Watercolor Painting on Fabric

I have been using colored pencils on fabric for a while now so when I came across some watercolor paints in a closet one day, I thought “Hmm wonder if these could be used on fabric”.  I did some research and found that you could if you use the textile medium as I did with colored pencils.

 

So I gathered up all the supplies I needed: the paints, a container for water, fabric, brushes and the textile medium and started to play.  You want to use a white or cream colored fabric.  You probably can use colored fabric but the paint wouldn’t be as noticible.  Also make sure you have washed your fabric to get the sizing out of it.  Sizing won’t let the paint or textile medium adhere to the fabric fibers and will just was them both away. You will want to cover your work service with something water proof because you are going to get things wet. 

 

I remember using watercolor paints in art class in school.  The more water you added to the paint the lighter the color of the paint.  I knew I would be adding a textile medium later to the fabric which would lighten the color, so I did not want to add more water now. What I did was add enough water (just a couple of drops with my paint brush) to activate the paint.  I should mention here that the paints I am using were found in the kids craft area of a local craft store.

 

I wasn’t going to paint a picture; I just wanted to see how the paint would look on the fabric.   I dipped my brush in the paint and spread it in lines over the fabric. I was going for a rainbow effect.  I made sure I cleaned my brush in the water when I changed colors.

 

 

 

 

Now with the paint somewhat wet, I brushed a mixture of textile medium and water (I kept it a even mixture).  I also made sure my brush was clean. This time I wanted to get the fabric good and wet so using my brush I ‘painted’ the textile medium/water mixture on horizontally and then vertically, touching up any areas that might still be dry.  As you can see the paint began to run into each other as the fabric became wet and then became lighter in color.

 

 

 

As with using the textile medium with color pencils this needs to be heat set.  I could do it by putting it in the dryer set on high or wait till it air dries and ironing it with a hot dry iron.  I decided to let it air dry and then set it with an iron.  I was concerned that the paint would leave residue on the walls of my dtyer and with the heat become permanent (or worse the next time there was wet clothes in the dryer might transfer to my clothes).

 

 

I am glad I did because as it dried the paint bled more across the fabric.  It looks almost tie-dyed. 

 

 

As I often do when experimenting with textile medium, I then rinsed the piece after heat setting it.  Some of the color faded, actually wash off the fabric.  I could tell because there was green/blue water in my sink.  I just rinsed it with hot water, no soap.  But even with the faded colors I like how it turned out. Next time I think I will use more textile medium in my water/medium mixture.

 

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about using aloe gel to set colored pencils in fabric so I thought I would try it with the paint.  The first lesson I learned was that if I painted a figure in this case a heart, when the aloe or aloe and water was put on the fabric, the figure did not stay the same shape; the paint runs.

 

With the colored pencil and aloe, the color did not fade after heat setting it and then rinsing it. In this case, though, when I heat set it and then rinsed it, the color did fade. It spread more into the rest of the fabric as well.    The first photo is before rinsing with hot water, the second is after.   

 

           

 

The pictures below are another painted heart but now I used a mix of aloe and water.  It spread easier across the fabric and again eventually the fabric absorbed the paint.  I think it was easier to ‘paint’ the textile medium and water but if you can’t locate the medium, aloe is a good alternative. But even after letting air dry and heat setting it with a hot iron, when I rinsed it the paint faded. 

 

 

             

 

I am happy with some of the results.  But I am going to play with the paints some more.  As I mentioned change the amount of textile medium to water and maybe use a better quality fabric.  Try it yourself when you are in a mood to play with paints.  It is fun to think you can create your own colored fabric.

 

©2021 Cheryl Fillion