Tips on Tuesdays! -> Painting on Fabric

Tuesday already!?  Wow.  If you are blogger, please feel free to grab the red button in the left.  It links to all Tuesday posts.  The purpose of this post is to share ideas, so leave your tips and links in the comments!  The topic this week is Painting on Fabric.  Christie from Describe Happy hinted at this one.  : )

I bought my paint sitcks over a year ago. I have 2 kinds:  Shiva, which I ordered cheap cheap through a Canadian art supply store, and Artist's Oilbars by Winsor & Newton which my husband found at a local art supply store.  I really prefer the Winsor brand artist's oilbars though they are 2-3 times the price of Shiva.  They are bigger, for one.  And two, the color selection is gorgeous, rich, and true to artist's oil paints (burnt umber, crimson, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue...).  The Shiva paint sticks are more flat/plainer colors I find... HOWEVER the Shiva paintsticks have a whole line of sparkly colors, and those iridescents are definitely some awesome bling for fabric art.  So... I have both.  ; )

These Paintsticks/Oilbars are like giant crayons.  They are a blend of oil paint and beeswax (as far as I know).  They are messy - it's oil paint!  So protect your work surface.  Have a safe spot to set your brush and bar down or you'll get it everywhere.  You can make or purchase rubbing plates to get texture on your fabric.  Remember how we used to do crayon rubbings with leaves under the paper in grade school?  Same idea.  I like to use stencils and a flat ended thick bristle brush.  Tape down the stencil, and rub the paint into a glass bowl.  That's where your brush will get the paint, lump free.

 

Cool, hey?  Here's the beginning of a Quilting Arts Pet Portrait challenge that I never sent in!  :P

They blend soooo nicely!  But they take a day or more to dry, depending on the thickness of the application.  This is precisely why I never became an oil painter!  ; )

Clean up is SUPER easy with this product.  Don't even begin using these paints until you have lined up a way to clean everything.  Paint sticks / oil bars are not water-soluble.

I don't know why I often assume that non-toxic equates to 'doesn't work that well'.  Do you do that too?  This stuff is awesome!  It's scent free, biodegradable, non toxix too.  And the best news - I got a smudge of black oil paint right in the orange horizon of that piece in the background.  I thought I was going to cry.  But I put some of this cleaner onto a clean rag and the black came right out.  WHEW!!!

Do you have any great tips or know of cool links about painting on fabric?  Please share it!

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY ! ! !