What shall I use to draw on clothing?
When I started being an artist I took part for three years in an event called Artisans on the beach in Swanage. Every December we would hire a beach hut from the town council for the month and just intoJanuary. This year’s event has been cancelled linked to covid-19 and now that I have the shop aiding fit the criteria.
The first year to be noticed and for fun and, oh, keeping warm I wore some different outfits which included my cloud suit, a penguin onesie and a combination including Christmas sweaters.
My antics which helped to keep me warm made me noticed too but I thought I would like a suit that I could hand draw on. At the time investigations at the start of 2018 drew a blank.
In the 2018 event I added another commercially bought fancy dress outfit, riding on a polar bear’s shoulders although this one got lots of attention for looking dubious especially when dog owners found their pets trying to bite the polar bear’s nose.
Inspiration had struck about a possible suit solution that might work and not be too costly in case it didn’t work – a decorating suit. So a paper based one from a large diy chain was bought and drawn on using fineliners and Winsor and Newton ProMarkers.
The suit however was very thin and snug! So when drawing card had to be put inside so that the pens did not go through the fabric and tear it. Also once worn removing it caused a tear. So the artwork potential was great and my usual media would work but I needed a more substantial suit.
I found a workwear shop in Weymouth and bought my first white boiler suit. More roomy and able to wear extra layers beneath to keep me warm on the seafront. So the first suit became my Artisans on the each suit and was created and drawn in 2018, worn for the 2019 event and other art events too. The ProMarkers worked ok on the fabric and didn’t bleed very much. Later when it came to washing hand washing carefully was needed as it defaced quite quickly. I still have this suit and wear it in the shop sometimes. It included 6 original art panels that enabled me to show people from my outfit what my art looked like.
In 2019 I started to also have some decorators bib and braces again drawn with the ProMarkers. The best example being the Christmas card advertising set which I add new cards to the range to each year. 2020’s card needs adding.
As mentioned above I now started to try the Uni-Posca markers with acrylic paint. You can fix the colour by ironing on the reverse and the brightness of the paints lasts longer.
In 2020 a new surface to draw on – hats, pith helmets and fancy dress versions of the same. These have been done in both ProMarkers and posca pens. The posca paint provides a brighter finish, time will tell how they last as its only 5 months since I started this.
Latest commission nautical chart. I have a smaller range of posca colours but for longer lasting pieces I am sticking with the Posca markers.
Have you drawn on clothing, trainers? What have you found works best? Feedback welcomed.
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Cool! The Tolkien hat, is my favourite. I can’t believe the detail you can put on a hat 🙂 Also must say that the cloud suit makes me smile. You must continue wearing the cloud suit and share some happiness. I think others appreciate it same like I.
I wear a variety of outfits especially at Christmas and I wear my hand drawn outfits and hats throughout the year.
Fun! 😀
When drawing on a hat it depends on the material and how taut it is to how much detail you can put in. Also it depends on the markers used and if they bleed through the fabric spreading the colours beyond the initial pen drawing. I tend to plan the commissioned hats on a paper design first. Initially I was just drawing straight onto the hat without a plan and making it up as I went along.
Aaah.. okei! Seems logical, to draw a test on the paper first. I had not considered about the tautness (?) of the fabric and spreading colours.