Make a Silk Screen with a Hand-Drawing

Hoping to find the best markers to make a silk screen stencil, I embarked on a creative experiment with four different marker brands: T5 Funcils, tesquio, and Artistro black acrylic markers. Armed with an inkjet transparency sheet, my mission was to find which marker could handle the delicate dance between fine and thick lines with ease.

Watch Me Make a Silk Screen with a Hand-Drawn Transparency

Why Hand Draw Your Transparency?

There are a number of reasons why you might want to hand draw a transparency rather than printing your screen printing transparency. The number one reason is that it is fun! Also consider practicality. If you have a class of kids you want to teach a new craft. Maybe having all of them create a design on the computer to print isn't in the cards. You can however, have them all draw their own transparency.

Or maybe, you just don't want to deal with design software and a printer today. Believe me, we understand.

Why Not Grab a Sharpie?

We use Sharpies all the time. However, when drawing on a transparency, the darker the pigment, the longer you can expose your screen printing stencil without making your design impossible to washout. The markers we reviewed each worked great in this regard.

Review

While the T5 put up a bit of a fight, refusing to glide as I wished, the others worked great. After turning these doodled designs into an EZScreen stencil using Screen Printing Starter Kit, it was time for the grand finale: the print test. And the crowd goes wild—yes, they print beautifully! The T5 had its hiccups, but overall, each marker performed admirably. If I had to pick a winner, it would be either Tesquio for its effortlessly smooth strokes or  Funcils because their 5 pack came with a versatile range of sizes. It seems the right tools don't just make art easier; they make it a joy.

See The Results:

We printed onto a piece of paper to see how things turned out, and the results speak for themselves.

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Funcils - These worked well and come in a pack with various size tips.

Artistro - These would be a solid choice.

Tesquio - These were the smoothest to draw with, and I loved them. Also, came in two sizes which is nice.

T5 - We aren't going to link these because they have a hard tip that made it difficult to draw on the transparency. They worked, but we recommend one of the other brands.

Learn More About Screen Printing at Home with EZScreens!

Make your own stencils with our screen printing starter kits!