Wednesday, December 29, 2010

New Diamond Artwork For Silk Screen

I'm happy to report that I've been getting a lot of attention lately from the pics I posted the other day on the red silk screened trunks material. A few folks have even written in requesting some printed fabric of their own, which is both very flattering and gratifying.

With that in mind, I've sort of notched up the effort to get the diamond pattern all squared away, as I not only need to get it done for my Superman suit, but now see ALL kinds of applications for it should I get it right.

To that end, I put together some new artwork to send off to my friends at Westar Solutions for burning onto a silk screen. I like to have the professionals do it as I know they will do a great job, and there is no margin for error. While I could probably do it cheaper myself, I'm confident that the results would not be as crisp and perfect.

From my previous attempts at silk screening, I learned that the results you get are based on a great many factors. The thing that I really noticed a difference on was the way the ink passed through the screen. For example, when I use speedball inks on my existing screen, the final results tend to look exactly like the shapes in the screen. However, when I use the plastisol inks, it tends to seep out a bit more, making the diamonds on the briefs thicker than the diamonds on the screen. It's as if someone stroked the edges with a little bit of ink, making the shapes a bit thicker. Hard to explain if you're not a user of Adobe Illustrator.

Here's the artwork that I'm getting burned:



This is my basic diamond pattern, but with a number of different stroke widths on each diamond. With this, I'll be able to experiment with different inks and find the one that best suits my needs. After that, it will be a simple matter to modify my final artwork, get a new screen burned, and then go to town.

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