Making T Shirts Boards
by Don Johnson
airbrush artist
Brought to you by Airbrush Technique Magazine
by Don Johnson
airbrush artist
Brought to you by Airbrush Technique Magazine
There are many ways to make T Shirt boards this is the way I’ve found worked best for me when I owned a T Shirt shop.
What is a T Shirt board?
For those of you who don’t know a T Shirt board is inserted into the garment you intent to airbrush to separate the front from the back of the garment. It wouldn’t do to have the paint you apply to the front of a shirt bleed thru to the back with the board in between the front and back this will not happen. The T Shirt board also acts as a foundation from which to hang the garment so you can stand it on an easel while airbrushing. And lastly it provides you with a way of gently pulling the garment tight to provide a nice flat, wrinkle free surface to paint on. The same type of boards can be made to use in pant legs, shirt shelves also while airbrush designs on these parts of a garment.
What do you make shirt boards out of?
Just about any rigid thin material will work just fine as a shirt board, most commonly used is card board, hard board or particle board. A sheet 3/16 In. x 4 Ft. x 8 Ft. service tempered hardboard at Home Depot retails for about $10.00 and you should be able to get four to eight boards out of it depending of course on the size you make them.
What size should you make the shirt boards?
You will find that having several different size boards for different size shirts, shelves or paint legs is very handy. The board should fit snuggly into the garment but should not stretch the garment to much beyond the natural fall of the garment. The best way is to actually measure the garments is side to side and top to bottom to come up with the best dimensions for your boards.
Some artist like their boards to be smaller than the top to bottom measurement so you fold the tail of the shirt under the bottom of the board, others prefer the boards to be slightly bigger that the shirt. It’s personal preference and will require some experimenting on your part to find what is most comfortable for you.
Below is an example of how I go about making my shirt boards.
I like to use hard board or particle board which can be purchased at Home Depot, Lowes type stores in the lumber section. You can generally purchase full sheets measuring eight foot by four foot or half or quarter sheets. This board measures about three sixteenths inch thick or about the same thickness as most card board if you have a hard time picturing three sixteenths of an inch.
After you have measured your shirts side to side, top to bottom simply use those measurements to cut your particle board to size using a jig saw. To keep your garment from snagging on the corners when you are inserting or taking the board out of your garment it’s best to round the corners off. For this I simple laid a roll of masking tape in each corner tracing the circumference of the roll of tape to get nice rounded corners. Again use a jig saw to cut your corners and hit it quickly with some medium grit sand paper.
Pictured here you see the T Shirt compared to the board I cut for it, notice it is not very much wider than the shirt itself. If you make the board to wide and stretch the shirt to much it will of course result in finished art work that is a bit distorted.
Here you can see my shirt board is longer than my shirt which is how I prefer to make my boards. With the shirt on an easel paint will collect on the shelf of the easel as you airbrush if the board is shorter than the shirt requiring you to fold the shirt tail under the shirt board at the bottom chances of getting that paint sitting on the shelf on the shirt is pretty much a given. To solve this potential problem I make my boards longer than the shirt so no part of the shirt will touch the shelf of the easel.
Taping the shelves of the shirt around the back side of the shirt board will ensure they stay out of your way while you are airbrushing the design.
Pictured here is a T Shirt board I cut for a children’s shirt you can see how much smaller it is compared to the adult T Shirt board behind it. I hope this gives you some ideas on making your own shirt boards.
Copyrights :Airhead Airbrush.Com , Inc. Reserved No part of this tutorial may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from Airhead Airbrush. Com , Inc.
What is a T Shirt board?
For those of you who don’t know a T Shirt board is inserted into the garment you intent to airbrush to separate the front from the back of the garment. It wouldn’t do to have the paint you apply to the front of a shirt bleed thru to the back with the board in between the front and back this will not happen. The T Shirt board also acts as a foundation from which to hang the garment so you can stand it on an easel while airbrushing. And lastly it provides you with a way of gently pulling the garment tight to provide a nice flat, wrinkle free surface to paint on. The same type of boards can be made to use in pant legs, shirt shelves also while airbrush designs on these parts of a garment.
What do you make shirt boards out of?
Just about any rigid thin material will work just fine as a shirt board, most commonly used is card board, hard board or particle board. A sheet 3/16 In. x 4 Ft. x 8 Ft. service tempered hardboard at Home Depot retails for about $10.00 and you should be able to get four to eight boards out of it depending of course on the size you make them.
What size should you make the shirt boards?
You will find that having several different size boards for different size shirts, shelves or paint legs is very handy. The board should fit snuggly into the garment but should not stretch the garment to much beyond the natural fall of the garment. The best way is to actually measure the garments is side to side and top to bottom to come up with the best dimensions for your boards.
Some artist like their boards to be smaller than the top to bottom measurement so you fold the tail of the shirt under the bottom of the board, others prefer the boards to be slightly bigger that the shirt. It’s personal preference and will require some experimenting on your part to find what is most comfortable for you.
Below is an example of how I go about making my shirt boards.
I like to use hard board or particle board which can be purchased at Home Depot, Lowes type stores in the lumber section. You can generally purchase full sheets measuring eight foot by four foot or half or quarter sheets. This board measures about three sixteenths inch thick or about the same thickness as most card board if you have a hard time picturing three sixteenths of an inch.
After you have measured your shirts side to side, top to bottom simply use those measurements to cut your particle board to size using a jig saw. To keep your garment from snagging on the corners when you are inserting or taking the board out of your garment it’s best to round the corners off. For this I simple laid a roll of masking tape in each corner tracing the circumference of the roll of tape to get nice rounded corners. Again use a jig saw to cut your corners and hit it quickly with some medium grit sand paper.
Pictured here you see the T Shirt compared to the board I cut for it, notice it is not very much wider than the shirt itself. If you make the board to wide and stretch the shirt to much it will of course result in finished art work that is a bit distorted.
Here you can see my shirt board is longer than my shirt which is how I prefer to make my boards. With the shirt on an easel paint will collect on the shelf of the easel as you airbrush if the board is shorter than the shirt requiring you to fold the shirt tail under the shirt board at the bottom chances of getting that paint sitting on the shelf on the shirt is pretty much a given. To solve this potential problem I make my boards longer than the shirt so no part of the shirt will touch the shelf of the easel.
Taping the shelves of the shirt around the back side of the shirt board will ensure they stay out of your way while you are airbrushing the design.
Pictured here is a T Shirt board I cut for a children’s shirt you can see how much smaller it is compared to the adult T Shirt board behind it. I hope this gives you some ideas on making your own shirt boards.
Copyrights :Airhead Airbrush.Com , Inc. Reserved No part of this tutorial may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from Airhead Airbrush. Com , Inc.
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