Design
For our screen printing assignment, we were asked to create a print with at least four colors. We had to create the design in Illustrator, cut it out using a vinyl cutter, tape it onto screens, and press the ink through the screen and onto the shirt. I chose to make a shirt represent Beauty and the Beast but in a more grown up way. I took the image of a rose and the word beauty and created a design for my shirt. I wanted the shirt to look simple and nice.
Sketch
For my design, I wanted it to be small and simple. I decided to have the word beauty above the rose and place them in the upper right corner. I made the size of the image and the beauty together 3.5 inches by 3.5 inches. I decided to have the beauty be the color white to pop on a black shirt. For the rose, the background would be dark grey, the pedals would be red, and the stem and leaves would be green.
Illustrator
On Illustrator, I created an art board that would take up most of the space on the screen so ink wouldn't bleed through. I uploaded the image of the rose and typed the word "beauty" in a text box. I expanded the image and image traced it. I separated the rose into three layers and made sure they were in the same exact spot in each file. Then I took the placement of the rose and put the word "beauty" above it.
Vinyl
After creating my design on Illustrator, I cut it out using the vinyl cutter. I cut out four pieces of vinyl, one for each color. Then I weeded out the part I wanted to show up onto the shirt. I used tape to transfer the vinyl onto the screen. I put the screens over top of each other when placing the next piece of vinyl onto the screen to make sure they lined up.
To print the ink onto my shirt, I had to line the screens up with a printed picture of my design on the board where my shirt would be placed. Once all of my screens were lined up, I placed ink on the bottom of each screen and mixed black and light grey to create the background color of my rose. I practiced on a piece of paper first and then printed onto my shirt. I would press the ink onto the shirt place a heater over it to make the ink dry faster and repeat for each color. It took me three tries to get everything lined up. Below, shows my three tries. The first one, the leaves weren't lined up on the shirt, the second one, the beauty didn't print well, and the third one was the best creating almost a 3D effect because I put ink over the previous layer when it wasn't dry.
What I Learned
During the screen printing unit, I have learned many new things. I learned how to place vinyl onto a screen and how to tape the edges. I learned how to line up four screens on the screen printing machine. I also learned what type of ink to use, how to mix it, and where to place it on my screen. Finally, I learned how to press the ink onto my shirt, dry it, and put on multiple color and layers.