Screen Printing “meh-ness” and Budget Delays

So, yesterday went by in a blur, in good and not-so-good ways, but overall a good day.

Non-Costume Stuff

We designed our shirts and exposed the designs on a screen:

I think whose is whose (is that grammar?) is pretty obvious. 🙂

I had actually intended to (A) make my Spider-face a negative of what’s shown above and (B) do solid fills for the letters and sun in my daughter’s design, as I always worry about the thin lines. And sure enough, that did come back to bite me later.

But first I had to rinse the exposed screens to clear out the exposed portions, and that meant leaving the screen to dry while we did other things.

We went to see Maleficent, which I enjoyed. I had heard such bad things about it, but I found it entertaining. As is often the case with movies, I could certainly see what there was to criticize, and what might have been done better, but I didn’t let that stop me from being entertained. I think too many people ruin movies for themselves by watching movies as if they are movie critics. Not that there aren’t movies that are so bad I can’t get past the “criticizeable” portions, but generally I try to allow myself to enjoy movies first, and critique them later.

After the movie, we were on our way to a late lunch when my daughter’s mom called, needing a ride to go and pick up her car. That put us a bit out of our way, distance and hunger-wise, but that just helped us enjoy our lunch all the more. We stopped at the store to get a few essentials and some T-shirts for screen printing, and it was pretty much early evening by the time we got home (or late afternoon, depending on how you look at it, I guess…).

My daughter went off to read while I got the shirts ready to print. I started with mine, and that turned into an “aargh” moment pretty quickly:

Now, I don’t mind the “faded” look, but this was a bit too much.

Oh well. I actually ended up getting a two-pack of white T-shirts for a good price, and I can still use this as an undershirt. I figured I would try again on the other one after doing my daughter’s print.

Now, this is actually STAGE 1 of my daughter’s, as she wants two colors, and the second attempt at my print:

Hers came out a bit light, but better than mine. Today, I’ll add the heart and the sun in red ink (to hers, not mine).

My second came out better in some ways, worse in others. I wonder if I brush on a light, faded bit of red over the webby parts? Either way… Did I mention I needed undershirts anyway?

Costume Stuff

Here’s a bit more of what the “finished” black-blue, comic-highlighted stuff on the Ditko costume:

I go back and forth between loving and hating it. I feel like this quickly became a “slippery slope” situation in terms of the amount of muscleitude. I have another look to try, related but more understated. This…well, I like it better than all the “airbrush” type shading, but…I dunno…

Either way, I have time to keep working on and refining designs, and to decide which one–Ditko or traditional–to get printed first. I’m going to need to wait on sending either off for printing for “cash flow” reasons.

I seem to remember my mom often characterizing rocky family finance periods as “cash flow problems.” This usually happened at Christmas time, when she lost all sense of logic and proportion. Well, that hasn’t changed. Now she just spends the money on her grand-kids instead of her kids.

Up Next: Father-Daughter Screen Printing Part 2 and perhaps some Marvel Memorabilia