Painting and staining the same piece of leather

[Aspikes18]

Hello! I am new to the leather world. I have made a couple belts and hat patches. I am making a belt currently that is alternating sunflowers. In between my sunflowers is smooth leather. Meaning, I did not add a texture background. I need to stain the background and paint the sunflowers. I have stained smooth leather before, but always by dip dying or a dobber. I can’t dip dye this because I need to paint my flowers. I am scared that if I paint the stain onto the smooth leather, you will see brush strokes. How to achieve this look? If the background were textured, I would be much more willing to paint the dye but the smooth will show it very vividly. 

[billybopp]

11 hours ago, Aspikes18 said:

Hello! I am new to the leather world. I have made a couple belts and hat patches. I am making a belt currently that is alternating sunflowers. In between my sunflowers is smooth leather. Meaning, I did not add a texture background. I need to stain the background and paint the sunflowers. I have stained smooth leather before, but always by dip dying or a dobber. I can’t dip dye this because I need to paint my flowers. I am scared that if I paint the stain onto the smooth leather, you will see brush strokes. How to achieve this look? If the background were textured, I would be much more willing to paint the dye but the smooth will show it very vividly. 

One alternative to brushing on dye is to airbrush.   In your case, however, I'd dye first by dipping, or whatever you want to use and then paint over the dye!  Acrylic leather paint will generally work just fine over dye.

- Bill

[Aspikes18]

Thank you so much! I will try that! I wasn’t sure about the acrylic going over the dye but im planning to add multiple coats anyway!