Dye Naturally

Dye Naturally

An Artist’s Process Book on Creating Natural Dye

Kelsey Jean

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Brief

Introduction

There is no doubt that the natural world is all connected and works together. With endless connections in nature, its impossible to deny any admiration and even inspiration for it all. From a young age I have continuously been inspired by the world below, around and above me, believing that there is so much we can learn from natures unity. Fruits and vegetation live, and grow. They’re tangible, sometines edible.

Wildlife, on the other hand, they’re walking, crawling and flying creatures among the earth, behaving instinctively. These animals and plants all display a beautiful range of color. Color in nature is symbolic for many reasons, such as a way to scare off predators or attract prey, a mating tactic, or to simply display how beautiful wildlife can be. Natures colors have fueled unlimited amounts of inspiration for me as an artist.

Natures colors are vibrant, yet dull. Theyre textured and look heavy, but they can also be smooth and look light. They can easily represent the bright morning, but they can also quickly shift to cool night tones. They rest among the quickest animals, and glow on the sturdiest flower. These colors create an entire experience for us, shifting our mood and resting our minds.

When looking at color theory, different colors can have different mood or behaviorial effects on not only humans and animals, but fruits and vegetation as well. Color is incredibly powerful in numerous ways, beginning with nature’s own.

Color in any setting ranges from bright to dark, and can control and/or enhance our daily visual experience. Color fills just about every tangible thing, and is hard to ignore. Color is also heavily studied, talked about, and carefully placed onto screens, posters, clohting groceries, magazines and advertisements, etc. Its everywhere, and the way artistis and dreamers utilize color is ever changing and always imaginative. But, why is it that we seem to miss the originating colors we were once inspired by? Natures colors?

So, I decided to dive as deep as I could into color, in the most natural way possible of course. Beginning with the study of color and color theory, learning how different colors can represent or communicate specific information. From here I began to make as many connections as possible between these meanings of color and wildlife.

Recognizing multiple connectinons between color, wildlife, and fruits and vegetation sparked an unforgettable journey of creating and painting with my own natural dye. I will be creating a series of visuals, each created with its own unique natural dye, and each depicting different animals representing the chosen dye color.

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Research

THe The Meaning of Color

Color can mean everything, and color can say anything.

The color of your shirt can affect your mood for the day just as much as the color of the wrapping on your lunch can effect your apetite.

Not only does color have direct influences on your daily life as far as directing our mood and/or choices, but color is also symbolic within different cultures, religions, and locations all across the world. While the color green may be perceived as “greedy” or malicious in one culture, another might deem it as elegant and sophisticated. At the same time, colors can still universally carry the same idea or “feeling” to a person, this theory being that it stems from the natural roots of

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the color. For instance, the water in the ocean is the color blue when we are looking at it, setting underneath a blue sky. Simultaneously, the wind is cool and the sea salt calms your breathing. In this setting of the “blue” waters meeting the blue sky you feel calm, and therefore associate the color blue with the feeling of “calmness”. My research in color theory has led me to understanding just how vast color appears and interacts in our world. Not only do I want to experiement with this natural color in terms of emotion, but I will also be creating a connecting variable between the chosen subject and the monochromatic color scheme chosen for each piece.

Research

Connecting Color and Wildlife

After learning more about the different meanings and symbols of color, I had to find a connection between that and wildlife. Needing specific subjects to paint, each done monochromatically in a single color, I decided to begin with behaviorial traits of various widlife. What animal would display similar behaviors, to the meaning or symbols of a chosen color? For instance, I began to look at the color purple. Characteristics of purple include intuition and imagination, as well as artistic qualities. From here, I began a search of various wildife animals that display behaviors or characteristics similar to that of the color purple. Originally I had began a search for any qualifying animal with at least one similarity, however, as I continued my search I was able to choose animals with the most similarties to the chosen colors characteristics.

Color

Meaning of the Color

Animal

Common Behaviors

Purple

Intuition, imagination, meditation, universal flow and artistic qualities

Owl

Incredibly intelligent, intuitive, and nicknamed the “wise owl”

Blue

Calmness, peace, tranquility, kindess, truth, emotion and emotional depth, and honesty

Manatee

Known for their calm and peacful behavior, as well as protective manatee mothers of their pups.

Green

Balance, harmony, love communication, mother earth and nature, and social acceptance

Turtle

Long life spans, connection to earth and nature, social behaviors with other animals.

Yellow

Fun, humorous, personal power, sense of lightness, intellect, integrity, logic, and creativity.

Octopus

Intelligent, color changing behaviors, displays power among prey.

Brown

Strength, reliability, security, resilliance, dependability, and safety.

Deer

Strong and resilient, security over their young, males will display their antlers proudly.

Red

Increasing physical energy, vitality, stamina, love, stability, grounfing, spontaniety, and passion.

Horse

Show a strong appetite for freedom, passionate, loyal yet spontaenous.

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Analysis

Natural Dye

There are an incredible amount of natural fruits, plants, seeds, vegetables, spices, etc all across the world that produce a rich colored dye. Whether its a beet that stains your fingers or spinach leaves that rub across a white cloth, these natural colors are dying to bleed into our world. After careful research and consideration of the colors I would like to produce, I decided to create my own dye in the colors purple, blue, green, yellow, brown, and red. For each color I found Purple

Red Cabbage (boiled for over an hour then strained) and blackberries (blended with boiling water then strained)

Blue

Red Cabbage (slightly boiled and quickly strained) and blueberries (blended with boiling water then strained)

Green

Spinach, mint, and cilantro (all blended/chopped with boiling water, then strained)

Yellow

Organic yellow onion skin (boiled then strained, lemon (squeezed and coated several times onto paper) and tumeric (mixed with boiling water)

Brown

Coffee (brewed espresso in my Keurig) and tea (soaked black tea packets in boiling water, one cup with 1 tea bag and another cup with 2 bags)

Red

Wine (used Cabernet Sauvignon), raspberries (boiled, then blended and strained), beets (chopped, boiled, then strained over time)

Materials Needed: Dye Materials: Red Cabbage Blueberries Blackberries Wine Raspberries Beets Yellow Onion Skins Tumeric Lemon Spinach Cilantro Mint Coffee or Espresso Black Tea

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that there are 2 to 3 easily accessible natural items I can use.

In order to get a natural watercolor dye from most of these fruits and vegetables I just simply added boiling water, either pulling the dyed water from the pot directly, or blending the natural item and boiled water together and straining the water out. Listed below is a description of what items I can use to make the desired color, as well as the needed process to make the ntural dye.

Project Materials: Pots Strainer Blender Multiple Plastic Cups Watercolor Paper Watercolor Brushes Towels/Washcloths

Analysis

Color Samples

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Ideation - Purple

Making the Natural Dye Purple

Natural fruits and vegetation that can produce a purple tint or color are red cabbage and blackberries. Red cabbage will produce a dark, rich purple color if boiled in water (probably a 2:3 ratio of red cabbage to water) for a short amount of time. The water must be pulled quickly in order to get a purple dye. If the cabbage boils for too long, the water will begin to turn different shades of blue quikcly. Blackberries best produce a purple dye after being smashed. During this research, I remembered my purple stained 6 yr old fingers after plucking blackberries on my family farm growing up, and I quickly grew excited to now use blackberries as my medium of art. To create a watercolor kind of base, the blackberries need to be soaked in boiling water, strained, then carefuly smashed between sheets of cheesecloth or a strainer and bowl.

I really enjoyed working with the purple natural dye I created mainly because they were all very pigmented. The natural dye made from the blackberries were slightly thick in texture, and they still had ‘bits’ and ‘pieces’ of the seeds and skin of the berry. There were further methods that I had the option of taking in order to rid my dye of those pieces to create a smooth watercolor-like medium. I intentionally chose to keep those pieces, representing the natural life that color represents or was made from. This idea connects back to my theme of natural colors inspiring artwork as well as adding an interesting texture. Experimenting with the natural dyes made from red cabbage was really fun. While boiling the red cabbage, I needed to pull multiple samples of the boiled water quiclkly, before the water turned a blue color. While some samples were close in hue, others all produced a wide range of purples. Also, the dye from the red cabbage dried quicker than the other dyes, allowing me to add more layers of dye faster to create illusions of shades.

Choosing to illustrate a white horned owl in a monochromatic purple piece came almost naturally to me. Symbolically, owls are known for their intuition, intelligence, and their great nickname “the wise old owl”. Paired with the color purple, known in color theory to carry meanings of intuition and imagination, the owl was an exciting choice for me. I began researching wildlife photos of white horned owls and skethcing various angles or possible flight poses. (Taking my other subjects and their possible pose/position into consideration, I wanted to keep the majority of variables in this project consistent; leaving mainly the subject, color, and medium of natural dye the main factors that stand out most.) After a few test runs of ‘painting’ with my natural dye, I decided that I wanted to depict the owl almost head on, focusing on the eyes and face most, then bleeding the color outwards. Naturally I was incredibly impressed with how these dyes worked together, blending and drying with very little bleeding across the page. After my process with creating and painting with natural purple dye, I dont think I will have a need to buy purple paint anymore.

Purple test samples from red cabbage and blackberries Page 7

Ideation - Purple

Boiling red cabbage and pulling out test water color samples every few minutes

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Development - Purple

Purple Test Samples from red cabbage and blackberries 9”x12” natural watercolor dye (some green hues may have ended up on this test sheet)

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Development - Purple

Purple Owl - 9”x12” natural watercolor dye (Red Cabbage and Blackberries)

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Ideation - Blue

Blue test samples pulled from red cabbage and blueberries

Preparing blueberries, chopping them with boiling water

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Ideation - Blue

Making the Natural Dye Blue

Most naturally, you can find a natural blue pigment in indigo.

Historically, indigo leaves were crushed into a powder like compound that had a distinct blue hue. Specifically for this project, however, I chose to keep my natural dye materials consistent with one another, as well as I did not have an abundance of supplies or accessbility at this time. Instead, research led me to the use of red cabbage, being boiled for 30 minutes to an hour, to create a natural blue dye.

This process is more commonly used for dying fabrics, after the boiled cabbage is strained the fabrics are soaked in the water and a semi-permanent blue dye appears within the fabrics. I adopted this same process, except instead of dipping my work into the water, I dipped paint brushes into the water to paint onto a water color canvas. Blueberries, on the other hand, produce a thick, rich type of blue paste. There was not a lot of information on using blueberries as a natural dye, so I treated this process similar to that of the blackberries. First I soaked the blueberries in boiling water, then chopped them up with a little bit of the boiling water (the water did have a very faint blue tint to it after boiling). After straining the blueberries, I noticed similar seed and skin ‘bits’ and ‘pieces’ of the berries from the blackberries, and was pleased with the continuity.

Much like the behavior of the purple natural dye created form red cabbage, the blue natural dye made from red cabbage came in a range of blue shades. These blue dyes from red cabbage were also drying quickly, allowing me to layer more pigment on top of each other to create dimension between my subjects for this piece. The natural dye created from blueberries unfortunately became more and more difficutl to work with over time, as they dried they produced flakes. This discovery of the reaction of the blueberries over time did not completely alter my work, and still continued to produce a blue hue from what was able to stay on the piece.

Knowing that the color blue is universially and iconically associated with the sky and ocean, I naturally wanted to choose a wildlife subject different from the expected, or the usual. After learning about countless animal’s behavior’s and symbols, I couldnt help but already plan sketches for a blue manatee mother and her calf. While manatees are known for their large, flat tails in the water, I personally associate manatees with my mother. When I was young, she had the work opportunity to load a manatee, previously injured by a boat, to be cared for properly at a zoo. Due to the injury this manatee had injured its flipper. I had the opportunity to see this same manatee years later, and continuously thought of my mother and the encounter she once had with this manatee. This personal connection of mine is what led me trhough inspiration to depict this wildlife animal as a mother with its baby. As well as creating a tribute to my mother, who loves the ocean passionately. Aside from my personal backstory, the color blue represents calmness, kindness and emotional depth, much like the behaviors of a mother manatee. Known as gentle giants of the sea, manatees simply spend most of their time eating tons of food within a day, and caring for each other. Creating this piece with the natural dye proved its diffuculties over time and produced a lot of bleeding across the page, making it difficult for finer details. But despite these difficulties I appreciated how the natural dye allowed me to work dilligently before changing, giving me a beautiful rich blue portrait of a mother manatee and her calf.

Preparing red cabbage while taking test samples

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Development - Blue

Blue Test Samples - natural watercolor dye

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Development - Blue

Blue Manatee and it’s calf - 9”x12” natural watercolor dye (Red Cabbage and Blueberries)

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Ideation - Green

Making the Natural Dye Green

Green pigments within nature are famously found within most plants, leaves, and vegetation due to its chlorophyll molocules. Staying consistent with my natural dye materials and access, I chose spinach, mint, and cilantro to turn into natural green dye. Initially, I expected spinach to be a dark green, mint a neutral green, and cilantro a light green, being the main reasons why I chose these specific options within the food market. Spinach needs to be boiled in water and stirred often. I pulled test samples from this boiled water, as well as later blending the spinach and water to create a more thick, textured dye. Mint should be soaked in boiling water for 5 minutes, then blended and strained. For this process I used a single use blender in which the leaves soaked in water before blending. Cilantro, similarly, is soaked in boiling water for about 5 minutes, then blended and strained. Even after careful straining, a lot of pieces of the individual leaves were still visible within the dye, creating more consistency between my pieces. Not only did these chunks of leaves create and add texture to my work, but it allowed for more dimension within the piece itself. For example, looking at the smaller samples the leaf pieces visibly gather and dry together, leaving that area very dark, rich and pigmented. However, the colored spaces around this dark area are still bright and not as full of color, creating a beautiful illusion of dimension and shadows within the work itself.

Unfortunately, the green dye was really light and not as pigmented as my previous experiments. In order to have a bright green color appear on my watercolor paper I have to apply numerous layers to one spot, or drip a large water droplet in a certain area. Before adding more dye to a heavily colored area, I need to allow at least an hour or more for drying time. Due to these small set backs, the final piece took me almost 3 days of working on and off to complete.

Preparing mint and some cilantro for the dying process

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Ideation - Green

Boiling spinach for approximately 5 minutes

As mentioned previously, I had originally atempted to stray away from choosing subjects already associated with the given color. However, much like the manatee and color blue, an old turtle brushed in green demonstrates not only the green shell of the turtle, but the longevity of the turtles life paired with the ‘circle of life’ symbolisms connected with the color green. The color green can also represent love and social acceptance. Turtles are incredibly social creatures, whether on land or in the water, and lovingly welcome the company of even the most unexpected wildife. Known for traveling the seas in cycles for years on end, I desired to depict an old turtle almost ‘floating’ carefree within the water, alluding to the old age of the turtle. The texture found within this piece helped clarify details between the flippers, shell and body of the turtle. Ultimately, after completeling a long series of painting and allowing the piece to dry, I was highly satisfied with the overall outcome, and believe that the dye may have actually darkended over time.

Blending mint in boiled water

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Development - Green

Green Test Samples - 9”x12” natural watercolor dye

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Development - Green

Green Turtle - 9”x12” natural watercolor dye (Spinach, mint and some cilantro) Page 18

Ideation - Yellow

Preparing yellow onion skin and lemon for the dying process along with few test samples

Yellow test samples from yellow onion skins Page 19

Ideation - Yellow

Ideation - Yellow

Making the Natural Dye Yellow

At the start of my project it was hard to imagine a finished yellow natural dye piece. When thinking about what natural things in wildlife that can create a color, yellow is not commonly associated with anything in particular, much like green and spinach leaves or blackberries smashing purple dye on your hands. When beginning research on what natural fruits or vegetation could create a rich yellow, I found that tumeric, lemon, and even organic yellow onion skins an all produce a yellow color. First I tested the tumeric, simply mixing a few tablespsoons of the spice to boiling water. This mixture was really thick, almost clay-like. I tested various samples of different boiling water to tumeric ratios, and made watercolor test pages and allowed time to possibly alter the color. Ultimately, I decided to completely omit this dye, being that the natural dye process was not successful for this natural item and not consistent with my previous dyes made. Lemons don’t typically produce a bright yellow color aside from its iconic yellow skin, but fresh lemon juice will leave a light yellow stain.

I simply squeezed several lemons, and used this juice to act as a primer or gloss for my piece. My experience with organic yellow onion skins during this process simply blew my mind. Naturally, you wouldnt question why an onion named “yellow onion” can make yellow water, but I did. After peeling only the first 2-3 outter layers of an organic yellow onion, I boiled them in water for about 5-10 minutes, pulling samples from the water every minute or so, as the color progresses. The dye pulled from the boiling organic yellow onion skins was incredibly bright and very ‘yellow’, as pictured on the left. I ended up with only 1 natural dye I could use for the entirety of this piece, aside from the lemon juice ocassionally used in my

Working with the natural yellow dye made from organic yellow skins was incredibly fun for me to say the least. Not only did I use my yellow dye for my wildlife piece, but I was also watercolor doodling across several sketch sheets. At this point in this process, the yellow kept me inspired, and kept me on track. May I also mention that yellow is my favorite color. Aside from the burst of energy this yellow naturally produced for me, the dye was really thin and light. It was very difficult to see the lines made, unless they were heavily coated with the dye.

Taking a really fine pointed brush, I added multiple droplets of water carefully to lines or shapes, essentially adding more pigment. Over time, between 30 minutes to an hour, these fine lines and shapes will have dried enough for me to either continue adding dye to those spaces, or to begin working on other areas of the piece. The lemon juice was used mainly as a primer to coat a very light yellow tint to the background of the piece, and as a gloss to cover the piece as a whole.

However, I did add some lemon juice in portions of my pieces where the lines and details may have been too close, potentially bleeding into one another. The lemon juice was more of a heavier texture than the dye, and acted almost like a barrier between certain sopaces. While I have given myself specific content to create for this process, I absolutely plan on re-visting yellow dye made from organic yellow skins to explore more ideas.

The color yellow is energetic, its happy, intelligent, fun, creative, etc. According to color theorists, the color yellow is also a symbol of personal power and personal strength, not always something to be shown off, but to be admired personally.

Similarly, I felt the same way when researching the behaviors and color changing characteristics of octopusses. Most behaviors displayed by octopusses show their prefference of personal awreness and personal power. Studies also show that octopusses can be incrediblly intelligent. They have personalities, meaning that they can be just as humurous as humans. Taking the known behaviors connected to the color yellow, I wanted to depict an octopus appropriately. Determining a position or pose for this piece was difficult, being that there are countless ways an artist could twist and form an octopus around its tentacles. Unfortunately the process of creating a bright yellow mark on the water color paper prevented me from sketching an elaborate tentacle-twisting piece. Having to keep large sections and shapes together, I created an octopus form with its tentacles uncommonly spread all out, alluding to a “power pose”, as well as an open, fun and accepting gesture. As mentioned previously I found it difficult to add further detail such as suctions on tentacles, detais creating the eyes, and spots or lines on the skin of the octopus. Continuing to work with mainly large sections, I focused on the idea as a whole, making sure my viewers understand what this subject is, and how it connects to the dye color used. The use of the lemon juice proved to be incrediblly helpful over much time. In my final piece, there are very easy distinctions between the background and the subject, the spaces in between the tentacles, and even on the body of the octopus where the tentacles begin to form a crease. When working with a monochromatic color scheme and a color that is very bright, there is not a wide range of choices to create natural shadows, so the added lemon juice helped create this shadow effect. After approximately 5 days of on and off work with this piece, hours of patience and a lot of excitement, I was content with the outcome of my colors for this piece.

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Development - Yellow

Yellow Test Samples - natural watercolor dye

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Development - Yellow

Yellow Octopus - 9”x12” natural watercolor dye (Yellow onion skins and lemon)

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Ideation - Brown

Making the Natural Dye Brown

I simply love coffee. Known for its delicious smell, and rich brown color, coffee is a wonderful source of natural dye. Another famous and admired beverage that prdouces a brown hue is tea. I happily chose both of these items to use for my natural dye project, especially since I’ve always wanted to create a piece using coffee as my medium. Coffee is incredibly diverse in terms of types of brew, meaning that the brown hue is not always consistent with different coffees.

Keeping my materials and process as consistent as possible, I bought original espresso beans and ground them up. As normal, I added boiling water to my ground beans, leaving me a cup of rich natural brown dye. Much like coffee, tea can be found in many different types or flavors as well. I chose a black tea brew, and much like the coffee I added boiling water, instantly having a cup of another natural brown dye.

The natural brown dye made from coffee was incredibly rich and pigmented. This dye was easy to work with as each layer appeared to dry in a decent time, allowing me to not only work quickly, but to add more detail. While this dye made from coffee did not contain any ‘bits’ or ‘pieces’ from the ground beans, the same way the previous natural dye did, it still left texture bewteen the dye and the watercolor paper. Additionally, the natural dye layers dried in a way that created natural shadows, as demonstrated on this pages background in between the curves of the lines. Unlike the natural brown dye made from coffee, the natural brown dye made from tea was at first much more light than the dye itself. It wasnt until I applied several layers that I was able to see a vibrant brown color. After this initial discovery, I re-created another cup of the natural brown dye made from tea, except this time I added a second bag of the tea. This resulted in a quicker way of acheiving that vibrant brown I discovered in my sampling. While I was creating my final piece made from this brown dye, I used both the dye from the 1 tea bag experiment and the 2 tea bag experiment. This seemed to work well as it added another shade of brown in my hue pallet. The natural dye made from tea was thin, and like coffee did not contain any ‘bits’ or ‘pieces’ from the tea grounds or tea leaves. However, this dye did not dry with any unique texture qualities, rather smooth and almost in a solid color. This characteristic was really interesting to me, as I havent seen it in any of my previous natural dye made.

Deer stand as an incredible symbol for most people. They’re strong, powerful, intimidating, resilliant, and simply beautiful to see. Attempting to stray from the common choice of painting an animal in its natural colors, it was difficult for me to not to do so yet again. Especially since deer represent the characteristics of the color brown so well, more so than most wildlife creatures I researched. The color brown carries meanings of strength, securtiy, resilliance and power. With the color brown, and the subject of a deer chosen, I began to process how I wanted to depict this deer, in order to help further represent its connections to the qualities and meanings of the color brown. Ultimately I depicted a deer in a position ready to ‘howl’, or call. This position is important because it strays the viewer from the expected depiction of a deer, head on with the antlers in focus or in distance among trees or field. Allowing this piece to be almost a learning experience for my viewer has inspired me to research further into how I can differently represent well known subjects. After I allowed my piece to dry, I felt satisfied with the outcome and how the different natural dye worked together so smoothly in this piece.

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Ideation - Brown

Brown test samples from coffee, 1 tea bag and 2 tea bags

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Development - Brown

Brown Test Samples - 9”x12” natural watercolor dye Page 25

Development - Brown

Brown Deer - 9”x12” natural watercolor dye (Black Coffee (espresso) and black tea)

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Ideation - Red

Boiling beets and raspberries

Various red watercolor samples

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Ideation - Red

Making the Natural Dye Red Bright, vibrant shades of red are found everywhere in nature and wildlife. The reasons and meanings for these colors showing up in nature varies, from signs or signals to warnings or invitations, etc. As far as fruits and vegetation, many not only display vibrant hues of red, but they also bleed and stain red colors. Beets and raspberries are known exactly for this, their vibrant red. At the same time, wine, originating from grapes, is often colored a dark red, and has been used as a medium of modern painting. Beets, raspberries, and wine were the three natural items I ultimately chose for my red natural dye experiment. Beets commonly leave a dye on anyhting they touch after cooked, so after cutting up a few beets I boiled them in water. As they continued to boil I pulled test sampled from the boiled water often, revealing various shades of a dark red. Rasberries are similar to blueberries and blackberries. For this natural dye with raspberries, I simply soaked them in boiled water for about 5 minutes, and then blended them to create a thin paste-like natural dye for the color red. Wine is an incredibly diverse beverage, being served in different colors, not only red. For this experiment I was able to access Cabernet Sauvignon. I simply poured the wine into a sample cup and used it directly as my natural dye.

Red is an incredibly dense color when it comes to listing the symbols. characteristics, meanings, etc all associated with the color red. Most notably, the color red usually means love, passion, power, srtrength, anger, or even pain or harm.

In this case, I was focusing on characteristics that could be smiliar to that of an animals behavior. Horses are known for being wild and free. They contain a strong appetite for freedom and are incredibly passionate creatures, especially with human interactions. Horses also play a major symbolical role in some areas of the world, such as Lexington, Ky. I am from this area and have been heavily impacted and influenced by the horse industry. Being parallel to the characteristics of the color red, and playing a major symbolical role, I decided to depict a horse in the nautral red dye as an almost head on portrait. Similar to the position of the owl, I wanted to depit the horse as its main focus being the eyes, and center of the face.

This pose automically suggestes a subject in power, with strength. I allowed the horse to carry its head slightly low, suggesting not all stiffness, and some emotion built into its current expression depicted. The variety of hues and shades given to me for this natural red dye allowed me to experiment and create enough to design and paint a final piece connecting a horse to the color red, and further demonstrating just how naturally connected our world can be.

The natural red dyes that I created for this project were all very exciting to work with because of their bright hue, and relatively quick drying time. The natural dye created from the beets were the most rich and pigmented out of my samples, and worked incredibly well for focus points and highlight areas of my final piece, as it dried the same color as it was when applied. Raspberries created a very light, almost pink hue, that collaborated with the other dyes very well. This dye made from the raspberries also contain those ‘bits’ and ‘pieces’ that some of my previous dye contained from the skin and seeds of the fruit used. The Cabernet Sauvignon unfortunately dried as a brown shade, originally being applied as a dark red. Even though the end result was not idea, this dye was a great use for shadows and darker areas of the subject.

Documentation of after the red dye making experiments and process Page 28

Development - Red

Red Test Samples - 9”x12” natural watercolor dye

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Development - Red

Red Horse - 9”x12” natural watercolor dye

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Evaluation

Digitize & Edit

After allowing several hours of drying time for my final pieces, I carefully scanned each image onto my personal computer. Creating these pieces and documenting my process, I knew ahead of time when I planned this project that I wanted to design my own process book. With many details to consider when planning a book, I knew I wanted to add my own personal photos of not only my process of this work, but the final pieces and the natural dye test sample sheets.

With the process of choosing photos and creating a consistent book, I edited my process photos to help focus more on the subject I am trying to demonstrate. Prior to this project I only had little photography training and experience, and ultimately used editing as a way of cleaning up my photos by cutting down outside objects or adjust the levels of brightness. Similarly, I edited the scans of each of my final pieces, as well as the test sample sheets. My main goal when editing these pictures for my book was simply to enhance or brighten the colors shown. While most of the natural dye stayed bright, beautiful and vibrant, I wanted to make sure that my pieces were displayed in their full potential for my viewers.

While I was boiling water and creating natural dye, I continuously pulled test samples from the various colors and used a paintbrush to test them on watercolor paper. Before I began painting my final pieces, I allowed myself some time, and inspiration from within my own process, to create fun and striking paint doodles. I covered some pages in one color, using the different dyes of that one color. I wanted to use these pages as further examples of what the natural dye can produce for each individual color. I also created some pages with all of the ranges of color of dye, each page demonstrating the dye in a different way or style. These pages were very exciting for me to create, wanting to show how the dye is still just water, I created an entire page of water droplets or splashes, or visually engaging a viewer all across the page with colorful lines (each line being incredibly unique and textured, pictured right) or simply demonstrating the power of the vibrant dye with large solid blocks of color. These extra pieces were valuable in tying together not only my final process, but in demonstrating the variety of my skills and talents.

After scanning these pieces into my personal computer as well, I edited them differently than my process photos and final pieces and sample sheets. Allowing my natural dye works to stand out, I kept the majority of these extra works light and slightly opaque. Overall I was pleased with the combinatio of all of the works, and with how my choices of editing each group of photos in a different yet consistent way complimented my process all together.

Final Process Outcome

I make art to express, create, solve design or artistic problems, and to learn. Beginning a project with passion, an expression or emotion, fuels motivation and creativity for me. Adding personal rules and guidelines to my own projects create room for me to research and resolve how I can successfully meet my own demands visually. Research within any project is always important, but for art and design, research may entail more than just web searching. Drawing inspiration from wildlife and nature, music and dance, or other famous works of art or artists are all forms of research. Throughout artistic and design projects, the artists are always attempting to surpass their own demands for themselves, creating as realistically or truthfully as possible. During my time preparing for this project, I learned more about color theory and the symbols of color around the world than what I originally knew. I also became more knowlegable about the potential that natural items such as fruits, vegetation and plants have as far as creating natural color. Not only did I factually learn a lot of information on interesting subjects surrounding wildife, color, and natural dye colors, but I learned a lot about who I am and can be as an artist throughout this process. I have a deep rooted love for traditional work, and will always desire to create by hand. However, I aspire to create digitally. When working with design, I am able to work in a clean and organized space, with limitless potential of how I can create or display any information or work to my viewers.

Creating a series of watercolor based works , later digitizing them and designing a book detailing my process made for the perfect project for me to showcase a multitude of my analog and digital skills and interests combined. Being my most detaied work so far, I genuinely enjoyed creating consistent material with many connections between the different variables such as color, subject, and material used to create the natural dye. From painting the works themselves, to planning the pages and layout of my own book, I was inspired and eager to find my potential of being an artist. Because I would rather dye naturally as an artist.

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Evaluation

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