This is a step-by-step article on how to airbrush a white ’68 Ca- maro onto a black t-shirt. Typically painting a car onto a t-shirt is simple, but this one provides a challenge because of the black fabric. More steps are taken to help bring out the design on


a black T shirt than on a light colored T shirt. Follow below as I take you through the process. This shirt was done free hand, and was painted using Paasche VL and VLST Pro airbrush- es with #3 tips and needles, and Createx acrylic textile paint.


1.The first step is to stretch the shirt over a board of some kind; I use masonite for my shirt boards. You may notice that the design is lightly sketched in. This can be done to speed the process along by using a projector to shine the image onto the surface and lightly sketching it in with pencil, chalk, fabric marker or disappearing fabric marker. Always have your refer- ence photo in front of you to compare. Try to see the depth of color in your reference and not just the final color; this will help you figure out the best method for you to paint that piece. For this piece I had several reference photos, each showing details better than another so that I could render the subject properly.


2 The first paint we lay down is an opaque white. This step is used to build up the white values and to show some of the contours and highlights which will appear in the final painting. Once the white is finished it is a good idea to heat set the paint with either a hair dryer, iron or heat press. This helps bind the paint to the fabric and will not allow the next layers of paint to soak in as much.


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