# Drawing design on transparency film positive rather than running through printer



## Livetodieinpeace (May 16, 2014)

Hello, I am just getting started with silk screen printing, and my skills drawing on photoshop aren't the greatest, so I was wondering if I were to draw my design directly to the transparency film using sharpie rather than running it through the printer, if that would create the same quality results while burning the film positive to the screen.


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## Celtic (Feb 19, 2008)

Sure, you can draw directly on your film. Make sure it's waterproof film, so it will accept your artwork without travelling or smearing. Years ago, I used rapidigraph pens that used India ink and were very opaque, for doing art directly onto film. There's also pens like this: Black Opaque Pen - Fine Tip
Experiment, but yes, you can draw directly. Just use very opaque pens.
I'll add too, that when I did this (years ago), I used paint/ink accepting acetate.


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## PatWibble (Mar 7, 2014)

That's pretty much the way it used to be done back in the day. Some art schools still teach this method.

Why don't you pencil your design onto art paper, ink over it with pens of various thickness and scan and print to transparency?

Film is expensive and you will find it hard to change any mistakes.


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