# Hand-painting t-shirts



## alextoma95 (Mar 21, 2016)

Hi! I want to start hand-paint t-shirts and would need some advice:

- first of all should I use fabric paint or screen printing ink? I would prefer screen printing ink but I want to know whether fabric paint would be better
- second of all, what kind of ink (plasistol or water based)? From my research I would go for water-based as I don't want a hard feel on my t-shirts. However, I would also want to obtain bold colours on a variety of colours of t-shirts (lighter and darker)
- finally could you recommend some screen printing ink/fabric paint brands? I am currently looking at Matsui, Permaset and Speedball. 

Some more details: I will be hand painting on American Apparel Fine Jersey T-shirts (100% cotton). My designs would be mainly consist of simplistic geometric illustrations and/or font.

Thanks!


----------



## 2Dye4 (Jan 9, 2006)

Have you considered thickened fiber reactive dyes? There would be no "hard feel" and there are unlimited colors.

Jo


----------



## jnug (Oct 19, 2015)

Assuming you're painting with a brush, go for water based screen printing ink. Plastisol is thick to the point that a brush application would be problematic. 

Speedball inks are decent and available everywhere in small quantities which saves on the pocketbook for experimenting. Play around with dark colors on lighter garments first. 

I've tried, white and yellow Speedball opaque and find they tend to get brittle and crack with a decent coat (screen printing).

Matsui seems to be the market leader in water based ink but I'm gonna have to look more into the fiber reactive dyes that Jo mentioned as this is the first I've really heard of them.


----------



## sinGN (Oct 12, 2016)

Hi,
fabric paint are best for hand painting on tshirts.
2.water based ink is best.


----------

