WESTERN ARTWORK By Denny Karchner 06 Nov 2005

WESTERN ARTWORK By Denny Karchner 06 Nov 2005

I am posting a "tutorial" entry and a "critique" request so it might not get missed for some. Let it up to me to "change it up". This post is going to be a "condensed" version on how this art is rendered. What you see below is a "grayscale". Your are looking at a job that is built in many PhotoShop "layers". Probably as many as 50-60 layers . I never counted. Each layer contains an element, a photo, a line of type, a portrait, a logo, a car, etc. Every little thing has its own layer. Each little piece or area has a "path" drawn around it. So there are as many paths as layers usually. Once the "grayscale" is complete you then go into "channels" to paste the color into each element. As you can probably guess, the total time is great. I probably have over 60 hours of total art time in these two pieces.

WESTERN ARTWORK By Denny Karchner 06 Nov 2005

The thing that really makes this kind of PhotoShop job totally different is that I am working with Pantone Colors and not RGB, or CMYK or "full color". This is where the "paths" come into play. Each path allows you to "select" and paste the individual Pantone Colors into the correct piece. The reason that I work in Pantone colors is that as Screen print art for shirts, needs to have and individual "plates" or "Screens" for each color to print the 10 color designs. In this case, you are not able to separate the millions of colors when they are RGB or CMYK, only "spot colors" or Pantones. The actual Pantone colors used to print these pieces are, two whites, 288 blue, 5425 silver/gray, 429 gray, 485 red, 165 orange, 123 yellow gold, 473 flesh and 134 pale yellow. The blacks that you see are what we call "shirt-show- through" or the "black" of the T-shirt. Here are some screenshots of four of the 10 colors to give you an idea how they look as they "go down" on the black shirt.

PANTONE 123 YELLOW/GOLD

WESTERN ARTWORK By Denny Karchner 06 Nov 2005

PANTONE 165 ORANGE

WESTERN ARTWORK By Denny Karchner 06 Nov 2005

PANTONE 485 RED

WESTERN ARTWORK By Denny Karchner 06 Nov 2005

PANTONE 5425 SILVER/GRAY

WESTERN ARTWORK By Denny Karchner 06 Nov 2005

Several years ago there were some really smart, young artists working at VF that figured out this process. It was so unique that the Adobe Company came to VF asking how they were using their own program. Adobe PhotoShop was set up mainly for use with photographs, RGB, and CMYK in mind. They couldn't figure out how we were doing the process with "spot colors" or Pantone colors and VF never did tell them. VF's response was "It's your program, you figure it out". This made VF one of the leaders in the use of PhotoShop and in the screen print industry. In the last few years a few others have finally figured out the process, but the extra years of experience has us way a head of the pack. For this reason, VF's client list consists of NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NCAA, NASCAR and just recently signed large contracts with Harley Davidson and with Tampa Bucs Coach Gruden.

Well this wraps up this Tutorial/Critique. Please let me know what you think. I also wanted to tell you that you are some of the first to see this design, because it is kept under tight wraps till the Event happens. "Yesterday was the day!" Congratulations Matt Kenseth! -Denny

Steph Salt 07 Nov 2005

Nice tutorial Denni, just hope that you don't get in too much trouble for posting it :D

I like the design as well, it's going to be a great T-shirt.

N. Michael Bryant 12 Nov 2005

Hey nice tutorial, Denny. Learning alot from this. by the way, drop me a line when not busy regarding screenprinting for t-shirts and marketing them. I have some questions for you, as well as for making prints to sell.

Richard K 12 Nov 2005

Some good info Denny, and never think that you are posting too much!

Some of this stuff I already know but its nice to see other approaches and you have a thing or two extra in yout tutorials that I don't know, so it really helps!

WESTERN ARTWORK By Denny Karchner 13 Jan 2009

Thanks to all!--Denny ;{

Jerrie Glasper 15 Feb 2009

I always learn so very much from your tutorials, Denny. You are a very generous and confident man. It is pure joy for me to witness such humility (just like Norman Rockwell) from you while you inspire me and many more whom you will never meet in person to improve their art skills and to strive harder. You are very necessary, my captain. I did mean to be sappy, but the Bible says, "Give honor to whom honor is due."

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