I was looking through my art supplies and discovered an old box of watercolor tube paints that may have been my dad’s or maybe mine from high school!
They were pretty far gone, seeing as they were made sometime between the 1960s to 70s, but I managed to get some out of the tubes and decided to paint a little painting. It has been a really long time since I painted watercolor on paper and I’m rusty to say the least. It is very different from painting on fabric, which is more my thing but I’m happy with the painting. I think I may try to work it into a printed fabric design.
Now my creative juices are flowing and I’m ready to water down my textile paints and paint a watercolor on fabric… Looking at that painting makes me want to layer it and add detail using thread play and quilting. Would you rather paint on paper or fabric?
For reasons I can’t explain, I love texture on paper for watercolors, but not on fabric. I may be the tools I use to apply the paint. Typically on fabric I use a foam brush. I do find that wetting the surface, both paper and fabric, with water before paint application helps my brush strokes stay looser, and I like the color mergings I get.
I find that the type of paper makes a difference in textures and for me, the tools used to apply paint to fabric do make a difference. Unless I’m using the very tip end of a foam brush to actually “stamp” a line/design I don’t care for them. I think foam drinks up too much of the moisture. I agree it works to wet the fabric to get the bloom and movement but still the fabric fibers suck the paint unlike paper. I think being able to lift the paint from watercolor paper is the one thing I wish could be done on fabric. My experience has been that unless I’m fast with a spray bottle, once paint hits dry fabric (unless the paint is very watered down) it is not going anywhere!