Lesson 5: Putting Paint to Fabric
Shading Techniques - and 3 Bonuses
Once you have become familiar with the feel of applying paint to fabric, and with the characteristics of your chosen paint, you can begin on your actual project, starting with the lightest color. There are many ways to then achieve depth and shading. Choose a technique that not only creates the effect you like, but will work within the time limits imposed by the drying time of your paint. Here are a few shadowing techniques for you to try.
- Diminishing color - Start by determining where your imaginary source of light is coming from. Where that light would naturally fall on the objects in your design are the highlights - where you want little or no paint. Instead, begin your painting where the shadow or deepest color should appear. As you move toward the highlight your brush should be getting emptier, and so the color will be less intense - until it runs out where the highlight needs to be. You may even want to use two shades of the main color - one slightly dark where your deepest shadows fall and another, slightly paler shade nearest the highlighted edges.
- Open Centers This is the easiest way to shade anything. Simple concentrate your area of color at the edges of the object, leaving the center either unpainted or only very lightly stippled. Don't worry about the source of light. Just make sure that the center is the highlight in all objects.
- Combining colors on the fabric This works best on small objects. Use two colors - one pale color for the highlight and a deeper one for shadow area. Paint in the highlight, and at the other end paint in the shadow, leaving some open space between the two. Quickly wipe the two colors toward each other until they meet or nearly meet. Ideally, you want them to meet and blend at the midpoint.
- Stippled color Once again remember that your base coat must be wet before you can do this. But simply paint the area with your base, pale color. Then taking a fresh brush with the shading color, stipple it lightly into the areas you want to appear shadowed. Stippling means that you are adding color with a light, tapping motion. The more tightly you stipple the more color depth you will get.
- Additive color - base coat the opening with a medium color. Where you want highlights lay down a dot of a light shade of the base (or white) color where the brightest area should be. (Make sure the base coat is still wet.) Tap the dot until it is sinking into the fabric, then, with your brush, pull the paint outward from the dot into the area that needs highlighting. To shade, lay a thin line of darker paint at the edge of the shaded area and with the brush start pulling the paint inward from that line until you have covered the area to be shaded. Double loading means loading your brush with two colors, one on each side. To create a bicolor effect in certain areas, apply one color of paint to half of the stencil brush, and then carefully apply a second color to the other half. Then just apply the paint to the surface as usual. In narrow spaces, this is an effective means of shading and highlighting in one. In a large space, it can create some lovely, natural looking effects.
BONUS: Did you know fabric paints would work well on old suede boots? Make a fashion statement. Make sure you blend transparent colors with white. Clean the boots and make sure they are completely dry, Find a stencil that will fit the side of the boot - a border stencil should work well if it isn't too deep. You can use white eyeliner to make registration marks - it wipes off with a damp cloth. Let them cure at least three days before wearing. Make sure you use a brand of paint that doesn't need to be heat set. Or do these in summer where they can be left in the hot sun for a few days. Note: This doesn't work well with leather, which is too slick and will reject the paint. But suede absorbs paint somewhat due to its rougher surface.
BONUS TWO: Emboss velvet by using brass stencils or rubber stamps and applying them to the wrong side of the velvet after it has been misted lightly with water. Apply hot iron at highest setting. Iron over it. Practice on scrap velvet until you get a feel for how long it takes for the embossing to take effect, Try adding gold paint to the rubber stamped area.
BONUS THREE: A silk painting trick. For this, you will need a glue gun and crayons in the color of your design - or in a color that you would like to use as an outline for your design. Feed the crayon into the glue gun, and outline the open edges of your stencil. This creates a resist in color. Make sure each shape that you outline is closed, or the paint will run out of the opening. You can paint within the outlined areas without worrying about the color running. Use only for things that will not need to go into the laundry.
