You Gotta Love the Pen & Ink Brush in Illustrator!

Rough Doodle

Ink Outlines

Solid Fills

Shading

Highlights

Final Coloring and a Few Additional Ink Lines

Scheduled Release Date of "The Art of T-Shirt Color Separation" is May 31st

This book is to guide the artist through the fog of separating colors in Photoshop channels for screen printing on T-Shirts.  The exercises cover different scenarios that you, the artist will be a challenged to solve problems before the films are made, the screens are burned and the job is set up on the press.

The CD that comes with the book has the working Photoshop files for you to use and work with the guide.  The completed Photoshop separations are also included so that you can check your progress as you go through the tutorials.

After learning from this book,  you will find that every design that is put before you on a daily routine is different from the previous design that you separated and has it's own challenges.  This book will teach you how to THINK and how to SOLVE those problems that come with the design,  even if that particular,  one in a million problem is not covered in the book.

Thank you for the inquiries and support from all of you.  That has been a real inspiration to get this completed.  I have set my deadline for May 31st if not before then.  I will post here on this site when it is released.

Best Regards,
Different

T-Shirt Color Separation Guide

It has been over a year since I first started this project, but between my job, freelance and a digital printing business that I am in the process of building,  I finally finished my manual that has put my color separation seminars on the back burner.  I still have a few edits until I am satisfied,  but I needed to feel the physical book in my hand.  For now,  this is part of the package for my classes,  but I am reformatting the material for a book to go to market that I will self-publish.  Maybe by summer.  I will announce it here when it is there. Thanks and take care!

Update:  Thanks to everyone for the enormous response to this post!  I have received quite a bit of interest in my seminars and as soon as I have committed to the details,  I will post those here and at other locations.  Thanks again so much!

Toxic Crusaders | 9 Color T- Shirt Separation

 I get a lot of art that I really enjoy having fun taking apart and rebuilding into a production separation for T-shirts.  Most of the time it is the blending of colors to create more color.  This one was not one of those. There were quite a few spot colors with deeper shades of the pure, bright colors.  A nice challenge for so many spot colors.   I really wanted it to look great on a T-shirt.  I mean,  this is the Toxic Crusaders! 

Since it was only printing on black,  I played with the base white and the shirt itself to get the shading of the solid colors.  The result turned out great on the shirt!

These were the Photoshop seps:

This was the print on the T-shirt.

Just for Kicks!

I was looking on Blunt Graffix's  website and I was inspired to play with a cartoon in the same genre.

With that in mind and Ed Roth's Rat Fink,  I whipped up a rough pencil sketch.

Next, I inked a finished black line.

Then I added the Rat Fink colors except for the tail and added the Sunline Products logo to the squeegee

I added a die cut path and output the art as a decal an applied it to the wall in the art department!

Prepare to be Boarded!

 I looked high and low for a blade that had a swash buckling feel to it. Nada!  So, I had to create the sword based from different types and eras of history.  A U.S, calvary cutlass handle and an Arabian curved blade. Then I fattened the blade, warped the curve more and added the battle notches and corrosion to give them the "used" look.  Added one of my skull props, removed the jaw, knocked out a tooth, warped the shape, colored and added fonts with their own corrosive affects. . .  Ba-bam!  You have a pirate design.

Dead Man's Chest

Space City Con Design in Progress

This is the first year for this convention and I was asked to design a show T-shirt concept with only a few inputs, the rest was up to my imagination, so I let it fly!  I'm sure there will be changes, but it was a nice change to be unfettered!

Simulated Process on Flesh Tones

This was an image that was sent to me for separation.  Instead of 4 color process, this was broken apart and separated in spot channels through a simulated process.  The advantage of this method is having a little more control on the press with the colors.  Also the colors are not as translucent,  so the image is a little more robust and not so flat.

First,  I start off pulling the shares of red out of the image.  If there were red graphics involved, I would have added those on a separate plate.  This allows the color to be adjusted on the press.

The next shade is yellow.  As you add the colors you start to see the way the printing on the press evolves.

The next color is a blue to make up the collar  of the subject's shirt. 

Then,  I ad a cyan for the highlights in the collar and the shades in his blue eyes.

Tho strengthen the flesh, I ad a mauve to bring out the lips and darker shades of the skin tone.

The next color is a based back,  translucent black for the shading and tinting of the colors.

A highlight white ads to the dimension of the subject as well as the blending  and smoothing of the colors.

Last would be a 25% black to blend in with the shade that completes the image and how it prints on the press!

Good Days at Goombay

This was a really great design that I sepped for Flying Fish Ink 

They do some really awesome work.  This design was a great candidate for simulated process separations.

I Usually split the red plate for a little more control for the printing on the press, but I have an 8 color limit on this one.

First, the white/discharge base.

Second is the red for solids and mixing. I eased back on the mixing to compensate the strength of the red pigment on the press.

Then the yellow plate. You can already see how the colors start to bring the design together.

Next is green.  Sometimes I mix the green with yellow and a blue in the cyan range, but this blue was more of a red shade and so I created a solid green plate.

Next is the blue.

Next is the based down simulated process black.  Yes,  even on a black shirt,  I would print a black to mix the shades of brown, rusts and shadows.  Since the design is going on color shirts other than black or navy, I will split the solids from the mixing color.

The solid black will have some halftone to darken some of the shaded areas. Some printers will print this before the flash, and the highlight white after the flash. Others will print visa versa. 

The highlight white is sometimes printed after the based black, right before the flash.  I did not demonstrate it this way,  so I could show the splits next to each other.  This brings out the whites and adds dimension an smooths out and blends with some of the colors.

Now, we have a simulated process desig!