Fabric Painting Forum

HI everyone, I thought to ask how do you feel about drawing on different surfaces like paper, canvas vs different types of textiles (cotton, silk, stretchy fabrics, etc.)? How has your journey started? Were you first good at some drawing medium (i.e. watercolors, graphite pencils etc.) and then tried yourself in fabric painting? How did the first time feel? Was there a lot of mess and confusion? 😌😄 I know for a fact that a lot of people here are really good at art, so I'd like to invite everyone of you to share what you feel are the most frustrating and rewarding moments as well as difference in creating on such different surface types like paper and fabric? I'll start. Growing up there was not much access to colored pencils of good quality so I never really developed an interest to those, unfortunately. What I did develop though, was fear to practically all colorful drawing/painting mediums that were leaving a significant mark... I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been put down by lack of a proper art teacher and an utter mess that watercolor paints can create when used by an unguided child. Add to it the fact of being graded for that 'art', and we get a long lasting resentment to all things paint. I found graphite pencil as a safe tool and have been loving it since teenage, mostly for portraits. I brought myself back to painting only at 24 y.o. And I actually learned to use acrylics, but on fabric. That's it. No background, no need to find a way to transform my painting style from paper to textile surface; there was NO painting style 😂 So I made mistakes and learned the whole thing about painting already on various fabrics, and only then started trying myself on canvas, in dimensional art and watercolors. After giving each painting project on clothes on average 1-2 days, I found  painting on paper amazingly fast and productive😋😃 So there it is, a major difference for me is the speed with which one can create on these two surfaces. And of course there also is the difference in use and purpose, but maybe someone else will mention it in their story...:) your turn...

Hi there! I hope you are well! And I believe you can help me with my suggestions about fundamental things! So, I have an old Fjällräven Kånken No.2 backpack in durable G-1000 HeavyDuty fabric and you can see what happened with him after years of using and going on my shoulders in the burning sun and heavy rain and so on. It's a solid material and I know we can be together a decade years in forward. But it looks very tired right now. My plan is: 1. wash it by hand and carefully dry 2. buy Jacquard black colours (for instance) and a sponge 3. paint it 4. waiting a week-long 5. accuracy wash by hand and dry again The questions: 1. I don't have an iron for ironing, so, will it be okay just to dry it naturally after painting? Or I can use a hairdryer, in case. I'm afraid to not get a permanent effect and would the backpack drop black spots on my white T-shirts? 2. Will be a sponge a good idea for that? I do not need to repaint it, I need to tint my poor black to a new black colour. Or brush will be preferable to use? As you can see, it's fundamental questions, but I'm a person who never painted any textile/clothes stuck with ordering the black colour and just not sure about the results. If you can help me with that, you will be a part of the second life of my favourite backpack 😊 Thanks!

I like javana cause it's soft but it's hard to create thin lines. Which colour and technique would be best suited for this, frehand or stencil?