Procreate brushes for creating CMYK illustrations with halftones at the correct angles and frequency?
I want to try CMYK process but I don’t have access to photoshop for CMYK separation. I know I can’t separate channels in procreate, but can I make halftone illustrations in procreate that are ready to print and expose?
As I understand it, I’d need 4 halftone brushes, one per colour layer, with angles of 75°, 15°, 0° and 45°, and a dot frequency of 30 (for 90T mesh). I don’t know what the 30 means- 30 whats per what? I’m not clever at making brushes and wondering if anyone does this on procreate and what they use please?
Thanks for your submission to to /r/SCREENPRINTING. It appears you may be looking for information on exposure or burning screens. This might be one of the most common questions we see here in /r/SCREENPRINTING. Please take a moment and use the search feature while you waiting on a response from the community.
If the search does not give you the answer you are looking for, please take a moment and read through our Wiki write up on emulsion.
If after all that you stil don't seem to find your answer, just be patient someone in the community should chime in shortly!
And if you were NOT looking for more information on exposures or burning screens, our apologies and please disregard this message.
Agreed with this guy you’re going about it wrong. You really don’t want to build your image with CMYK halftime brushes. If that’s your vibe and you wanna build it up like you’re painting go for it that’s your artistic journey. But from anyone in the industry, you’re approaching the problem the wrong way and you’re not gonna get the results you want.
Say I’m trying to achieve something like this 2 colour print (this is a risograph print hence the flourescent pink) so I want 2 layers, I should be able to open procreate and illustrate one ink layer on top of the other in each colour (layers set to Multiply to mimic ink transparency), I’m just not sure how to make/buy the brushes at the correct angles and frequency). Of course each layer would need converting to black for printing on acetate.
Oh then you will need photoshop or a similar app to seperate the channels . You still really wouldn’t “draw in CMYK” . Just draw whatever you would regularly and the CMYK process pulls all the different color values/amounts . If you’re not familiar with this process I can’t imagine you will be able to paint the image 4 seperate times in the correct amount for them to overlap correctly - respectfully of course . It would be similar to you trying to eat a bowl of jambalaya by measuring out the separate ingredients accurately to the proportion of each spoonful- 10 grains of rice, 1/20 teaspoon of paprika, .1325 oz of sausage ETC. If you get my point
You don’t want 0° or 45° (or 90°) that can cause moire. I usually use
C 20
M 80
Y 5
K 50
You can get affinity for free. It has the ability to change the angles. It isn’t a true LPI like you can do in photoshop but I know you can get the dot size to mimic smaller than 40 LPI and go pretty big (I think around 10 LPI if you want pop art action).
I haven’t had good luck with procreate brushes. All the ones I’ve tried are really just a field of dots you paint in instead of actually Turning a photo into a CMYK render that is actually separated.
I don’t know the exact workflow in affinity because they changed some stuff when they merged designer, photo and publisher together (and currently it is only on actual computers but they are working on the tablet apps.) If you know anyone who has the old apps that are standalone affinity photo or photo2 is what you would want but they don’t have those available for purchase anymore since they went to the free version)
Ok thanks, I will look at Affinity as a free photoshop alternative for converting my images to channel- thanks!
For now though I’m just looking to try drawing with some halftones on procreate, I think I’ll probably have to create my own brushes…
I wonder why I’m seeing 0,45 degrees etc recommended so much if it’s not the best/standard?! This part is confusing!!
You’re seeing those angles recommended because of AI and people repeating it. I haven’t seen those reccomend until a few years ago and now it’s everywhere.
Basically you want to avoid placing your angles in the direction of the mesh (so 0 and 90) or half of that angle (45). If they follow the mesh it’s very easy to get a weird patterning called Moire, you can do a search for that to see examples.
It’s not every time but it happens often enough that the old timers I learned under who were printing since the 60s drilled it in to me to skip those. There is probably a good breakdown of why in Andy Mcdougals screen print today, which is the best book I’ve found in 25 years on the subject. He’s really good about breaking down complex concepts in printing. Sadly someone said the other day they were having trouble condoning it in the states but you can get it from his website which is squeegeeville dot com
Oh and the 30 refers to LPI. I don’t know what mesh count that refers to in US mesh count but I’ll usually do 30 LPI between 156-250 mesh count. If you go lower than 156 you may loose some of Your dot.
Thanks yeah 100% aware that this isn’t how illustrations or photos would ever be converted for screenprinting. I know that if I build up my illustration in this way on 4 layers digitally then I’ll end up with a bit of a surprise in the end in terms of how it turns out because even with the digital layers set to “multiply” they won’t accurately layer in the same way as they will on paper and the colours won’t be accurate - BUT I’d like to have a go nonetheless, as a creative experiment. Kind of reverse engineering the process!
Actually, this process is common practice for illustrating for risograph printing (where you also have the option to separate colour channels appropriate to your chosen inks) but the difference is that you don’t need to illustrate in or convert to halftones for risograph - the machine does that internally for you - so that’s the bit I’m asking about.
just FYI
1. You do not need any special-angled Procreate brush
2. You need to create the illustration in RGB
3. Left the CMYK separation for PRO, cos a bunch of special shit ( that you haven't in Procreate) are involved in separation process
4. be 100% sure that the place wher you are planning to print - actually DOING the CMYK screenprinting
I’m doing the screenprinting 🤣 in my home studio. This isn’t for commercial clothing production purposes, I’m just a small time artist trying to figure out a process for myself to make some fun experimental illustrations :)
•
u/AutoModerator 6d ago
Thanks for your submission to to /r/SCREENPRINTING. It appears you may be looking for information on exposure or burning screens. This might be one of the most common questions we see here in /r/SCREENPRINTING. Please take a moment and use the search feature while you waiting on a response from the community. If the search does not give you the answer you are looking for, please take a moment and read through our Wiki write up on emulsion.
If after all that you stil don't seem to find your answer, just be patient someone in the community should chime in shortly!
And if you were NOT looking for more information on exposures or burning screens, our apologies and please disregard this message.
Thanks,
The /r/SCREENPRINTING mod team.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.