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Airbrushing/What paints do I use for t-shirts???

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Expert: - 2/7/2007


Question
Hi :)
i was woundering when doing t-shirt designing (using stencils or freehand) what kind of paint do i use in the air brush to leave a permanent image on the t-shirt???
and also how do i put the stencil on the t-shirt and hold it in place ??? spray it with hair spray? Or is their other ways of doing it?

thank you, any information would be much appreciated!

M.Lee

Answer
There are several brands of paint made for t-shirts.  Which one you use is largely a matter of preference.  I prefer Createx because I like the opacity of their black, and the white doesn't tip-dry as others do.  I have also used Aqua Flow with good results.  Be sure to use paints specially made for airbrushing on t-shirts.  You want the correct viscosity and fineness of the pigments along with the washability.  Plain acrylic paint will just clog up your brush and isn't made to be washable.  
Use a good quality spray adhesive to stick your stencils to your ground.  I use 3-M Super 77.  It sticks well but not to where the stencil is difficult to remove, and it doesn't leave a residue on your shirt.
I have seen a system where you use metal boards to put your shirt on and then magnets to stick the stencils with.  This just seems to be making something very difficult out of something simple.

Airbrushing

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Ellen Choate

Expertise

I can answer questions relating to basic and advanced airbrushing technique, general how-tos, preparation and compatible media for different substrates, proper paint-to-air ratios, troubleshooting, color theory, maintenance and repair, stencil cutting and use, and most other areas relating to airbrush. I'll be posting tutorials in the future if that would be helpful, and if possible.

Experience

I learned to airbrush the hard way, watching and collaborating with people who didn't know much more than I did. Later I got instruction from people who knew what they were doing and learned what I had been doing wrong. I have been airbrushing for over 30 years; the first two years were in an amusement park painting as fast as I could, often for 12 hours a day, six days a week. You get good real fast. I have painted on almost everything imaginable, from walls to a bus to prosthetic limbs.

Education/Credentials
I studied art at the University of Texas at Arlington for three years but haven't made the time to complete my now obsolete "graphic arts" degree. We did layouts and color separations by hand, thank you very much. It has served me well, but not in the way I expected.

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