Estimated Time for Process: One Hour

Hello, My name is Leo Hughes. Today I am excited to teach you the tips and tricks I have for anyone interested in screen printing. I have been an avid printer for the past five years and am now incorporating it into my college life. Specifically, I will be teaching you how to turn any idea or image into a one-color screen print with no experience needed. In this instruction set, I've included the four easy steps, emulsion coating, screen burning, printing and cleaning that will teach any beginner the basics of screen printing. Below I have included a video guide that is a complete walkthrough of me going through each step. I recommend for visual learners and others to watching this as you go through my list of materials and numbered instructions.

Supplies

One screen print screen 160 mesh count: Available at most art stores, also can be easily made but I will not be covering this in today's video.
One quart of Dual Cure Blue Screen Printing Emulsion: Available at most art stores or for purchase online.
One squeegee: This can be bought at most art stores or be any form of squeegee bought at a hardware store.
One scoop coater: This can be bought at most art stores or be any form of a scoop coater bought at a hardware store.
One dark room: Any space that will be pitch black for a certain amount of time, this could be a closet or in a box with a blanket over it.
Speedball screen printing ink: Any color can be bought at most art stores or purchased online.
Washout station: Any form of washing area with a hose.
Exposure Unit: Any form of light exposure, we will be using a homemade unit with four 50-watt screen printing LED lights bought from Amazon.
Transparency paper: Plastic paper used for your print design, can be printed on a home printer or in a print shop such as Fedex or Staples.
Clothing: Today we will be printing on a hoodie but for printing you can put your designs on anything.
Tape: Preferably painter's tape to tape your screen edges but any tape will work.
One fan: Used for drying your wet screen.
One heat gun: This can be bought at any hardware store, you can even use a hair dryer.

Step 1:

Coating and Drying

Before we begin I recommend following along with my video tutorial as you read through my instruction guide for a visual aid of what I am doing. In each step I have labeled the number order that I instruct in my video. We will move rather quickly but the entirety of this process will take you about an hour.

To begin after you have obtained all of your materials you are going to grab your emulsion, scoop coater, and your screen.
Screen print emulsion is a photosensitive chemical which means it is susceptible to light and will harden when it is exposed to it. So to prevent this work in a dimly lit space without taking many breaks.
Give your emulsion a good mix before pouring it into your scoop coater. You want to have a good amount of emulsion so that it can easily coat your screen but is not overflowing out of the scooper. Let the liquid set before applying so that you can have an even pull.
Then with the thinner side of your coater apply it to the back side of the screen. At around a 45 degree angle drag the scoop firmly to the top. Apply pressure as you reach the top then let the emulsion fall back into the trough and repeat this step on the other side of the screen. I do this four times before moving on and placing my screen in the dark room.
I place my wet screen in the dark room with a fan to let it dry. This process will take about twenty minutes and while it is drying you can clean up.
If you don't have access to a proper dark room any closet will do fine or you can even make your own. A simple dark room is a large box and a towel over it, it can really be any place that has very minimal light while the screen dries.
Make sure to put any extra emulsion from your scooper back into the container, seal it and put it back where it belongs. If this is your first time storing emulsions you should keep it in a well regulated room. The liquid can last a long time as long as it's out of sunlight and not in a room that becomes too warm or cold.
Lastly, wash out your scoop coater completely, and make sure that no leftover emulsion is left.

Step 2:

Burning and Washing

While I allow my screen to fully dry I will walk you through how I create a graphic from scratch. My inspiration for this piece is an old tribal hoodie design that I wanted to recreate.
To start with any image that you are going to print you want to take out saturation and dumb it down to a black and white image. In my example, I am using Keynote to edit my photo which is a free app given by Apple but you can use any editing software even your photo app. You can see me toggling the contrast and exposure levels until I have a completely black and white image. It is best if your design has minimal to no gray in it.
The process behind how this works is the black on your design is where your ink is going to go through. This is because when you expose your screen with a black print on transparency paper the black will act as a sunblock which stops the emulsion under it from hardening. This then will wash away when you wash your screen after exposing it leaving you with a design that your ink can be pushed through.
In order to get an accurate logo I am going to invert my image so that I am printing the details of my graphic rather than the background. To do this I am using a free inverter site that I found off of Google.
Once you have made your design you are ready to print it on transparency paper, I am fortunate enough to have access to one of these through my school. I simply upload my image to Google Drive and print it from there just like a normal file. If you don't have access to one of these printers a good alternative is to send your image to a business like FedEx or Staples. There they can print your graphic on transparency paper and it's only around $1.50 per sheet.
Next, I take my prints to my work table, cut them out and by this time my screen should be dry and I am ready to burn. For this process, you will need an exposure unit which can be any form of light source. When you are exposing how much time you allow the screen to get and how strong the light is can drastically change your print result. Over-exposing will cause no emulsion to wash out and under-exposing will cause all of it to wash out. Its very normal for you to not get this on your first go, it took me a couple times to understand my exposure time but once you get it you'll have the ability to burn any sized screen.
I am using four 50-watt light bulbs under one sheet of glass at exactly four minutes and twenty seconds.
Before exposing make sure to tape your designs to the back of your screen. A very important part of this step is that when you tap your designs make sure they are backward on the back of the screen. Doing this will print them right side up when the process is done.
In the video you can see I use a piece of foam to cover the top of my screen while it is exposed, this is to ensure that no light escapes the top and the screen is completely lit.
Once your timer for four minutes, twenty seconds is up, quickly bring the screen over to your washout station and gently spray the front and back with a hose. After, you can let it soak for a moment. While this is happening you should be able to see a glimpse of your graphic come through the emulsion.
Now you can turn up the pressure on your hose and blow out any loose emulsion on the screen. Once you've gotten rid of any unexposed emulsion your print should be perfect and you can move on to printing once the screen has dried.
Place your screen next to the fan one more time and go get your printing materials.

Step 3:

Taping and Printing

While your screen is fully drying go grab your squeegee, tape and any ink you'll be using in your print.
Then once your screen is ready to go you will start to tap your edges. These are the side is the margin where the emulsion stops and there is potential for unwanted ink to go through. I typically will tape the front and back sides for safe measures.
I am using a four color print station for this example but you can use any flat surface to screen print on. What I am doing in the video tutorial is aligning my screen to the center of my table so that the print will be centered every time.
We will be using speedball ink which is water based meaning that it dries easily. This is great when it comes to drying your clothing with a heat gun but it also means you have to continuously work or the ink will dry on your screen.
Once your screen is in place then you are ready to apply your ink. Always apply a good amount, it is better to have extra ink on a screen than not enough for a print. You also need to flood the screen when you work with water based ink. This means that you gently coat the screen with the squeegee so that the ink doesn't dry over the graphic.
I recommend running a couple of test prints on pieces of paper or a shirt that you don't mind getting messy. This allows you to see how the design looks and gives you an idea of how much pressure you need to use while printing.
Once you feel confident with your print then you are ready to put a shirt under the screen and begin. A good rule of thumb is that your logo distance from the neck opening should be about four fingers long.
The best technique I can give you for printing is that your squeegee should be at almost a 90 degree angle. You need to use a lot of pressure to embed the ink into the shirt and that energy comes from your fingertips. Don't be scared to pull hard, you want to bring the ink towards you and really get it into the shirt.
Two methods of printing are pushing and pulling. These are equally great and you can see me utilize both to make sure I got an equal amount of ink into my hoodie.
Once you've made a successful print and you flood your screen then you can take your time to hit your wet ink with a heat gun until the ink is fully dry. Then you are done and you have successfully completed your first screen print the only thing left to do is clean up.

Step 4:

Clean Up

This is the last step of the process and you really want to save as much material as you can.
It is extremely important that you take your time during clean up. You can see that I am taking off all the extra ink on my squeegee and putting it back as well as fully cleaning the screen.
You must remove all tape and thoroughly wash the screen to get as much ink off as you can. Dried ink damages your screen and takes away from future prints so it's best to get it all off before leaving the screen to dry. If you come across some really hard to get ink I recommend using a sponge to scrub it out.

Step 5:

Congratulations

Well there you've done it, you have created your very own successful print. The process isn't too difficult once you get the hang of it and I hope this has encouraged you to do more printing in the future. With the basic knowledge you just read and watched you can expand into more complex printmaking and multi-colored work. Thank you for using my tutorial, I would love to see any cool pieces that you made through this process. Please send any work that you have made to leobroganhughes@gmail.com, thank you!