There are a number of ways on how to achieve prints on t-shirts. One of these ways is airbrushing. Airbrush t-shirts have a painting-like quality to them and it takes a great level of skill to achieve these designs. With the different tools and paint colors, achieving realistic airbrush designs for shirts can be both time consuming but totally worth the effort.
Basic Tools for T-Shirt Airbrushing
The tools for airbrush t-shirts include your airbrush bottle, the airbrush, and the paints. You can have just one airbrush which you can use for all colors since the bottles can be replaced, but for those who are working on more complicated airbrush designs for shirts, having at least three to speed up the work can help.
Paints for airbrushing are usually water-based paints which stick really well onto your shirt. There are a lot of pre-mixed paints for airbrushing so this is usually not a problem to find in stores. Keep the shirt color in mind when choosing the paints and imagine how they would stand out against your fabric. Once you have these basic tools, you can begin with the actual paint work. Start by having a sketch of the image you would like to achieve or visualize the image on your shirt. You can freestyle, but having a rough sketch can help come up with a better-looking shirt.
Pros and Cons of Airbrush T-Shirts
T-shirts with airbrushed prints can be just as good as t-shirts with prints made by machines especially if the paints used are great. The prints will last long and can be very durable too. However, since the airbrushing technique requires manual labor, it may take a much longer time for the artwork to be completed on the shirt. Because of this, rates of airbrushed shirts may be more expensive depending on the picture printed out on the shirt.
Airbrushing also takes practice and a great amount of skill to finish—add to that are the more expensive tools like the airbrush itself. Usually, only people who have had a lot of experience with airbrushing engage in the t-shirt airbrushing business since it would take time and skills to come up with satisfactory results.
It can be said that compared to digital printouts which are transferred on shirts, there are no two pieces of airbrushed shirts which look alike. An airbrushed shirt would be different from another which has the same design especially if you pay attention to the smaller details. Because it takes time to finish airbrushed shirts, they are also usually harder to mass produce and bulk orders of airbrushed shirts can take longer to complete.
When it comes to the looks, they can have a more 3D effect if the artist who did it is really great, but the same 3D effect can be achieved with high-end t-shirt printing options. It is true that airbrush looks different from the usual prints but with the time it takes to finish and the potentially more expensive rates, a lot of people still prefer digital t-shirt prints.
What do you think of today’s post? Do you think air brushing is something you can do by yourself? Comment away below!