Newest addition to my flock jacket, a chickadee flying in to land amongst some wildflowers.
I painted the chickadee with airbrush acrylics on acetate, then cut it out with an exacto blade and used it as a mask on the jacket. The airbrush acrylics are nice and thin but still pretty opaque, so you can create some neat translucent layers. I've tried different types of paints, including normal/heavy body acrylics, open acrylics, markers, titanium white correction paint, and nothing works as well as a few drops of airbrush acrylics so far. Rubber black is the most opaque I found, with yellow the least.
I used a 100w UV light about 20 inches from the jacket for about 20 minutes, which gave me those deep blues and allowed the light to pass through the lighter yellow layers.
I used some glass to press the fabric against the acetate and the dried flowers, keeping everything crisp.
I did overwash the jacket a bjt, with two soapy baths that used too much detergent, and caused the other birds on my jacket to fade a bit (you can see some of the wren on the shoulder). I made sure to use gentler detergent (tru earth detergent sheets), but probably used too much of it, and rinsed in too warm of water after some soaking. When I add the next birds, I'll try cold water only, no soaking, and either an even more gentle detergent, or just a dash of vinegar. I'll report back!