Bleach painting is a simple and creative way to turn ordinary clothes into wearable art. By carefully applying bleach to fabric, you can create illustrations, lettering, patterns, shading and other designs on clothing such as cotton T-shirts.

If you're new to bleach painting, this collection of beginner-friendly tutorials will help you understand the process from start to finish. You'll learn about the materials I use, how bleach behaves on different fabrics, how to test different dilutions, how to transfer a design onto clothing, and how to create clean lines and shading.

What do you need for bleach painting?

Getting started with bleach painting doesn't require a huge collection of supplies. Choosing the right fabric, bleach and painting tools can make a big difference to how predictable and controllable the process feels.

In these tutorials, I go through my favourite materials for painting on fabric and explain the differences between liquid and gel bleach. You'll also learn why bleach sometimes seems not to work and how the fabric itself can affect the result.

How to paint clothes with bleach

The best way to learn bleach painting is to experiment on fabric before working on a finished piece. Testing different bleach dilutions helps you understand how quickly the fabric changes colour and gives you more control over the final result.

Once you're comfortable with the basics, you can move on to transferring designs to fabric and practising your brushwork. You'll learn techniques for pulling clean lines, creating different levels of shading and building up a design gradually.

Bleach painting safety

Safety is an essential part of working with bleach. Always follow the safety instructions on your bleach product, work in a well-ventilated area and use appropriate protective equipment. Never mix bleach with other cleaning products or chemicals.

The safety tutorial in this collection covers the precautions I recommend before you start painting.

What happens after bleach painting?

Bleach changes the fabric, so caring for a painted garment properly is an important part of the process. One of the tutorials covers how to treat and neutralise a shirt after bleaching rather than simply rinsing it and considering the job finished.

Beginner bleach painting tutorials

If you're completely new to bleach painting, I recommend starting with the safety and materials tutorials before moving on to bleach dilution and testing. From there, you can learn how to transfer designs, pull clean lines, create shading and troubleshoot common mistakes.

You don't have to follow the tutorials in a strict order, though. Feel free to jump to the technique you're most interested in and experiment at your own pace.

These tutorials are designed to help you understand the basics of painting clothes with bleach so you can develop your own style and turn everyday garments into original pieces of wearable art.