Last weekend, amongst other artsy projects, I decided to try to do some bleach t-shirt designs. It’s a pretty simple concept really. All you need is…
A dark, blank t-shirt. I suppose you could use one that already has something on it, but why, when you’re designing something yourself?
A spray bottle with bleach in it. You can mess with value by diluting the bleach. I experimented heavily with that.
A design. Big thanks to my buddy Jake with Adapt7 for letting me use his logo. For doing so, he also got a sweet tee out of the deal.
After tracing the logo and putting it on mat board, I cut the design. Then, after ironing the shirt and putting a plank of wood inside (you don’t want the bleach soaking through!), it was time to spray some bleach on that shit! Off to a good start!
Just a note, the glasses and coins were used to the weigh the design so bleach couldn’t slip through.
The logo came out looking pretty sweet, but I wanted to experiment more. This is where diluting the bleach and messing around comes into play. I used edges of the stencil to block off sections and create line work on top of the dripping effect.
Boom! Awesome drippy/linear stuff going on here. I’m really happy with the way the shirt turned out.
After this first success, I wanted to create a 70′s-ish looking retro Detroit tee. Here’s what I came up with.
This is where the experimenting with bleach concentration came in handy. I already had a good idea of what concentrations would do what to the tee.
I highly suggest you try making shirts like these. They’re fun, cheap, and relatively easy to do. Just make sure you put something underneath and wear grubby clothes, or you could ruin your stuff (duhhhh).
Go for it!
-RLB
