[corycolt]

I am pretty new to screen printing and it seems I'm learning something new every time I try another project, which seems to be getting more and more frequent. I'm trying to do my first two-color run using water-based inks (hopefully this is a good choice). The two colors are white and red. I'm printing on a black hoodie sweatshirt. The primary color of the design is white, but there is one area which has a bit of red in it.

I've tried several different test prints, but the red just doesn't look very red or vibrant. I'm not sure what the method is called, but I setup the design so that my screens wouldn't overlap in color if that makes sense.

My question is this, should I be printing the red on top of a white under base of ink? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[NoXid]

With most most inks, only white is opaque, so others colors will need a white underbase when printing on a dark garment.

The other option is to use opaque inks, like Permaset Aqua SuperCover. These do not require an underbase, but are more expensive.

 

[corycolt]

Thank you so much for the quick reply! The inks I'm using are just the (I'm sure cheap) inks from Speedball you'd find at a craft store like Hobby Lobby or Michael's. I'm actually not entirely sure where to buy good water based inks. I'll definitely re-burn my screens so I have a white under base! Thank you thank you thank you!