Going to paint a T shirt for the 1st time, any tips before I start?

[Melbee]

That sounds like a good idea wmlepage, I recently cut tape on a painting on card and when I took the tape off I saw the card was cut slightly. Very annoying, I would go nuts if it happened to my motorbike (if I had one!)

 

[Melbee]

OK, day 2 of painting my 1st T shirt, colour 2.

First I went over some of the over sprayed area (blending attempt that doesn't work on this material) around the image with the same dark
1st colour. It looks better.

Then as I was trying to colour match my print out I realised that this colour has a slight purple hue. As I only have black, white and ultramarine blue the only thing I could do (without going to buy some purple) was add a tiny bit of black. Now I've put down the 2nd colour, it's not what I wanted, a tad dark but I'm hoping my next 2 colours will improve the overall look.

I could have mixed in purple from a different make of paint but I want to keep this all Golden Fluid to see how it holds up to washing. It's part of my experiment.

For my next colours I'm going to put down a layer of white first so hopefully the colour pops more when I paint it on top. We shall see.

I used my HP-SBS 0.3mm today and I liked painting with it better than the HP-SB+.

Till tomorrow

 

[Melbee]

Hi Folks,
No painting today but I bought some more Golden Fluid paints, a lighter blue, a red and a yellow, so now I can mix any colour I might need. I already have black and white so I'm sorted. The blue I us/ed on the T shirt is Ultramarine which is too dark, the new blue should be better when I try this image again. For now I'm going to carry on with the present T shirt and see what I can make from it, I have ideas

One thing I noticed is that this paint dries nastier than my other paints which made cleaning more work, so I'm going to add some retarder and a bit of water to the mix in future. Hopefully that will improve the situation.

I got my Renegade Fine Conversion kit today which I've fitted in my Sotar, this gives me a more workhorse 0.3mm needle setup to go with the 0.2mm Sotar detail setup. Nice!! Once again I haven't tried it but will give it a go soon to see how it sprays, I'm very curious. I bought 2 Sotars so if it works well, I will rig the other Sotar with the 0.3mm and then have both setups ready to go Sweet! I'll let you know.

The reason I didn't paint today was I got caught up in looking for a new mobile phone, mines old and I can update my phone with my contract. The new phones are huge slabs (whats that all about?) and I ended trawling through loads of reviews etc. Still I want a phone with a good camera and a big screen so I can show my artwork with it and read my e-books. I'm old school with phones, it should be a phone and no one tells you how well you can hear people when you ring!! Ha Ha Ha! All they talk about are the widgets, and apps and internet etc. etc. oh yeah and you can call people!! Duh!
Rant over.
Night, night
PS: I can only choose from the phones my provider has and I've already decided which one I want, so no suggestions please

 

[Melbee]

Wow! I've just had the most horrible time with Stomach Flu so I haven't painted all week!! Aaagh. Luckily I'm starting to feel a bit better today so I went out for some fresh air and to buy a 38cm wide ironing board. This should make preparing and heat setting T shirts a lot easier for me.

My first attempt has not turned out well and I think it's beyond rescuing so I'm going to try messing with it to check out a few techniques/ideas. I experienced the typical beginner nap problems from over spray where the T shirt ended up looking dirty around the image. I then tried to cover that up with the dark blue colour and it just looks naff. I got the 2nd blue colour too dark and it doesn't show up enough and I don't think going over in white and doing it again will work or be worth bothering with (a waste of paint).

But ....

I'm going to try spraying some textures over the naff border using templates and/or scotch guard to see what that looks like. I'll try outlining a few areas with white or light blue where very dark blue meets dark blue and see if that pops the colour out. And I'll continue with the final lighter colours to see how they work out.

I basically think I started out all wrong. I think this image will be better on a black T shirt so I can use the T shirt colour instead of paint for the darkest areas. Keep the stencil in place and cover up the rest of the T shirt so there is no chance of over spray. Then spray a white base and add the other colours over the top. My theory being, I will use less paint and with a white base the other colours on top should pop in a black background. This will mean I'll have to completely recut the stencil to the negative of what I have just done!! And my theory could be wrong Ha Ha Ha!!

 

[Squishy]

Glad you're feeling better. A white base is the way to go over black, you're right. It will use less paint and keep the colours truer too!

 

[Melbee]

Thanks Squishy,
Once I get finished messing with this white T shirt, I'll be trying a black T shirt version.

I'm up to my eyeballs in computer stuff at the moment cos I got a new laptop and I have to set it up as I want it, so painting is taking a back seat. It involves cloning, partitioning and swapping hard drives which is not made easy with this Lenovo laptop which doesn't seem to want to play nice Still it has to be done, as I don't want to install anymore programs or save anymore data till I've got it sorted which means no messing around in Photoshop for new designs and ideas to paint I got Windows 8 preinstalled so if I don't clone my hard drive and something goes wrong with resizing my partitions I could end up loosing my OS and that's scary but I love a challenge.

Wish me luck

 

[anzori88]

I decided to buy Createx 6 paint set from amazon. It is water based paint. So this means that i should mix with water or what?

 

[Melbee]

Hi anzori88, I put up an answer to this question on your other thread. I don't use Createx paint so all I can say is yes you can mix it with water but read the instructions on the bottle or on the Createx website.

 

[Melbee]

FINALLY!! I got to painting my T shirt again today, yupeeeee!! It was really good to be painting again

I decided to iron the T shirt a few days ago to get rid of the nap so I have heat set this layer. It really makes a big difference painting on a prepped surface, so lesson learned. In future I'll put down a transparent base layer and heat set it before I start, then I'll have a good flat surface to paint with no nap.

Also keeping the airbrush pointing straight at the material and not using angles is a big help too. Newbie mistakes Gotta do em or I'll never learn

I also got some daylight bulbs installed in my easel and desk lamps so I can paint and mix true colours even at night. It really, really makes a difference. Previously I was having to stop painting because I just couldn't see the colour differences any more and my eyes were going squiffy.

Yesterday I finally got a major problem with my new laptop sorted and I got my new phone last week so I can get back to painting again and stop messing with the tech kit. It's my own fault because I'm like a dog with a bone, once I start working on a problem, I can't stop till it's fixed. Turns out it was something I just had to change in my BIOS and takes 2 minutes!! Sadly it's taken me a week of trial and error and major trawling through the internet to piece together the answer! Still I've learned a whole load of stuff that I probably don't need to know Ha Ha!
Cheers Mel

 

[Psycho]

I agree with jgny1. You should post some pictures. I want to know about setting the paint on the t-shirt after it is complete. I heard you can clearcoat protect it with a clear acrylic. You can iron the paint in using a piece of paper between the iron and the t-shirt. This is so it doesn't wash out of the t=shirt like the Einstein I did for my son. I can barely see Einstein on it any more after five washes.

I heat set T's with an iron and parchment paper. I have also found using clear medium is like putting a clear coat on it. It helps protect the color. I also use the clear medium first( especially on black T's) and heat set to lay down the "NAP" of the shirt. This also makes the white cover better. I have been told that "if you let the shirt dry for 4 days it will cure and not wash out). I have recommended that the shirt not be washed for 3 days. I figure, better to be safe. If you like, you can see some pics in my profile, there are a few of the shirts that I have done. Just my 2 cents. Just keep painting!!

 

[Melbee]

Thanks Phsyco,
I like your T shirts, nice detail.
What paint do you use?
cheers Mel

 

[Russ Allen]

Heya Melbee, sorry Ive missed this thread til' now. Can you post a pic of your reference? If you would, I would take the time to break it down like I would do it and try to help you through it, as well as help you through the mix/ratio on your paints. If we could see your reference, we could be of a lot more assistance to you!!

 

[Psycho]

Thanks Phsyco,
I like your T shirts, nice detail.
What paint do you use?
cheers Mel

Thank you Mel:adoration::adoration::adoration::adoration: I use Createx,Wicked,ETAC, and Golden Airbrush colors. I also have AA, and HOK EURO's for flames. I really like the Golen, as it flows brilliantly! In the end it's just personal preference. They all work great for T's. and MORE! Use what YOU like, not something that someone else likes. I'm sure there are other paints out there but I haven't tried them

Just keep painting!!:adoration:

 

[Melbee]

Ok it's taken quite a while to get this done but I've finally finished my 1st T shirt
The Darkest blue was done using a stencil but the rest is all freehand.



I'm reasonably please with it because I thought it was messed up.
The next one I will do the same but on a black T shirt, I think it will look a lot better.
Let me know what you think, any tips appreciated.

Cheers Mel

By the way, the Golden Fluid paints are a lot easier to clean with more Airbrush Medium added, so thanks a lot for that tip.

 

[Melbee]

Heya Melbee, sorry Ive missed this thread til' now. Can you post a pic of your reference? If you would, I would take the time to break it down like I would do it and try to help you through it, as well as help you through the mix/ratio on your paints. If we could see your reference, we could be of a lot more assistance to you!!

Hi Russ, I have just finished my T shirt so please have a look and let me know how or what you might have done to make it better. Or how you would have approached such a piece. I learned a lot from doing it but I can always learn more.

I'm gonna try and take another photo of it today which will hopefully be a bit better and post in the Finished Artwork section. I took this one last night and it's abit dark.

 

[Psycho]

Ok it's taken quite a while to get this done but I've finally finished my 1st T shirt
The Darkest blue was done using a stencil but the rest is all freehand.

View attachment 14603

I'm reasonably please with it because I thought it was messed up.
The next one I will do the same but on a black T shirt, I think it will look a lot better.
Let me know what you think, any tips appreciated.

Cheers Mel

By the way, the Golden Fluid paints are a lot easier to clean with more Airbrush Medium added, so thanks a lot for that tip.

Damn! This is the second time posting this, my browser!!!

Hey Mel.

it looks like your white is getting muddied up from overspray. You may want to aim your brush away from the white. Overspray can be caused by a multitude of things. Things like : air pressure,amount of reducer ( or lack there of), distance from work... Bla bla bla.... Etc. etc. etc. I don't want to bore you with all the mistakes I've made. If you want to improve, you might want to keep notes on those things and relay them here. The guys with the knowledge to help you will find all of that information very helpful in determining how to help you improve. Also, they all want a " reference " picture to help you. Believe me, there are a lot of people on here that are very, very good at this ( including Mitch!:witless.


Get better through practice!!!:cool-new:

 

[Melbee]

Damn! This is the second time posting this, my browser!!!

Hey Mel.

it looks like your white is getting muddied up from overspray. You may want to aim your brush away from the white. Overspray can be caused by a multitude of things. Things like : air pressure,amount of reducer ( or lack there of), distance from work... Bla bla bla.... Etc. etc. etc. I don't want to bore you with all the mistakes I've made. If you want to improve, you might want to keep notes on those things and relay them here. The guys with the knowledge to help you will find all of that information very helpful in determining how to help you improve. Also, they all want a " reference " picture to help you. Believe me, there are a lot of people on here that are very, very good at this ( including Mitch!:witless.


Get better through practice!!!:cool-new:

Absolutely right there Phsyco my white got muddied with over spray. It was a rookie mistake because I tried to do a blend and fade around the image but it ended up looking a dirty mess. I've covered up most of it with the dark boarder but some of the over spray still shows. I'm going to mask off a square around it and fill in with the same dark blue because I think the image looks ok and I will wear it. I think the best way to avoid over spray is to mask off the T shirt where I don't want paint to go and learn better airbrush control. Keep the airbrush pointing straight at the material and stay closer.
Cheers Mel

 

[Melbee]

Here is the T shirt after I covered up the muddied areas with a block of colour.



I have already started another T shirt with the same image but the T is black this time

Tip: If you notice I have angled the lines at the top and not left it square. This is because the square looked odd around the shoulders when I put the T shirt on. With the lines angled the lines look much better on the shoulders when worn. This is because the background colour goes up as high as it does, if the blocked area was lower it wouldn't be a problem.

Cheers Mel