Screenprinting OPAQUE colors

[squeegeethree]

Tw flo. concentrates are the way to go.
Solvent inks, unless they are enamel, scratch very easily.

[DenisMutter]

print with house paint?

[Unitus]

OK, I have a similar question. I thought the speedball colors (except straight CMY) were all transparent. They say something on the bottle about adding Extender Base for transparency.

Anyway, I've clearly found that's not the case.

So my question is: is there any way to make those more opaque if I were to use straight from the bottle or do I need a base of white?

CMY speedball are pretty transparent.

Black is opaque. Med Red is opaque. Med yellow is pretty opaque. White is pretty opaque too. Purple is pretty transparent. The metallics are VERY transparent. It sorta depends on the color with Speedball.

[seriplop]

print with house paint?

house paint is not more opaque unless the colors have lots of white.

[Mark McCormick]

most color inks are transparent. more pigment = more opacity. you can try a variety of techniques to achieve opaque coverage, but the best bet, IMO, is the white base. another option would be to double coat your screen and increase your exposure time for a thicker stencil, which will allow you to lay down a thicker coat of ink. if you add white to your ink, it will increase the opacity, but it will also make your ink more pastel.

[DenisMutter]

house paint is not more opaque unless the colors have lots of white.

cool - good to know!

I would have thought it was more opaque than ink.

and I would have been wrong.

or - more to the point, I was wrong.

We've wanted to try it, but just printing with the ink we have is tough enough!

[Doolittle]

CMY speedball are pretty transparent.

Black is opaque. Med Red is opaque. Med yellow is pretty opaque. White is pretty opaque too. Purple is pretty transparent. The metallics are VERY transparent. It sorta depends on the color with Speedball.

Thanks, appreciate the info. I'm having trouble with the Speedball orange. It's really transparent. And, I'm trying to print on Brown Paper. I've got some detailed areas that would be crazy tough to register if I printed white first. I'll have to figure something out. There aren't any "additives" other than a whole lot of white?

Anyway, I thought about house paint too so appreciate the tip about that as well.

[Doolittle]

Actually, I could probably use the Med Red with some yellow if it's that opaque. I would assume that would work.

[seriplop]

learn to print on white paper before you start using dark colors

[Casey Burns]

I've got some detailed areas that would be crazy tough to register if I printed white first.

when you do an underwhite, you really should use a separate positive that is choked so you're not dealing with supertight registration.