Playing with Paint

Since I have no major projects on the go at the moment, I thought I'd take some time to experiment with paint on fabric. I find this easier to work with compared to dyeing fabric because I'm familiar with how paint works and not so much with dyes. I can also control the paint easier than the dyes.

When I use watercolour on paper I use plastic wrap spread over the wet paint to get an interesting background with random shapes in it. Once the plastic wrap is on, I let the paint dry and once dry, I pull the plastic off and love the effects I get. I wondered if I could do the same thing with the acrylic paint on fabric.

I used the same method as with watercolour and layered different colours together and then put plastic wrap over it.

Paint

Paint and plastic wrap

On this closeup you can see the designs the plastic wrap made in the paint.

My experiment did work though not as well as with watercolour. I still like the effect and will do further experiments with more paint. When the paint is dry, I will have to heat set it into the fabric so that it doesn't wash out. What I noticed is that the acrylic doesn't dry quickly with the plastic wrap on top so I ended up taking the plastic off and hanging the fabric to dry further. I'm not sure what I will use the fabric for but I'm sure I'll come up with something.