House Paints for Printing...A Process Thread

[Bozzman]

You have to have a balance between the viscosity of the ink, opacity of the color & mesh count to make a good print. I have never printed with water base latex PAINT before. But printing is printing with any ink. You have to adjust for the ink & the substrate to make it work. If you screen is gumming up, it could be you are using a water soluble emulsion. And if it clogging up in the mesh, try thinning/reducing the paint or a lower mesh count. You'll also have to adjust your halftones to your mesh count or you'll get a Moore' pattern.
I think the viability for color fastness would depend quality of the paint you buy. Acrylic is acrylic.

[THE PiNCH]

damnit - you're right!

You have to have a balance between the viscosity of the ink, opacity of the color & mesh count to make a good print. I have never printed with water base latex PAINT before. But printing is printing with any ink. You have to adjust for the ink & the substrate to make it work. If you screen is gumming up, it could be you are using a water soluble emulsion. And if it clogging up in the mesh, try thinning/reducing the paint or a lower mesh count. You'll also have to adjust your halftones to your mesh count or you'll get a Moore' pattern.
I think the viability for color fastness would depend quality of the paint you buy. Acrylic is acrylic.

[jonkeefe]

We've been using Behr paints in their Paint+Primer base (the thickest one) -- no real issues with clogging, but if we're not speedy, we'll get paint drying around the parts of the screen where the ink doesn't get moved around much. This happens mostly around the front of the screen, where our stroke begins (we push stroke and pull flood).

Pain in the ass when cleaning the screens, as it's near impossible to scrub off when it dries enough, but if you go straight from printing to reclaim, the pressure washer blows everything out lickety-split.

[jonkeefe]

Oh! And our screens are all 156s and 280s -- we find the 156s are a bit too open to use paint with, as the pages end up getting soaked.

[edwardo_machino]

Oh! And our screens are all 156s and 280s -- we find the 156s are a bit too open to use paint with, as the pages end up getting soaked.

Yeah, I've found 158 pours too much through for paint. Really bubbly. 280 works well for me. 230 seems ok too. Recently I used some Martha Stewart silver metallic through a 280 and it held great detail.

[wearefriends]

Been printing with house paint(Sherwin Williams) on MDF for about 2 years now, the 230 is where it's at for us. I mix in floetrol to keep it from drying.

For thinner colors I'll throw in some cheap acrylics to thicken em up a little. It's a pretty wonky process mixing our colors, but it works for us. We don't do any halftones, and most designs are larger open areas.

[jonkeefe]

We've done both halftones and fine detail with Behr housepaints, and haven't run into too many issues yet. Here's a print we did last night with some (admittedly large) halftones and some detail work:

[CloneArmy]

I worked in a paint store for about 5 years before going to school to get my fine art degree in painting. The pigments used to mix house paint are the SAME they use in fine art acrylics. The most fugitive (prone to fading over time) of which is the same predominant pigment in the paint color Alizarin Crimson. Basically, darker reds would be the only colors you might need to concern yourself with fading. Titanium Doixide is the main bulk of unmixed house paint color (the white stuff they mix color into) and is also they main colorant in Titanium White acrylic art paint and acrylic ink. Stick to interior house paint, though. Exterior house paint has all manner of insecticides and mold resistant chemical evil in it. That shtuff ain't healthy.
My 2 cents.

[IWish]

. I mix in floetrol to keep it from drying.

Noob, here. What is the ratio of floetrol/paint that you use? I'd like to experiment with this. (I've been using retarder.)

Just realized this is an older post. Anyone...?

[kim_a]

Search the screenprint forum here for "Floetrol" and the ratio should come up, a lot.