Painting on cloth gives such nice, soft colors and is a challenging change from painting on paper. We tied our lesson into African Korhogo cloth painting and you can read about this project in previous posts here.
We used unbleached muslin cloth and regular watercolor paints (Crayola or Prang.) The kids drew their design on paper first, then put the paper under the muslin. You can see the lines through the cloth. Then, they traced the design onto the muslin cloth using a pencil and then later, Sharpie.
When painting on these cloths, you need to use more water than usual because the paint sometimes beads up on the surface. Just keep painting and the colors will soak in.
The cloths look lovely when attached to a mat or poster board. These can’t be washed, otherwise the colors will wash off, so they are a decorative cloth.
If you haven’t tried painting on cloth, I encourage you to try it for fun results. It’s great to give them a new experience painting on a different substrate then they are accustomed to using. We have also used spray inks, crayons and acrylic paints to decorate cloth in previous projects (like this example, below.)
Have you ever painted on fabric with kids?
Graffiti cloth painting with spray inks, Sharpie markers, stencils and crayons.
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You can also paint a coat of gesso onto cloth. Let it dray and watercolor!