Terraform Tees
I'm a photographer and painter studying photography in Arizona. This lens will deal with artforms I find interesting such as stenciling, painting, photography, screenprinting and more. Be sure to bookmark this page as I will add tutorials on these subjects frequently! I started my own clothing company called Terraform Tees, as well as my own photography gallery called Terraform Design. Check them out. In my free time I like to stencil anything and everything. I plan on showing you how to stencil, screenprint, and anything else I can think of to make your day a little cooler.
Terraform Tees specializes in vintage and retro designs with artwork dealing with pop-culture to politics to ancient celtic design. I have sections dealing with zombies, pirates, buddhism, politics, vintage designs, countries and travel, and funny t-shirts, buttons, bags, hoodies and more. Check it out!
Check out my online photography gallery!
Terraform Design Photography Check out my beautiful color and black and white photography!
Thanks for checking my lens out, and if you like it make sure to rank it by voting up near the stars at the top of the page! Thanks!
Interested in creating t-shirts and selling them online? Then look no further! Follow this link Start your own store!
Upload your artwork or photos, pick what products you want to sell them on - T-shirts, hats, mugs... there's over 70 products - and you're in business. If you don't want to sell your merchandise, hey - it's a great way to make custom gifts for yourself and your friends. Get started making money right now!
Stenciling and Screenprinting
A short abridged history of stencil magic!
Stenciling is a style which uses a template in order to paint or draw images and letters and reproduce them quickly. A stencil is created when the artist removes sections of the template (carboard, acetate, paper etc) usually with an x-acto blade, in order to form the image. This removal of the material makes a physical negative. Once the template is completed it can be used to create a postive of the image using paint, or other mediums directly onto the stencil.Sections of the remaining template which are isolated inside removed parts of the image are called islands. All islands must be connected to other parts of the template with bridges, or additional sections of narrow template material which are not removed.
Silk-screen printing also uses a stencil process, as does mimeography. The masters from which mimeographed pages are printed are often called "stencils." Stencils can be made with one or many colour layers using different techniqes, with most stencils designed to be applied as solid colours. In silk-screening and mimeography, images to be stenciled will be broken down into color layers and multiple stencils are used on the same surface to produce multi-colored images.
How to make a stencil using photoshop
I'm sure you've probably seen those cool "graffiti" style images with the perfect clean lines when you're walking around town. They are called stencils and they actually aren't that hard to make. First things first we'll start with the materials list.-x-acto varying sizes but mainly a smaller blade for precise cuts
-an image either you have created or found on the internet but the file needs to be located on your computer.
If you haven't scanned your image yet do it now, otherwise open the image in photoshop. Go ahead I'll wait...
Ok now you've got the image pulled up. Depending on what version you have the menus might be a little different but typically you will go to filters/artistic/cutout. When the cutout dialog box pops up you're going to want to lower the number of levels to about two to make it only two tones. (you'd select three if you were to make more than one color but for now we'll just work with one color).
Once that's done, go ahead and print out the "cutout" image. Lay the image over your acetate or construction paper and try to find a surface that is ok to gently score (cardboard works well for this). Tape your image down and cut out any of the black areas. This will take time especially if your image is more complex so don't be frustrated. The end result is highly worth it.
Stenciling tutorial videos
Just for you visual thinkers here's some videos that explain stenciling!
Stenciling on Amazon
Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils, and Silk Screens
Amazon Price: $18.15 (as of 07/26/2008)
Used Price:
Wall and Piece
Amazon Price: $15.61 (as of 07/26/2008)
Used Price: $15.43
Lotta Prints: How to Print with Anything, from Potatoes to Linoleum
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 07/26/2008)
Used Price: $12.00
The Art of Polymer Clay Creative Surface Effects: Techniques and Projects Featuring Transfers, Stamps, Stencils, Inks, Paints, Mediums, and More
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 07/26/2008)
Used Price: $9.48
Create Your Own Hand-Printed Cloth: Stamp, Screen, and Stencil with Everyday Objects
Amazon Price: $18.45 (as of 07/26/2008)
Used Price:
Stenciling in the urban environment
For more inspiration check out these cool videos on stenciling
Screenprinting on the super ridiculously cheap!
Before we start, gather these materials: a t-shirt (this might be obvious but you never know...), cheap paint brushes (the 50 cent foam ones work fairly well), an embroidery hoop (which is also super cheap), screen printing ink, non-water-soluble glue, curtain type sheer material (nylons, tulle etc.), and finally an image that you can print out from your computer or a hand drawn image.After you have selected an image you like, follow the steps for creating a stencil in photoshop I laid out for you a few tutorials back. Make sure the final image is fairly contrasty.
Print out the image for the size you want, (don't go larger than the embroidery hoop, which is acting as our screen).
Pull the nylon material tight over the top of the embroidery hoop, screw it shut, and then trace the image onto the material with a pencil. Make sure the image is close to the material and not upside down...
Now you're going to turn the sucker over and glue in the negative space surrounding the image. For those of you who don't know, negative space just refers to the areas that don't make up the image. For our purposes, it's all the areas you don't want glue to go.
After the glue is completely dry, place the image on the shirt face down. Grab your ink and coat furiously while singing braveheart songs. Well just make sure it's well coated, but take care not to glob it.
Take your image hoop off and wait for it to dry. After you're sure it's dry read your ink instructions for "setting" the image onto the t-shirt, poster etc.
Congratulations, you just made a t-shirt woo hoo!
More Screenprinting Information in Ancient Book Form for the technlogically disabled!
Simple Screenprinting: Basic Techniques & Creative Projects
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 07/26/2008)
Water-Based Screenprinting Today: From Hands-On Techniques to Digital Technology
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 07/26/2008)
Do It Yourself Screenprinting
Amazon Price: $8.00 (as of 07/26/2008)
Screenprinting: The Complete Water-Based System
Amazon Price: $23.07 (as of 07/26/2008)
Screenprinting: Water-Based Techniques
Amazon Price: (as of 07/26/2008)
Screenprinting videos on youtube
Again don't think I forgot about you visual thinkers!
Screenprinting Supplies for the brave and adventurous!
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Photoshop Tutorials
Crumble, Crackle, Burn: 60 Stunning Textures for Design & Illustration
Amazon Price: $23.10 (as of 07/26/2008)
Photoshop Tutorial CS3 Full Motion Video DVD-ROM (Graphics & Design Professional Education, Volume 1)
Amazon Price: (as of 07/26/2008)
Great Stuff on Amazon
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6
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Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 (Mac)
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Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 & Adobe Premiere Elements 4
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Adobe Acrobat Standard 9
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Adobe Acrobat Professional 9
Amazon Price: $399.99 (as of 07/26/2008)
Making a worn or distressed look in photoshop
This tutorial will teach you how to make a grungy, vintage, retro style design that looks awesome when screenprinted or stenciled onto a t-shirt or poster. In this example you'll be working with just a typeface (font) but later on you can try it out on logos, pictures etc.
This is a fairly simple technique but it's very effective and I think it looks pretty sweet too. You will need photoshop (illustrator is fine too anything similar to these two), a fork or blunt object, and an x-acto.
The very first step is to open a new document and create your text and print it out. The paper weight does matter but typically regular computer paper will be ok (just have to be more gentle with it later on...)
Using a combination of techniques will create a better vintage look as opposed to only using one type of technique. We're going to begin by making some small precise scratches and later on we'll give it a worn look. Take out your x-acto and add scratches being careful not to add too many (unless you like that...) and definetely try not to cut the paper. We're only trying to remove the ink from the surface of the paper.
This is the fun part. Take your fork or spoon or whatever blunt object you have lying around and take away the top surface of the ink across your design. Vary were you do it and attempt to make it look more organic and natural.
Now you're ready to scan the image. You'll want to adjust the brightness and contrast levels in photoshop to restore the background to white. Congratulations you're done! Print it out and prepare to stencil it!
How to create burnt edge look on your photos using Photoshop!
Looking for a way to make your photos look more... Classical? In this tutorial I will explain how to create that cool burnt-in edge effect. There are quite a few different ways to create the effect, but we'll be looking at a very workable and intuitive technique. By using the curves layer we'll be able to create the effect as well as fine tune the image.Step 1:
First we will be adding a curves adjustment layer.
1. Click on the new adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette looks like a yin yang.
2. Select curves from the list of adjustment layers.
This will bring up the curve dialog box. The curves adjustment layer is an incredibly powerful tool for editing photos and allows you to make incredibly detailed changes with the click of a mouse or arrow key.
Step 2:
When you have the curves dialog box open, (if you've closed it just double click on the curves layer to bring it back), grab the point in the top right corner and drag it almost straight down until the output (located in the bottom left corner) is somewhere between 10 and 20.
This makes your image look super dark but don't worry we're not done yet.
Create a border with the rectangular marquee tool (it's the dotted rectangle in the top left corner) around the area with edges.
Now you're going to fill that selection with Black on the Curves layer mask (hint: use the paint bucket)
Click on the layer mask thumbnail for the curves adjustment layer (the thumbnail to the right of the curves layer)
Make sure black is your foreground color, and press option-delete(mac), alt-backspace (windows) in order to fill the selected area with black. This will obscure the curves adjustment layer that is inside the selection leaving only the border edge dark.
The layer mask thumbnail now appears black in the center with a white border around it.
Burnt Edge Tutorial continued
In order to soften the border edges we'll be using the Gaussian Blur filter. Select the Curves layer mask and click on the filter menu towards the top of the screen. Select blur, and then Gaussian blur which will bring up a new dialog box. Drag the slider to increase blurring until you like it and click ok.Now that the dark edges are softened, we'll be using the free transorm tool to resize the layer mask if needed. With the curves layer selected in the layers pallete, use command+t (mac), ctrl+t(windows) to bring up the free transform dialog box. Drag any handles in or out to resize the mask.
Typically you'll want to adjust the opacity of the curves adjustment layer if the edges around your image are too dark. In order to do that, select the opacity option in the top right corner of the layers palette and drag it until it looks right to you. (Try not to go under 50%, but whatever looks good to you).
Congratulations! You're now a professional at creating classical burnt edge photographs.
Visit my T-shirt site!
- Terraform Tees
- Specializing in vintage and retro designs ranging from politics to pop-culture. Check us out!
- My Photography Blog
- I'm starting this blog in order to start getting my photography out there. I want it to be seen by as many as possible. Here goes nothing!
- The start of my online gallery
- Check out my on-line gallery of my work!
Terraform Tees: Trendy T-shirts, vintage tees
I can do custom orders for you, groups, businesses and more. Drop me a line at terraformtees@gmail.com and I will set something up.
Graphic Tees from TerraformTees
Zombie T-shirts!
Brains rarararagghh!
Pirate T-shirts!
Buddha T-shirts from Terraformtees
Photographs taken by yours truly!
If you like my work, you can purchase it (with or without frames) at http://terraformdesign.imagekind.com
Thanks for checking them out!
Haunted Church
Haunted Stairwell
Gryphons
Hotel Monte Vista
Coffee House
3-d design projects
Here's some examples of what cardboard can do!
The eyes are set up with a motor mount to spin...
Alternate 3-d projects (wire, paper mache etc.)
Made out of baling wire... Took a good amount of time. Some day I'll make the full diver suit.
Each lantern was made using a stencil and then transferred onto watercolor paper with lacquer thinner (yeah I probably killed a few brain cells in the process oh well)
Online Advertising Ideas to help you with your business
Cafepress, Imagekind etc.
I currently use this service, and so far unfortunately it hasn't quit paid off yet. In theory it would help me make quite a bit, however to get into one of the top positions say for the keyword "t-shirt" it can be quite expensive in terms of cost per click.
I haven't recieved much results from this service yet, but I plan on sticking with it as I know in the future it could be a very reliable source of traffic.
If you choose to use adwords make sure to set a monthly or daily budget that is the maximum you would be willing to spend. Otherwise you could end up spending hundreds of thousands of dollars!
www.blogger.com
Write about your life, write about someone else's... Whatever you feel most comfortable updating on a frequent basis, as this is a great way to drum up traffic and plus it's completely free!
www.squidoo.com
If you're ready this page, chances are you are at least a little familiar with squidoo. Squidoo is a powerful web 2.0 community that enables you to reach a large variety of people based on the interests of the page you create. I find this to be one of my favorite promotional tools and it also allows me to brush up on my poorly practiced writing skills =)
While you're waiting, check this out...
In an effort to get out of credit card debt, which I'm sure everyone can relate to, whether you're a starving artist or not, I'm selling my stuff!
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand byThe Daily Onion!
The onion headlines updated every 6 hours!
- Mob Not Angry At Monster, Just Disappointed
- CEAMURLIA, ROMANIA—"We can't help him unless he helps himself," said a villager. "Right now, a...
- [audio] 134-Year-Old Man Attributes Longevity To Typographical Error
- Onion Radio News - with Doyle Redland
- Can't Go Wrong With A Cheeseburger, Area Man Reports
- SCOTTSVILLE, NY—Unfamiliar with the menu at local restaurant Scully's and faced with the decis...
- Courageous E-mail To Boss In Drafts Folder Since December
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- Novak Hits Pedestrian With Corvette
- Columnist Robert Novak struck a pedestrian while driving a black Corvette on Washington D.C.'s K Str...
New Del.icio.us bookmarks
- NASA Images
- Views of Jupiter - The Big Picture - Boston.com
- Phillip Toledano - Days with My Father
- Home - PhotoFunia
- 10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits
- Free Photos Website
- High Speed PhotoGraphy - 23 Amazing Pictures | Digital Picture Zone
- 10 Most Amazing Ghost Towns
- The Impossible Art Of Li Wei
- Photojojo
- 70 Beauty-Retouching Photoshop Tutorials | Tutorials | Smashing Magazine
- Welcome to Flickr!
- Strobist
Art Blog Posts
Stenciling, Graffiti, Photography, Painting and more!
- Week 9: DS Case + Custom Quarters Artists
- ?I'm Zero FnK aka BurN , 21 years old graffiti artist ,start paint since 2004 and paint on everything i can . ..love doin this(paint all the time) and do it every i have time to . . and this is meaning of life doing what you love and do ...
- Rebel Without a Crew: Street Artist A1one in Tehran
- A street artist with a taste for drawing, collage, stencils and spray paint, A1one helps break down the monolithic image we have in the West of a conformist Islamic Iranian society. The 27-year-old is an eclectic talent who easily ...
- No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- (The artist's agent, Steve Lazarides, denied that the photo ? which depicts a man in jeans and sneakers crouching above a can of spray paint ? is of Banksy. A spokeswoman for the artist declined to confirm or deny the Mail's report.) ...
- 8 Postmodern Appearances of the Mona Lisa: Classic Subject ...
- The painting of Mona, in New York, USA, may not be in existence anymore, as it was created at a construction site, and the area was in the process of being demolished when the photo was taken. Image: Cidsoe. A stenciled artwork ...
Great Stuff on Amazon
Print: America's Graphic Design Magazine (1-year)
Amazon Price: $37.00 (as of 07/26/2008)
How (1-year)
Amazon Price: $29.95 (as of 07/26/2008)
Graphic Design Journal
Amazon Price: $21.66 (as of 07/26/2008)
Icv2 Guide Graphic Novels Anime Manga and Games
Amazon Price: $110.00 (as of 07/26/2008)
Eye - International Review of Graphic Design
Amazon Price: $148.00 (as of 07/26/2008)
New Featured Lenses
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Ninjas, Shinobi, Samurai, and Bears?!
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Terraform Photography- Landscape, Black and White, Color, Digital and more!
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As my biography states, I'm a student studying photography and finishing up my bachelor's degree in Photography. I originally began photography as a hobby it wasn't something I was planning on making a career out of. Thankfully after an i...
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Pirates-Pillaging and Plundering the Seven Seas
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Piracy is a robbery committed at sea, or sometimes on the shore, by an agent without a commission from a sovereign nation. The recent Pirates of the Carribean has brought back to popular culture the notoriety of pirates.
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PC Gaming Reviews
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This lens will review the latest and greatest pc games of our time. I'm a big fan of real time strategy (rts), role-playing game (rpgs) and first-person shooters (fps). This lens will also deal with that special time when you need to upgrade yo...
More Graphic Design stuff!
Some really chill, super cool stencil photos
Real application of ze stencil in ze urban environment ya dig?
Filiberto Ojeda's St...
Basil
Chapel Market graffi...
AdvoCat
Sickboy| Klit| Hium
Advocat
Untld
T.WAT
Sam3
Fresh canvas
December's Children
word to mother
the london look
kriebel
stagger
kriebel
Grafter+tag
Tboltoo
M. Lewitt
Stenciling bookmarks on del.icio.us
Check out these other cool stenciling, screenprinting resources
- Graffletopia
- Design Stencils - Yahoo! Design Pattern Library
- VisioCafe
- visio stencils for information architecture
- Visio Download Sites
- Stencil Punks
- Stencil Revolution
- Resources - Stencil Revolution
- Free Stencils - Printable Stencils
- Graffletopia - User Interface
- iPhone Wire Frames - Graffletopia
- Cisco Visio Stencils
- Categories
- Stencils from The Stencil Library. Over 3500 stencil designs. Stencils in every style imaginable.
- Stencil Revolution :: View topic - Bleach on fabric tutorial
More book ideas for your screenprinting adventures!
Lark Simple Screenprinting: Basic Techniques & Creative Projects Simple Screenprinting: Basic Techniques & Creative Projects
From decorative paper bags to elegant home furnishings, the 26 attractive projects in this beginner's manual will win converts to the simple, fabulous craft of screen printing. The entire printing process receives in-depth explanations and unfolds in numerous detailed photos. Find out how to select and mix inks, print a picture evenly, care for screens, and transform basic sketches into scale images for a design. Make a light exposure unit to create prints of drawings, photographs, and found objects. The fun begins when these techniques turn into projects, including a pretty hand-stamped pillow, a lovely embellished table runner, and a keepsake picture album that features a screen-printed family photo on its cover. Gallery-quality items pictured throughout provide extra inspiration. Paperback book measures 8 1/2 in. x 10 in., 128 pages all in color. Lark Books, 2005. ISBN 1579906648
Waterbased Screenprinting: Technique to Technology
For many years, screenprinting was oil-based--and presented significant health risks even as it damaged the environment. Today, fortunately, screenprinting has shifted to water-based technologies. Now Roni Henning, a leading expert on screenprinting, offers her tips and techniques for getting the most out of these safer, greener water-based methods ranging from the traditional hands-on methods to the latest digital technology. She explains separations and color correcting, then discusses the artist-printmaker collaboration, giving intriguing examples from her own work with such luminaries as Andy Warhol, Red Grooms, and Romare Bearden. Henning also offers step-by-step instructions for monoprinti
Create a multi-layer stencil! No more boring black and white stencils WOO
WOO HOO stencils
Now, when you select your image make sure that it isn't overexposed etc. as when you stencil it, it probably won't be recognizable (maybe that's what you want to do, but we'll pretend you want to make a clear image).
Multi-layer stenciling
Partamente dos
Now that you're image is ready to be imported, you have two options. One is going to the filter section and selecting cutout. The more manual approach is to find which color you prefer your image in. Convert your image to grayscale (Image > Mode > Grayscale). Up your contrast to 100% (Image > Adjustments > Brightness and Contrast). Adjust the brightness 'till you get an approximation of what you want your stencil to look like. Make multiple layers and change the color of specific areas (don't repeat colors%u2026 we're making multi not single layer stencils!)
Print out each layer of your stencil and possibly include some kind of alignment guide to line up your stencils.
Multi-layer stencil
Part 3
If using any of these materials, you'll definitely want to tape down your materials so they don't move when cut.
Multi-layer stencil
Part 4
If you mess up you can tape over the screwed up part with electrical tape and re-cut it. I typically go for the most detailed areas first, because the more you cut on a large scale the flimsier the paper gets. Definetely want to remove detailed parts first.
Multi-layer stencil
part 6
The most typical paint is Krylon, however when it is painted on multiple layers it tends to crack (this happens with specific colors so make sure you test your stencil out before you go spray it on a wall or something)
Art supply stores tend to have great spray available, but of course they're more expensive. Grab all different kinds and see what you like and what works best for you.
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