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A Design w/ Midtones - What's the best process to use?

1468 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Challenger, 
J
I have a design that is a black + white photograph of a graffiti art design that I want to make into a t-shirt. It is mostly black and grey, with a lot of midtones and shading. What is the best process to use in order to make my shirt as close to the original? I don't want to lose the shading aspect of the design. I met with a screen printer this weekend and he made it seem as if the shading would not come out.

Do I need to convert it into a vector drawing? He mentioned something about that as well.

**I have attached a portion of the photo to show you.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

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pukingdeserthobo
i think u will lose some detail but for the most part will look ok. u will need a rip software( who ever is gonna print them)
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J
Is it considered screen printing though? Or is it called a different process?

I am new to the t-shirt making biz and am still figuring out all the processes!
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pukingdeserthobo
Jonesy13 said:
Is it considered screen printing though? Or is it called a different process?

I am new to the t-shirt making biz and am still figuring out all the processes!
Click to expand...
yeah still screen printing. the rip program is just used for the film. it will allow u to keep most of ur fine detail like halftones
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perrolocodesigns
The shading would be rendered in halftone dots. If prited well, it will look just fine on a shirt.
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C
Katelyn, your original is a cartoon type pencil shading, you can do so many things depending on the final look you are looking for. It can be done as a one color design (Black ink) on a white shirt which I don't recomend because of dot gain on the press, or you can pull different gray levels plus black, you can also use the gray levels to print with flesh ink plus red for the lips and black (recomended), again, all depend the final look you are looking for. The best process for this type of artwork is called posterization, this is my personal opinion.
Hope this can help you,
Challenger
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