Children TV icons the Chuckle Brothers have been brilliantly recreated in ink by Blend Screen Printing.
The Chuckle Brothers T-shirt was ordered by Michael Povey, the owner of Feeble Mafia, for a collaborative release with artwork from Nathan O’Neil aka @heartfeltzine, explains Neil Crockley of the Middlesborough print shop.
“This was hand screen printed with two colours on a Riley Hopkins silver press with white and black waterbased inks from Amex,” he explains. “The two screens used were 43t for the white base and a 120t yellow mesh for the black 55lpi halftones. Also used were 60/90/60 triple duro squeegee for the white and a hard 80/90/80 blade for the halftone.”
Halftone work for the Chuckle Brothers
Printing the Chuckle Brothers T-shirt required some adjustments, Neil says. “The artwork can come out quite dark on press due to dot gain with the fine halftones and low-res art. So, in Photoshop I brightened up certain areas within the design to even out the contrast and help with keeping a more consistent look for each shirt during the run.
“Screen printing fine halftones by hand can be a challenging process as you have to stay as consistent as possible with squeegee pressure, speed and angle as this all can effect the dot work in each print.
“I don’t get to work with many halftone designs but it’s a technique that I’m very interested in developing further into multi-colour halftones, such as simulated process and CMYK for full-colour photographic images.”
Neil printed the design onto 15 Gildan Ultra Cotton tees. “Both the artist and brand loved the result and how it reflects the feel of the original collage artwork.”
Also included were inner neck prints and the Chuckle Brothers T-shirt order was folded and bagged with holographic stickers.
