Lesson 5: Putting Paint to Fabric
Painting the Foreground - Stencil Cremes
Stencil crèmes, in the jar, have a texture similar to paste shoe polish. On a wall, I prefer to scrub these on. They also are somewhat translucent in effect, and so also need to start with the lightest colors working up to the shading - but you may have a bit more working time. This is good, because on fabric that scrubbing motion will pull the fabric around and may cause it to shift from under the stencil. You will usually need to stipple the color onto the fabric, pouncing your nearly dry brush up and down until enough color has accumulated.
To shade, or to get a darker color, you don't use more paint on the brush. Always keep that nearly dry. Just keep stippling until the build up of color becomes deeper and more opaque. Too much paint leads to a build up at the edges of the stencil that will lead to smeary edges.
You can shade by allowing some fabric to show through in the spaces you want to appear highlighted, or you can stipple on a deeper shade of the main color in the areas you want to shadow. The character of the crème will allow you to do this without losing adherence. However, once again try to do your shading while the underlying color is still wet.
If you are layering stencils, for instance a small picket fence and want to stencil a few flowers in front of it, you need to plan ahead. You will need to do it in what seems like the reverse of the logical order in order to avoid putting new paint over older, already dried paint. Start by stenciling the foreground flowers. Then add the fence stencil, and carefully paint it in, avoiding the area where the flowers appear. You may need several very small brushes to avoid smearing when working close to your foreground elements.
NOTE: This technique also works well with real fabric paint.
