Tips on painting "shiny" fabrics?

Mary Sparrow · 08-07-2001, 08:36 AM

Does anyone have any tips on painting shiny fabrics such as silks and taffettas? I was recently working on a painting in which the young girl had on a cotton dress, but the pillows next to her were silk...I was somewhat successful at showing the difference..but not as much as I would like to be..any helpful hints would be much appreciated..

Thanks,
Mary

Michele Rushworth · 08-08-2001, 10:31 AM

Shiny fabrics are more contrasty. The lightest lights are often right next to the darkest darks. Along the "ridge line" of a fold, there is often a very light line of highlight.

It may help if you can borrow the articles of clothing and pillow used in the photo shoot. Or if not, see if you can get some shiny fabric from somewhere and study what it does.

Hope that helps.

Mary Reilly · 08-21-2001, 10:20 PM

I agree with the above response, but would like to elaborate a little. I find that the type of fabric dictates the degree of value contrast and the degree of how soft or hard the edge is where they meet. Finding the balance between them helps creates the illusion of the type of fabric. Satin seems to have a really extreme value range, with a slight softening where the values meet. I find that when I paint silk, there is a little more softening of the line where the values meet, and the value range is less then satin but greater then cotton. Velvet on the other hand seems to have a value range similar to satin, with a total blurring of the meeting point. I don't know if my suggestions are worded in such a way as to make sense, but they work for me. Of couse, all of this is tempered by the color of the fabric and the type of light hitting it. Borrowing the clothing is always one of my biggest helps.

Mary Reilly

Karin Wells · 11-10-2001, 09:33 PM

I love to paint shiny fabrics! They tend to reflect light in a high contrast way, i.e., the lights are very light in value as compared to the value of the fabric.

If I could, I would get some shiny fabric in all of my portraits because they are such a good design element....really making something of the patterns of light can add a lot to the overall painting.

Another thing I like to do is get different kinds of fabric in the same portrait as they contrast and enhance each other (like silk and velvet). Here is an example of shiny silk, and low contrast cotton fabric in the same painting...