarf is one of my most time consuming scarfs, but I really love painting it :) The yellow - blue color set is my favorite.

Here's the second day of painting! Enjoy!

The scarf is placed on the stencil after the gutta was removed. In the background you can see also my 'White Tree of Gondor' hand painted silk scarf. 

 

You can see that the peacock's head is once again protected by a new layer of gutta, to leave it's outline white. All the other white lines will be painted blue or yellow!

 

 Some of the lines are already painted! Can you see the difference? Adding an opposite color (turquoise) to the gold color set I try to make them 'sparkle' and vibrant!

  The close-up. Oh, this is TIMECONSUMING! Thank's God for the radio...!

  And now for the blue half of the scarf, it get's yellow outline.

If you wish to see the previous stages for painting the Peacock scarf go to my blog post here!

Peacock scarf - Day 1 of painting!

The Peacock scarf is one of my favorite, but it takes more than a day to paint! :)
Here's a sneak - peak on my creative process, Day 1. Enjoy!

Applying gutta - has to be precise! After washing, gutta leaves a white contour, I will paint the blue - gold lineart tomorrow.

 Painting blue feathers!

 .... lots and lots of blue feathers!

Here comes the golden - brown colors. Blues with gold makes my favorite color set!

 A lot of details! This literrally takes the whole day :) 

Yay, the painting is done for today! 

Stay tuned for the next entry: the colorful lineart!

Peacock scarf and... how to pimp up your close up?

Peacock silk scarves with lighting effect - thank you Photogramio! 

Recently, I have found a fantastic webpage called Photogramio  for editing photos. It's user panel is very cool, try it! :) it looks like a old - fasioned photo studio and it add effect similar to Instagram.

I had a great time playing with it and now I wanted to share with you one of the photos of my ready-to-go Peacock scarf.

 Edited close-up of  Peacock scarves and the un-edited photo.

The picture was first re-sized in GIMP (from 350dpi to 72dpi which is a standard monitor resolution). Then the picture was brightened - up a little with contrast and brightness options.

The Photogramio was used to create the lighting lens effect. I like it as it makes the picture more umm... magical -I suppose - is the word I am looking for ;)

Please let me know what do you think! 

I am testing this edited picture now as a front photo for this ready to go silk scarves. I am very curious will it affect Peacock scarves popularity?