Fabric Painting Techniques With Step By Step Tutorials

8 Fabric Painting Techniques With Steps

One of the factors that we notice at our first glance at a piece of clothing is its patterns. Fabric painting is the aspect that gives clothing a character and makes it unique from others and fabric painting techniques to achieve the uniqueness. Many people do fabric painting as a hobby and consider fabric one of the best canvases for showcasing their creativity.

The roots of fabric painting techniques began in Asia and dated back to about 3000 B.C. However, the fabric painting is now mostly industrialized, but several artisans and professionals still try to preserve the hand-made method.  

This article has discussed some of the most popular fabric painting techniques that anyone can try at home. We have also included instructions to execute each type of fabric painting technique for the ease of readers.

1. Batik Fabric Painting Technique

Batik Print is prevalent in India, and it is one of those fabric painting techniques that require a lot of preparation and supervision. Mainly one has to use paint and wax to do batik fabric painting. The process for creating batik print on the fabric is:

• Gather all the materials required like a pencil, muslin cloth, scissors, newspaper, plastic sheet or tarp, fabric dyes, water, melted beeswax or batik wax, etc.
• Create a layout of your design on the fabric.
• Apply the first layer of wax using a brush on the areas you want white in the end.
• Apply the second layer of wax on the other side once the first layer dries.
• Crack the wax in some areas where you want to create the crackle effect.
• Apply dye all over the fabric and let it dry.
• Remove the wax by ironing the fabric after keeping it in between newspapers.
• Once all the melted wax transfers to the newspaper, enjoy the finished product.

2. Block Fabric Painting Technique

One of the oldest techniques of fabric painting is the block painting. Earlier people used vegetables to create stamps with desired patterns for block fabric painting techniques. Earlier, people commonly used cotton fabric for block print, but now people use other fabrics too. However, it is best to avoid fuzzy woolen fabrics because the pattern gets distorted due to dye spreading. The steps for block printing on fabric are:

• Keep your stamps clean and ready, along with your paint.
• Prepare the fabric by washing and ironing.
• Stretch and fix the fabric, for it is essential to get rid of all wrinkles.  
• Dip the stamp in the paint.
• After that, press the stamp on the fabric in the desired area and leave it for 2-3 seconds.
• Then keep repeating the last two steps until the entire fabric is more or less covered.
• Let the paint dry, and your fabric will be ready to use.

3. Dot Painting Technique

The dot fabric painting is one of the easiest techniques and ideal for beginners. This fabric painting technique requires very few tools, but the results can be very vibrant if done creatively.

One can use several types of dot painting types, like cotton, poly blend, denim, rayon, terry cot, canvas, silk, flannel, etc.

The steps for doing dot fabric painting are:

• Keep your materials ready, like paint, cheap earbuds, a pencil, and a thin stick.
• Before painting, prepare your fabric by washing and ironing.
• Either you can come up with your design or search on the internet for dot fabric painting ideas for some inspiration.
• Dip one end of an earbud into paint and press on the desired area (on the fabric) and repeat until your design is complete.
• Let it dry before showing it to others.  

4. Finger Painting Technique

The finger fabric painting is one of the most liberating fabric painting techniques because you get to create beautiful art by just using your fingers.

The finger fabric painting is a simple technique and requires significantly fewer tools or materials. To make finger fabric painting, all one has to do is:

• Sketch out a simple design of your choice on the fabric using a pencil.
• Dip your finger in paint and start painting on the fabric using just your finger.
• Have a blast like kids do to create this artwork.
• After finishing the painting, let it dry, and once it gets dry, enjoy the finished product.

5. Freehand Fabric Painting Technique

The freehand fabric painting technique is ideal for confident about their painting skills but wishes to experiment with their art on fabric. There are many fabric options available that anyone can choose for doing freehand painting, like cotton, denim, canvas, silk, linen, etc. The steps for doing freehand fabric painting are:

• Choose your tools (brushes, paints, etc.) right.
• Prepare your fabric before painting by washing and ironing, if possible.
• Sketch out the design you wish to make (some flowers and vines are great prompts for freehand fabric painting).
• Be confident about your design and your skill, and proceed with a steady hand.
• Take liberal amounts of the paint you are using on the brush and carefully color your design.
• Shading gives excellent results; therefore, blend those darker shades outside of the background with the lighter ones in front.  
• Let the paint dry and then flaunt your art.

6. Outliner Fabric Painting Technique

The Outliner Fabric Painting is a technique in which one has only to do the entire design outline using paint and a very thin brush. You can use almost all types of fabrics for the outliner fabric painting technique. The steps involved in doing outliner fabric painting are:

• Other than paint, choose the right brush to create neat lines like the 00 brush.
• Madhubani designs or mandala art styles are ideal for this kind of fabric painting.
• You can choose two or more paints to create a 3D effect.
• Once you are satisfied with the finished design, let it dry, and then the fabric will be ready to use.

7. Spray Fabric Painting Technique

The process of spray fabric painting is very similar to that of spray paint on paper. You can paint almost any type of fabric using this technique.

The steps in the spray fabric painting technique are:

• Fill a sprayer bottle of the desired size with color (or water mixed with dye).
• Test the sprayer on a rough fabric or paper.
• Cut out a random design or use a stencil and set it on your desired area on the fabric.
• Spray the paint on the fabric and let it dry.
• Remove the cutout or the stencil, and the design will reveal.

8. Wet-On-Wet Fabric Painting Technique

The wet-on-wet fabric painting technique is very similar to doing watercolor on paper.

The steps for creating the wet-on-wet fabric painting effect are:

• Decide your design, and you might also outline it with a pencil.  
• Wet the fabric strategically. Don’t wet the fabric too much near the outline so that the fabric does not spread outside.  
• In this technique, you have to take very little paint on a wet brush and then apply it to a wet fabric piece.
• Use a liberal amount of water while fabric painting to notice the color blend across the fabric.
• Let the fabric and the paint dry, and then it will be ready to be worn.

Final Note

Now that you are aware of most of the top fabric painting techniques, you can get started on your chosen technique. We hope that this article guides and inspires you to create magnificent fabric art.