Ok so before you start designing shirts for your line realize that you are somewhat limited with the amount of colors you can use.Also more times then not when you are starting out money is an issue, so cutting colors is a good way to save on first runs.
“But I want really awesome designs with a lot of detail!!!”
Don’t worry you can still get the same effect using halftones and other methods.
“What are HalfTones?”
Halftone is the reprographic technique that simulates continous toning/shading imagery through the use of dots, varying either in size or in spacing.
Ok now that is out of the way here is a little tutorial of sorts made for TheArtOfApparel by KillerNapkins to show the basic process of a design being made for t shirt purposes.
- I start with the basic sketch…
- Scan that in and do your line work however you normally would. (That is a whole other tutorial maybe we will do that next)
- Ok now before any shading and real detail get your flat colors down.
- Now for the shading; I like to use a round brush with a crisp edge. You can use the shirt color to get a nice effect without using another ink when its printed.
- When you are finished shading Select All and nudge the layer back and forth in order to select just the shade, then Copy.
- Then open a new canvas at the correct size and just paste the shading there. Then change the image to Grayscale but don’t flatten. Turn the contrast up and the brightness down, in order to make your shading solid black shade instead of the gray.
- Now change the image to the Bitmap setting, then turn the setting to halftone screen, and it’ll take you to some more settings, and in this one I used round and my frequency was at about 25 dots per inch. You don’t want to go too high because the dots would be too small for the screen to print.
- Take this back to your original and it should line up correctly if your selection was still there. You can delete the original shading layer. Now to make the black halftone the color you need just select it all, nudge it back and forth in order to select only the halftone, and fill with the right color.
- And you are done with your shaded halftones!
If you like this and would like something done Killer Napkins is available for hire so don’t hesitate to contact him!
killernapkins@hotmail.com
You can see more of his work here
November 5th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
What program or tools did you use to get to the first picture to the second? I usually use illustrator and it ends up looking awful. =[
November 5th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Ill get KillerNapkins to get on and answer any questions…
November 6th, 2008 at 2:04 am
Hey Gimmick … Everything is doen in Adobe Photoshop and I use Intuos 3 Wacom Tablet. It really doesn’t matter how great my scanned in sketch usually is as long as there is some sort of basis when I draw out the black outline in Photoshop with the tablet.
Hope this helps!
November 10th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Usually when I draw out the black outline it looks awful. :[
November 11th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Practice practice. Its why these guys can charge for what they do…and they do it good!
November 25th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Nice one Killer Napkins. Thanks for that.
December 30th, 2008 at 2:55 am
Yo Gimmick, I’ve noticed when using photoshop and your tablet you have to pretty much be zoomed all the way in for your lines to be extra crisp… seems if you are zoomed out you get a shuddery look.. I will have to work on a tutorial for the linework sometime..
thanks downrodeo!
March 10th, 2009 at 1:38 am
how do you select the shading?
March 10th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
ahhh are you tlaking about when you halftone the shading?
well you change the halftone image properties from bitmap back to grayscale then go to select color, and select the black halftone and you should have your shading slected… then you can copy it and bring it back to your art…
if you were talking about selecting the shading off the original art to bring into a new canvas and halftoen it… all you have to do is go to your shading layer, select all, then nudge it once and nudge it back into place in order to select only the shading..
hope that helps
September 9th, 2009 at 9:09 am
hey, you’ve mentioned 25 dots per inch but I was curious if 40 would be a reasonable level for frequency, it’s what i’ve been working at lately and i’d hate to piss some printers off with it, thanks
December 13th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I was just wondering, how did you do the background shading/pattern?
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