Fabric Painting

by Dervishmoose in Craft > Costumes & Cosplay

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Fabric Painting

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Hello peoples! It’s been a while since I posted anything, but here we are. I am not a cosplayer, but I do have a tip for cosplay costumes and general painting. This can also be used for thin lines in paintings. Normal paint can be goopy sometimes, this gives you thin lines. It’s super simple, and if done correctly, it can have a really great result!

Necessary Supplies + Choosing a Medium

Materials:

Paint of your desired colors
Water
Paint brushes (or something to spread the paint with)
Your soon-to-be-colored-project




I have done this with paper and with fabric. I don’t know what you’ll plan to use this with, but I’d imagine it works with most things. Please, don’t expect it to work on water resistant anything.

Mixing Paint Solution

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Add the colors you think you’re going to need to a paper plate or something that can retain water. You can mix them now or after you add the water. Now, add the water.

The Looooooooooong Step

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This step is super easy, it just feels like it takes FOREVER (and it kinda does). This is the part where you mix your water and paint. Make sure when you mix, that you have enough water. The paintwater should be more like waterpaint. If you tip your mixing surface (in my case, a paper plate) it should run around the sides. You’ve basically created colored water. Ingestion not advised.


Once you have your water and paint, you mix. Mixy mixy, forever. When you think you’ve finished mixing, keep going. When I say mixing, I don’t mean ‘swirl your brush in a circle.’ Squish random blobs of undisolved paint you find. Move your plate around and find them; they’re in there.

If you think straining your mixture is a good idea, it probably is. When you try and strain it tho, make sure you’re not like me, and use a very NOT good straining fabric (I suggest fabric because it is thinner than, say a normal food colander or sifter, and it will probably get the clumps of paint).

Tips and Tricks (and Things to Not Do)

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Alright, if you’ve read this far, two things:
1) Yay! I’m at least semi-relevant.
2) You have read all the instructions. If you choose, you can be on your merry way, painting everything.

This section is just pointers.

Tip #1:
WASH YOUR BRUSH. I’m a hypocrite when I say this, because I take very poor care of my brushes. I also, did not do this step, tho I probably should have. After you’re done mixing, I suggest switching to a different brush or cleaning your current one to some degree. If you go straight to painting, you could have unforeseen clumps of paint in the bristles. In my case, I was making light brown and I mixed in some dark red. I now have a nice streak of red on one of my snake guards (what I was painting, and it was for a costume, I do not own true snake guards, nor do I suggest painting them).

Tip #2:
Do NOT, under any circumstances, put whatever you are painting into your mixing bowl. I got tired of painting and thought it would probably be ok if I just put it onto the plate. NO. Remember the long step? Yeah, I hadn’t mixed it all the way, and now I have red and green speckled guards. Dark colors do not come out of light ones easily, people. Be patient, mix all the way, and if you need to, take a break and come back to it later.

Tip #3:
If you are painting more that one thing, you can layer them. The paint is basically the consistency of water, so it could soak through. This means you don’t waste as much paint if it goes though into your drip cloth or pants or whatever you’re painting on.