My May 12 x 12 x 12 piece is created with acrylic based house paints that are left over after repainting different rooms in my house. I thought I'd give house paint a try, and compare them to fabric paints.
The gray background is Benjamin Moore Kitchen and Bath paint, which is mildew resistant, and obviously not necessary for art work. I had forgotten about that until I was cleaning up. Oh well. The first obvious thing I noticed is that the house paint has a very different smell than fabric paint. Fabric paint has an ammonia-like smell, and I can't identify the Kitchen and Bath paint smell. It's also a little more liquid than the fabric paints I've been using.
The colored paints are Benjamin Moore Semi Gloss. The yellow-ish paint was about the consistency of fabric paint, which explains why I had to do three coats on my bathroom wall. It was Deep Base 333 3B.
The green paint was very thick. It had a different base color from the yellow-ish paint. It was Medium Base 333 2B.
The purple paint was somewhere between the other two paints, in terms of thickness. It was Pastel Base 333 1B.
When dry, all three of the colored paints have the same feel on the fabric as that of opaque fabric paints. The gray had no texture. I'm not sure if the texture difference is because the gray was rolled on with a brayer, and the other colors were painted, or if it's because the gray was liquidy.
Fabric paint is pretty expensive. I'll have to figure out if it's more economical to use house paint. The only other noticeable difference when using the house paint (besides the smell) is that I needed a hammer to close the paint can vs easily closing a jar of fabric paint.
--------
Before I fell asleep last night, I was thinking about whether I was satisfied with how my May piece turned out. I'm not sure that I am. Since I have the rest of the month, I think I'll play around with it, and also ask another artist to critique it. I might do more to it in the days to come. If I make any changes, I'll post it on this blog, and I'll change the image on my websites.
