One Stroke Watercolor Inks

[Bubba91]

Hey everyone, i am venturing into trying watercolor ink from OS. I have never printed before but i am thinking to use blue 80 squeegee, and 230 mesh, and we are trying only one color at this time. We are looking to do Gray on darker garments with a regular art for some tee's. BTW printing on an Auto 10 head 8 color M&R. My dryer setting is at 320 and speed about 65. I am a newbie at this style so bear with me here. I am just curious to know if i am starting on the right track.

[3Deep]

If your looking for a vintage look and a very soft print then yes, your leaving out so much info so that's about all I can tell you.  I can tell you water color inks do a great job on light colors shirt's without an underbase.

[Bubba91]

If your looking for a vintage look and a very soft print then yes, your leaving out so much info so that's about all I can tell you.  I can tell you water color inks do a great job on light colors shirt's without an underbase.

Yes the vintage look is what we are going for. sorry for my vague fist post lol.  like i said i am jumping into this and trying to research this.

[3Deep]

Your in great company here many knowledgeable guys and gals here from doing seps to inks willing to help  or give advice.

[mk162]

We just printed a job with them yesterday...looked fantastic.  Very worn and vintage.  Nice soft hand too.

[Bubba91]

OK, first here is this question.

What mesh have y'all found to work the best? I am trying on 230 for gray watercolor ink, and 156 for black watercolor ink.

[mk162]

You can really print it in whatever.  We stick to either 180s or 225s, so you should be good with either of those.

[Bubba91]

You can really print it in whatever.  We stick to either 180s or 225s, so you should be good with either of those.

good to know, i was not sure but thank you for the pointer. Time to just mess with it. Fortunately i have many garments to test on and not worry about ruining anything good. 

[Prince Art]

For vintage style, 230 standard mesh should work great. Since you said gray ink, keep in mind that if you're printing on black, & you use only 1 pass, white will look grey. Maybe not the grey you want, but this white will definitely take on the tint of the garment underneath.

[Bubba91]

For vintage style, 230 standard mesh should work great. Since you said gray ink, keep in mind that if you're printing on black, & you use only 1 pass, white will look grey. Maybe not the grey you want, but this white will definitely take on the tint of the garment underneath.

Prince Art yeah did gray on Black and Red Garments, the boss loved them. did a couple on 1 pull and another on double pull but one time around. Not much differance but she was liking how they (red hoods the gray made it a tint toward purple because of garment) looked, with the washed out/ old vintage look to them. I used 230 mesh on the Gray.

I see though what you mean to not expect colors to be exact due to garment color. Thanks amigo.

[Sbrem]

A general rule of thumb back in the days before flashing was to print dark to light. That would be for commercial use; if it was art, then you ran the order that looked the way you wanted it to.

Steve