You can see the final design on one of our eco T-shirts here.

1. I opened my scanned drawing on Photoshop and created a new layer above the scan. I then went to file > place embedded to add a pattern of my choice as a new layer above my scanned drawing.
2. I turned the transparency of my pattern down to 50%, so that I could see some of my scanned illustration below. Then, I used the magic wand tool to select the lines that would become part of my final design.
3. I then went to select > inverse and clicked delete to remove the rest of the pattern layer that I no longer needed.
4. I re-selected the parts of the pattern that remained using the magic wand and in the layer panel, created another layer on top of everything else. I then filled my selection with different colours using the paintbrush tool.
5. At this point, you should have three layers: your original drawing at the bottom, a layer above that contains the parts of the original pattern (you can delete this now if you want) and then at the top, your version of the pattern coloured in. You can continue to colour in your illustration using different colours in new layers. If you want your original illustration to be visible, you can play around with blend modes. These are really fun! Find out how to use them here.

Photoshop is all about experimentation. The great thing about it is that you can remove layers easily if you make a mistake. If you’re just starting out on Photoshop, remember to always work with layers, or you risk ruining your whole artwork… I can’t stress this enough!

Adobe Illustrator

Some people prefer to do the whole design on Adobe Illustrator – click here for a free trial.

Unless you have some sweet mouse skills and a lot of patience, you will likely need a tablet. In the past I have had a Wacom tablet, but now I enjoy using a XP Pen 22E.

Screen Printing VS Direct To Garment Printing

Want to print your own custom shirts? There are two main types of fabric printing; DTG printing and screen printing. Screen printing involves pushing ink onto fabric through a stencil (or a “screen”), whereas DTG uses a printer to transfer the ink directly onto fabric. Each colour is applied using a different stencil, once after the other, to achieve the final look.

Pros Of Screen Printing:

• Cheaper for large print runs over 100 garments.
• Vibrant colours every time.

Cons Of Screen Printing:

• Cannot achieve the same detail or range of colours as DTG printing.
• Higher reject rate (some of the companies we looked at count a 10% reject rate as acceptable).

Pros Of DTG Printing:

• A more detailed finish.
• Quicker turnaround.
• No setup costs (a good option for low volume runs).
• A vast spectrum of colours.

Cons Of DTG Printing:

• Shirts made from synthetic fibres cannot be DTG printed.
• Not all DTG printers can achieve the same level of vibrancy as screen printing.
• Low reject rates.

Our T-shirts feature high definition, full body illustrations, DTG printed for long-lasting vibrancy. Visit bornhybrid.com to browse our designs.

Illustration Opportunities

We are always on the look out for talented illustrators. Take a look at this blog post for T-shirt illustration opportunities.

A Note To End On…

So I hope this article has been useful for some people. If you have any questions, or if you can think of something that’s not been covered, just let me know in the comments and I’ll add it in.