Fabric Painting Techniques

It only takes a few minutes to learn the following Outline, Fill-In, and Blending techniques to begin painting. Remember to paint in small sections no larger than 1 square inch which allows you to Outline, Fill-In and Blend the paint while it is still wet. 

Outline
The first step in painting is to Outline using the following technique:
A. Hold the bottle upright and vertical.  Place the tip just inside the design line, not over the line. As you paint, the width of the paint from the tip will cover the line. If you place the tip over the line, the paint will overlap outside the line.
B. Position the design so that it is always possible to see the part you are painting. Paint toward you, or right to left if you are right handed, so that you can see the part of the design you are painting.
C. Outline as if you are tracing the lines of the design. It is not necessary to go back and forth to get a solid outline of the design you are painting. All you have to do is keep the bottle vertical and squeeze the bottle while moving the tip just inside the design line with light (not excessive) pressure. Avoid irregular strokes which will result in a ragged appearance. 

Fill-In
Fill-In the parts of the design outlined using circular strokes or criss-crossing strokes to ensure the paint properly penetrates the fabric. Painting in only one direction will result in uneven paint coverage and poor paint penetration of the fabric. Proper paint penetration is required to ensure the paint colors remain vivid and permanent after washing or dry cleaning. 

Blend
Blending is a technique which uses a Blending Tool to smooth and work the paint into the fabric immediately after filling-In. It only takes a few seconds to use the rounded part of the Blending Tool tip to blend the paint into the fabric while the paint is still wet.  It helps the paint penetrate the fabric’s surface and gives a smoother, more permanent, and more washable result. 

Easy Shading Simplifies Creative Painting

To realistically paint a design, you'll want to show the different shades of color created by the way light strikes the item. The adjacent Figure illustrates how light creates Highlight, Base, and Shadow colors.

1. The Highlight color is where the light directly strikes the item and where the color is the lightest.

2. The Base color is where the item is exposed to normal light and where the color is its normal shade.

3. The Shadow color is where the item receives the least amount of light and where the color is darkest.


Paint and then blend one small area of a design before proceeding to the next area to paint. Paint in areas about one square inch.

Paint each area of the design by first Outlining and then Filling-In using the paint colors noted on the color chart provided with each design.

After you have painted each small area and while the paint is still wet, use the Blending Tool (C353) to blend the paint into the shaded area of the design. Always PAINT then BLEND while paint is still wet before proceeding to the next area. If the paint dries and becomes difficult to blend, you are painting too large of an area before blending.