Page 70 - The Decorative Painter Spring 2014

Fabric Paint
PREPARATION
You will need a hard smooth surface to put your fabric on; make sure there are no indentations or bumps.
Wash and dry the fabric; do not use fabric softener. Dry iron if needed. Put a sheet of freezer paper between the fab- ric and the working surface. This keeps the medium from soaking through the fabric and sticking to the surface. Put the design under the fabric and transfer it with a pencil. If it looks correct, go back over all your lines with the Micron 005 pen. You may need to darken your lines if you have trouble seeing the design through the fabric.
Make sure you keep the pen moving or it will bleed. Sometimes the pens will bleed a little when you add the medium. By using the smallest pen, when you do your fi- nal inking you will be able to cover the lines.
The white of your fabric is your highlight. You cannot go back and put this in later, so stop and think before you start coloring.
LET’S PAINT
and then add Warm Grey 90%. Add a little Black under the flowers. Don’t forget to leave your white highlight on the left side and a little bit on the right side. Use a cotton swab or brush to blend. Wet the bottom of the can with medium and do the same as on the top, leaving a white highlight in the middle. Blend and soften all around. Make your colors a little darker next to the bottom and about halfway up the sides. Add a few curved pencil lines to give it a rounded look, but don’t blend.
The handle is done similarly to the spout. Use the Cool Grey pencils light to dark, and then close to the pot and under the leaves add Black. Remember to leave the white highlights and blend.
LEAVES
Wet two or three leaves at a time. For leaves 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 use Spring Green, Apple Green, and True Green, and close to the flowers add a touch of Violet. No two leaves are the same, so mix the placement of your shades however you want. Remember, shades should be down one side, down the veins, and at the base of the leaf. Be sure to leave some white highlights, and blend.
Make leaves 7 and 8 a little lighter. The more pressure you put on the pencil the darker the color will be; the lighter the pressure the lighter the color. Make leaves 13, 14, and 15 a little lighter still. The leaves under the flowers need to be darker. Vary the colors of the leaves with Grass Green, Apple Green, Spring Green, True Green, and Olive Green. When the leaf is close to the flower, pick up a little of the flower color.
FLOWER 1
There are five rows of petals; wet a few petals one at a time and color with Violet. Row 1 is the bottom (the dark one). Row 2 is the next one; it’s a little lighter. Row 3 is lighter than row two; the center is very dark. Remember, the pressure you apply makes your darks or lights. On
Start on the spout. Pour a nickel-sized puddle of Deco- Art So Soft Transparent Fabric Medium in your medicine lid to start with; add more as needed. You will find the lid is so small and convenient you can set it right next to the area you are working on. Use the no. 4 brush on this area. Wet the material with medium. Leave your white high- light at the top and color with Cool Grey 20% as you start, followed by Cool Grey 50%, and then a little Cool Grey 70%. Finally, add a little Warm Grey 90% to color the bot- tom and the area not too far from the edges. Use a cotton swab or your brush to blend, making sure you don’t have any different lines between the shades. Use Black against the can and a tiny bit on the bottom. Rewet your fabric with medium if the pencils drag, or if the blending won’t move. Using the no. 6 round, wet the area under the flow- ers, down to the middle band on the can. Start with Cool Grey 20%. Add Cool Grey 50%, follow with Cool Grey 70%,
PAINTING TIPS
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The Decorative Painter • ISSUE NO. 1, 2014 decorativepainters.org
n Never wet or wash your brushes with water. Between colors, dip your brush in medium and wipe on paper towels until clean. After you are completely finished, clean your brushes with soap and water.
n Always use the no. 4 brush for the small areas and the no. 6 for the large areas.
n The most important thing to remember is to keep your fabric wet, but don’t let the medium puddle. If the pencils
won’t move (what I call “melting”), add more medium. When you think you are through, but see a place that needs more color, just rewet with medium and add more color until you are happy with it. Also remember, once you put the color on you can’t take it off. Always go from light to dark.
n In case you were worried, this will not ruin your pencils. Give them a day to dry out and they are as good as new. Also, don’t use really sharp pencils, as they will leave hard lines that are difficult to blend.
n This will not work on T-shirt (knit) fabric. If you do this on a shirt, when you are all finished, allow it to cure or set overnight and heat-set with a dry iron. The design will be permanent and washable.