color wheel t-shirt that has been painted with acrylics

How You Can Paint a Cool Color Wheel T-Shirt!

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I am so excited about this new addition to my shop! I was working on my how to draw a color wheel post, and the idea popped into my head that kids and colorful adults might have fun making their own color wheel t-shirts. RIGHT? You know you want to make one.

It’s super simple to do, and it takes painting a color wheel on paper to a whole new, wearable level. If you do this with your kids, they will not only get to practice color mixing, and learn a bit of color theory, they will then get to wear their creations all over the place, showing off a love of art (and color).

I can see this being a group art project for homeschool groups, art classes, camps, sleepovers, birthday parties, craft nights, bachelor parties…. yes, definitely bachelor parties.

SUPPLIES

Here’s what y’all need to get this color wheel t-shirt going:

  1. Color wheel t-shirt of your choice from my shop – (measure your kids for accurate size! My small-for-his-age 13 year old felt the L seemed a bit small.)
  2. Acrylic paints (see this post for what I recommend) I used Golden Heavy Body Acrylics, but opt for the basic paints if doing this with kids!
  3. Fabric medium for acrylics (I used Golden GAC900)
  4. Brushes – I like flat brushes for this type of painting
  5. Palette for mixing paints (I use these paper palettes or just freezer paper taped down to a surface)
  6. Water
  7. Piece of cardboard for inside shirt

I think it goes without saying that you should wear grubby clothes or an apron when using acrylics to paint on fabric. Or anywhere, really – acrylic paints stain clothing even when used on their own; we are simply adding the GAC900 to make them less stiff on the fabric. Plus, honestly it’s just really fun to say GAC.

To begin, pre-wash your t-shirts to remove any sizing that is in the fabric.

After drying, remove from the dryer promptly so you don’t have a wrinkly mess to paint on. The care instructions for the shirt specify not to iron where it has been printed.

Pop a piece of cardboard in between the shirt layers, and squeeze out a dollop of each of your primary colors onto the palette, leaving space in between to mix.

blank color wheel t-shirt next to acrylic paints ready to paint

Painting With Acrylic on Fabric

To paint with acrylic paint on fabric, you will want to mix the paint with a fabric medium made especially for acrylic paints. The fabric extender lends the paint less stiffness on the fabric and allows you to heat-set the piece so it lasts longer and softens the painted area.

If you want to just paint with super watered-down acrylics on fabric, go ahead and test them out without the extender. You may be able to get the result you want with just the paint.

I painted my primary colors in first. You can see where they go here:

Then I mixed the secondary colors and painted them in, then the tertiary (violet and turquoise) colors.

I mixed equal amounts of paint and extender together on the palette, then added water (you can also add more GAC900 in) until I had a somewhat flowy consistency. T-shirt fabric isn’t the easiest to paint on, so you need to reload your brush often.

You can see the differences between where I painted sort of roughly (check out the turquoise and orange) and where I used more water so it soaked into the cotton more (yellow, green, blue). I just wanted to experiment, so feel free to paint however you want to!

Can you tell how excited my model is to be wearing this shirt? It’s his absolute dream come true. And yes, I did mess up and drip paint on the sleeve. 🙄

I think I will play around with adding a little bit of white into the paints to make more of a pastel color wheel next time…

Let the shirt dry completely ( I would give it 48 hours to be safe) and then pop it in the dryer for 40 minutes on high.

To wash your shirt going forward, here are the instructions from the Golden site:

Post Heat-setting Washing and Drying Suggestions

  • Hand-painted garments will last longer when care is taken during washing and drying.
  • Provide care instructions to the wearer to help improve the lifespan of the painted garment.
  • Hand-washing/hand-drying (drip-dry) dramatically increases the painted design.
  • When possible, turn garments inside-out for laundering.
  • Avoid hot water washing. This can soften and loosen acrylic paint from the garment.
  • Cold water works best for automatic washing of the painted garment.
  • Set clothes washer to gentle/delicate cycles.
  • Don’t wash garments with coarse garments, such as blue jeans.
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