Retro faded look

[inkman996]

Remember most inks come ready to print. If you start basing down your inks they will lose some opacity.

IN your case do not throw away whatever it is you mix just simply reuse it as a soft hand extender etc.

Union has soft hand base
Wilflex has Fashion soft additive

[mjrprint]

If you print the art out on vellums crumble them into a ball and then flatten them out and burn them. Instant distress.

[jsheridan]

Remember most inks come ready to print. If you start basing down your inks they will lose some opacity.

IN your case do not throw away whatever it is you mix just simply reuse it as a soft hand extender etc.

Union has soft hand base
Wilflex has Fashion soft additive

Soft hand bases are known to pastel colors when added so if you want a nice bright color, use curable reducer instead. Keep the soft hands for process colors and a simple extender rather than thinner.

A great fashion ink base is 80% reducer and 20% color on fashion t's. or just print waterbase inks with no activator and you'll get both hand and look in a single shot.

[Sbrem]

When I started printing, there was no underbasing or flashing. We'd print the darker colors first then the whites or golds near the end. Stepping on the darks wasn't so bad, and after all, there wasn't anything better at the time, mid seventies. Stapled fabric, probably wouldn't register on a meter, and multi filament threads. If you want to go true retro, do it the way it was done at the time. If you need cracks, then prepare you're art that way, but print it the old fashioned way.

The trend is to LOOK retro... not to BE retro.

I thought that would be good for a chuckle...

[ZooCity]

If you're going to use reducer as a base better make sure it's curable reducer. 

I would recommend keeping your reducer around for, well, reducing and use a soft hand base for your inks.  QCM has Softee, Wilflex has Fashion Soft, etc., etc. 

The soft bases can either be pigmented directly with a PC system (which, by the way John does not make a pastel ink, the soft bases are clear. you may be referring to the look of a bright color in soft base that was driven too far into the fabric?) or used to hyper-extend rfu inks. 

Using the soft bases you can get a faded look via the fibrilation that will occur from printing a plastisol that is actually quite 'watery' and will not matt down all the fibers of the garment.  The further you drive the soft based ink into the shirt the more you'll see this fibrilation/fading. 

[Gilligan]

I'm getting so confused on what I need and don't need.

Talked to a buddy that has a pretty similar look.  Uses all the same chems as me (including ink)... actually I use the same as him that way we have a common denominator if I have problems and need his help.

He doesn't base down and he even underbased the yellow in this print (I know he talks about liking to underbase with halftones to help keep things soft.  So I'm guessing that is what he did here but he doesn't remember.)



Honestly it looks more faded in his shop than in this pic.

[tonypep]

We do this all the time using distress filters and patterns. It's really in the art not the ink; at least in the shown example. Prior to this we would only partially wash out the image and post expose.

[Fresh Baked Printing]

Adding a distress layer is great but sometimes the print technique is all that is needed.

[Sbrem]

We do this all the time using distress filters and patterns. It's really in the art not the ink; at least in the shown example. Prior to this we would only partially wash out the image and post expose.

Partially wash out and post expose, I love it.  But yes, distress filtered all the way. Once you learn it Gilligan, you'll like it, and it's quite easy...

Steve

[Fresh Baked Printing]

PM me if you want a PS distress filter. I think I have three, fine, medium and large.

[tonypep]

We do this all the time using distress filters and patterns. It's really in the art not the ink; at least in the shown example. Prior to this we would only partially wash out the image and post expose.

Partially wash out and post expose, I love it.  But yes, distress filtered all the way. Once you learn it Gilligan, you'll like it, and it's quite easy...

Steve

We often will print a distressed filter with say, a 305 mesh direct with no underbase. RFU inks. There are literally hundreds of these out there and even some downloadable software (not free). My separator like to create his own.

[Gilligan]

Yeah, I'm working on creating some of our own also.  Trying to get outside the box and creative on what we use for textures.  Keeps it interesting and adds a subconscious effect to the print.

[ebscreen]

Scan tinfoil.

[Gilligan]

I took a large hieroglyph cartouche and did it with that... done right it's very subtle (subconscious).

Just remember if you use that... think of me every time you do. :p

[jsheridan]

If you're going to use reducer as a base better make sure it's curable reducer. 

I would recommend keeping your reducer around for, well, reducing and use a soft hand base for your inks.  QCM has Softee, Wilflex has Fashion Soft, etc., etc. 

The soft bases can either be pigmented directly with a PC system (which, by the way John does not make a pastel ink, the soft bases are clear. you may be referring to the look of a bright color in soft base that was driven too far into the fabric?) or used to hyper-extend rfu inks. 

Using the soft bases you can get a faded look via the fibrilation that will occur from printing a plastisol that is actually quite 'watery' and will not matt down all the fibers of the garment.  The further you drive the soft based ink into the shirt the more you'll see this fibrilation/fading.

We have to distinguish the differences with soft hand bases and fashion bases.
Soft hand base is transparent
Fashion bases are opaque.

You usually add soft hand to an ink, helping to soften the inks for a better feel and shorten the body of the inks for easier printing and to extend them with a max 50% load when printing on whites or lights. Color shifting is to be expected and colors lighten due to the transparency of the soft hand. The biggest use for soft hand is extending RFU's and producing process colors in house as it's 5% ink to 95% base. Great for making concentrated magenta's and lighter cyan's.

With fashion bases, you're adding color to them with loads up to 10%  This low viscosity base allows the use of higher mesh so you can either smash it into the shirt to simulate waterbase or on top as a very soft handed simulated process print.

Curable reducers reduce the viscosity of the inks while helping to maintain opacity to make it easier to print through high mesh counts. What they don't do is create softness, rather the opposite with a hard feeling ink. This can be the ideal look for a weathered or cracked looking retro shirt when combined with crackle or other specialty bases. This reducer is also great for thinning your white inks to make them print faster and move away from the dreaded 110-140 mesh count range. Base your white a little and print through a 160+ mesh, you get an opaque faster printing base and use less ink doing so.

Explore and experiment with different bases as when combined.. they can do amazing.. and horrible things so be sure to read the load ratings of ink vs base and document document document how you made it!