Painted Fabric Backgrounds

I have been exploring the various items that I have in my studio. I was not really surprised with all the different supplies that I have and the different mediums that I have acquired. In my digging exploring I found a large bolt of denim fabric. It is narrow about only 20” wide but I have more than 50 yards of it. I decided to use it as my canvas because of the weight of the material it would hold up well. I didn’t stretch is but used it flat on my worktable. It is a very porous surface and I had to use a few techniques to get it to not drink up so much paint. I built up layers of paint and various permanent markers. The first technique that I tried was to wet the fabric completely (wringing it out so it was just damp)  and them paint onto it with craft acrylic paints to create a watercolor effect, once this dried the fabric was stiffer and the paint on the next layer did not soak in but it stayed on the top of the surface. I like this treatment but I had to let it dry overnight to be able to work on the next layer.  PS use rubber glover if you do not want to look like you have bathed in paint for a couple of days it really stains your hands.
Here is a list of the supplies that I used:

• Craft Acrylic Paint (not shown)
• Sharpie Markers BLACK (not shown)
• Prismacolor Markers BLACK
• Faber Castel Brush Markers BLACK
• Scribbles 3D Fabric Paints. BLACK, WHITE

I used a few other techniques like found objects to make designs and mono printing. These fabrics were lacking the punch until the last layer was added.

On this last layer is where I brought our the Scribble 3D Fabric paints. I used them like I used the markers and just drew designs and words all over the fabric. I chose to use only black and white to add contrast and the the white really helped to lighten up a dark piece.

Later this week I plan on sharing how to use these painted fabric backgrounds in a completed project.