Drawing on jute bags

Welcome to the forum Alex. I cant make sense of what you are doing or how you can do it with sharp lines. I suggest you bin all the jute bags and get some cartridge paper or 90 lb watercolour paper. using paper will give you sharper lines than trying to paint jute bags. on second thoughts are you taking the Mickey??? ...regards ...Syd

Jute bags? You're trying to draw on jute bags? Oy vey..... Draw on paper, then print on them. You can't draw on jute so far as I know but you can print on it.

Seriously - a bit more information is required here. Why are you seeking to draw on jute bags? What are you using to do so - what do you mean by a 'paint pen', and although I have a vague idea of what a 'sharpie' is, it's only vague. I can't imagine drawing anything on jute with anything other than a marker pen, and frankly I wouldn't want to use that. Post a picture of what you're talking about. I can't see any means whatever of EVER getting sharp lines on jute - it's a crude, very rough, absorbent substance; you might get an approximation to sharpness if you painted it with acrylic gesso, but that presumably isn't what you mean, and it would be something I'd never want to do anyway - you can print on treated jute, but drawing on it? I wouldn't even try.

Well, this is a craft and I think it's a craft forum you need. Nothing wrong with crafts by the way, but I simply don't think any of us would be likely to know how to go about this because it's just not the sort of thing (always open to correction here) that we do. Eg, if we were inclined to paint or draw on jute, we'd almost certainly put a layer of isolating medium of some kind on first, and then paint over that; but on such a flexible surface as this, I don't see how that could work. You're essentially decorating an ephemeral, everyday object which is going to be knocked, which is highly absorbent, which is also highly perishable if my experience with jute bags is anything to go by. It's the absorbency which makes the sharp lines you were after very difficult - any wet paint is going to feather outwards. But - I'll take a stab at it anyway, having said all that. If I were trying to do this, I would use acrylic paint; I'd draw the outline of the design, and then fill that in as best I could with an acrylic medium - say, Acrylic Matte Medium. I would obviously let that dry, and would then paint over it (not using anything sharp to draw with, which could crack the medium. The paint would flow on that, when it won't flow on raw jute. The manufacturers of high quality acrylic - Daler Rowney in particular - tell us that a canvas (which this essentially is) overpainted with acrylic can be furled and unfurled like theatrical backdrops and painted curtains many times before decay sets it; and painters of trade union banners (which certainly wouldn't have used acrylic paint, but oil on a prepared surface - very expensive to do now, and not what you're after) have long since painted on cloth or oilcloth with results that have lasted for 100 years or more. So: I can't help thinking that my method would be expensive for the result you would achieve - if you're selling them, for example, it might not be cost effective. The traditional means of banner-making and painting can be investigated - there are websites that deal with it; but it's not cheap. So I'm not so sure that you don't know a lot more about painting on jute, in practical terms, than I do - in that you've actually done it. But if you want sharp lines - that's the only way (other than printing) I can think of for you to get them. Bet you're sorry you asked now.......