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Hi, I have a hand drawn portrait from a tattoo artist thats wants to put it on shirts. The drawing is pencil and has shading in the face. How do I make that into something I can screen print? I am really new at all of this. And I have really only done one color all ready vectorized art! Can anyone out there help me?
Thanks!
I hand draw and trace images into Inkscape (free) all the time using the tracing fuction. It's not always perfect, but it converts the image into a vector format that I can manipulate using Inkscape. The cleaner the image is, the better it comes out following the trace. I can then further edit the resulting image using GIMP (also free).
I think other commercial products similar to Inkscape can do the same thing.
I probably should have mentioned that its pretty easy using Inkscape. I scan the image, import it into Inkscape, and trace it using the tracing function. It's all pretty intuitive to use.
if you want to reproduce shading, you'll have to create halftones. this is a pretty significant step up from spot colors - it requires more sophisticated tools and techniques in almost every arena - film, screens, inks and technique (I'm assuming this is a manual job.) You can use photoshop to make halftones, but you'll get better printed results from a RIP. You'll need a typically higher mesh count on your screens (230 tpi) or so, and be able to burn good, hard dots. you need to be familiar with ink additives and what they can do for you, as you'll need to get the ink through the smaller openings in the finer mesh. and, your squeegee pressure and angles need to be consistent if you want your image to look consistent. having said all of this, you can probably bang something out without too much trouble that looks decent. but to get some real quality, some nice tonal variations with good midtone contrast, you'll need to take control of these processes.
I don't have the RIP software yet, I found a company that will produce the films for me would you suggest that is a better way to go. Do you have a suggestion for the squeegee what type I should use for this job?
Thanks for your help, I am so new at this and there are so many variables when dealing with screen printing.
I don't have the RIP software yet, I found a company that will produce the films for me would you suggest that is a better way to go. Do you have a suggestion for the squeegee what type I should use for this job?
Thanks for your help, I am so new at this and there are so many variables when dealing with screen printing.
one way to deal with variables is to have someone else who has figured them out do the work. would recommend this with your film. You'll need to decide on a line screen that's going to work with your mesh. Most printers I've dealt with use a 55 line screen, which produces good results. However, if your mesh doesn't align with the dots properly, you'll get what's called a moire (mo-ray) pattern, which is not good. You'll need to have properly exposed screens, as well. to determine proper exposure, you can get an exposure calculator from your emulsion manufacturer, I believe Ulano will provide you one for free.
I would use a fairly firm squeege, maybe 70 or 80 duro, to control ink deposit. as with any squeegee, the sharper the edge, the better the results.
Converting a hand drawn picture 
