Practice makes perfect

Painting on fabric is not like painting on paper or canvas. Fabric tends to move with the brush unless properly secured and the paint tends to saturate at a different rate. That being said, you need to practice and practice some more before you try painting on your final item. How you do that is



to get some fabric to practice with. Old t-shirts, pillow cases, cut up sections of bed sheets all make good practice fabrics. There is no need to run out and buy practice fabric, just use what you already have.

Painting flowers, a nice technique

In my prior post I showed an example of a poorly done technique and idea about painting on fabric. Now here is a good one. In the video acrylic paints are used but you can easily substitute oil based paints or fabric paints that are guaranteed not to wash out. The artist in the video shows him painting on paper but his technique could be easily used on non-stretch fabric such as white linen or even muslin. Until you get that technique down, I would avoid t-shirt material for now.

Notice how he makes good use of the brush movement and color combinations. That type of technique is what fabric painting is all about. Now for the video:

Fabric painting - the wrong way

I found this video on YouTube and thought it made an excellent example of how not to paint on fabric. As you watch the video below take note that the artist mentions putting LOTS of paint on the design to make it more permanent. Wrong, wrong, wrong, what she will be doing is making the the artwork so stiff that it cannot be worn or even used as a pillow or anything flexible. She is also using acrylic paint which is not my number one choice of fabric paints as they will wash out. Oil based paints are best and they don't need to be applied thick.

The videos from Expert Village are known for never showing the end result, at least that is my experience so don't be disappointed with the cut off at the end.

Here is the video:

An easy way to learn fabric painting

When I was in my late teens I use to paint on fabric with oil paints. I chose those tube oil paints because I knew that they would not wash out of the t-shirts that I would paint. I learned how to paint seagulls and lots of ocean waves, since they were the easiest for me to paint on fabric. Then I took a long break from painting - years in fact.

When I finally wanted to get back into painting on fabric I found out I had completely forgotten how!! I looked in vain for that book that first showed me how to paint those seagulls and the waves but I could find it no where. What to do now?

I left my ambition for yet another few years and then one day I happened to be in a local store that has a small artist supplies section in the same aisle as the office supplies. There happen to be this Chinese Brush Painting Animals Kit with a panda on the front cover. I opened it and found that it was very easy to do and it looked like I could adapt it to fabric. I bought it and tried it out. The results at first were not good but then I started to get the hang of it. Here is the kit I bought:

Now I can not only paint animals but flowers and bamboo. The bamboo is really easy to paint. A big plus is the price of the kit - under $20. For that price it has the brushes and paints as well as the book. A great little kit. I am glad I got it.

Using an air brush on fabric

Have you ever thought about using an airbrush to paint on fabric? Until 10 years ago, I never did. That was when I saw a man at the local county fair painting sweat shirts for people while they waited. I don't know if he used a special fast drying paint or not. I just can't imagine wearing something that I had just painted only an hour or 2 earlier. Never mind the fact of wet paint, it did give me great ideas about air brushes.

10 years ago you could buy an air brush kit in the local toy store. Now you have to find an art supply store or buy one online. The prices can range all over the place like this $8.38 air brush kit to this air brush kit with compressor. Of course you are not limited to using a compressor for your airbrush, you can use compressed air in a can like this air brush kit for only $14.99.

Using an air brush takes getting use to so I recommend this book on air brush painting. I am not the only one who likes that book. There are over 91 reviews about it on Amazon.

If you are interested in just decorating t-shirts then this book called Air Brush T-shirts and other clothing is just what you need.

How to Airbrush T-Shirts and Other Clothing

A new blog, a new beginning

Fabric painting, I love it. Oils are my medium and t-shirts are typically my canvas. My specialty is seagulls but I am learning to paint other things and designs. Even though I started out with oil paints, I am learning to use fabric paints made for fabric.