Practice the skills to Airbrush T Shirts without Spending a Fortune!

Learning to airbrush t shirts takes lots and lots of practice.... and all that practice can mean a lot of money spent on buying shirts to practice on. Below are a number of money saving strategies that may save your wallet....

You can always practice on paper

It is probably a good idea to practice on paper alone until you get the basics figured out and then move to the actual t-shirt material. It is important though to make sure that the paper you practice on has some of the same properties that t-shirt material does.

The big difference you are going to find between paper and cloth is that two materials absorb paint much differently. I recommend staying away from smooth paper (like photocopy paper) because it hardly absorbs paint at all...instead look for really "soft" paper.

The cheapest soft paper I've come across is newsprint. Newsprint is available at almost every craft store and is perfect for learning to airbrush T shirts because it has sort of a fuzzy texture.

I like to buy the newsprint that is coil or glue bound with a solid cardboard back. These usually cost around $6 at my local craft store and have 100 pages of newsprint in them. I like these because I can stand the "book" up and use it as an easel and when I am done painting one page, I can just flip to the next page and keep working.

This is nice because at the end of the day, all of your practice designs are in one nice neat book rather than scattered all over the floor or rolled up in a corner.

Paper Towel is Perfect

When you are in a pinch, the perfect replica for cotton tees is paper towel! I am not sure it if ends up being all that much cheaper (paper towel is pretty pricey for what it is) but it is readily available.... you probably have a roll in your kitchen right now.

Thrift Stores - An airbrush T shirt artists best friend!!

Why buy sparkling new T-shirts to make mistakes on when you can go to the thrift store and buy a dozen T shirts for the cost of a 3 pack at Wal-Mart?

Most t-shirts at the thrift store are stained or have writing on the front or back - just paint on the other side - no big deal! And, if your design works out well, and you are disappointed that you can't wear your airbrush T shirt - cut out the design and stretch it across a piece of cardboard and use it as a display item.

Free Promotional T-Shirts

When I go to pick up a case of beer I am more inclined to buy the one with the free t-shirt in the case .... not so I can wear it...but so I can PAINT it!!

I am sure this is not the marketing strategy the beer breweries had in mind when then started putting t-shirts into cases of beer!

I also let my friends know that I am interested in these types of T shirts and they come to me in droves. T-shirts from events, work, charities, etc... people accept them because they feel obligated to take them but more often than not, don't actually want them - just let them know that you do!

Fabric Stores

You can buy plain old cotton in rolls from fabric stores to practice on too. I personally have never found it to be cheaper than buying real t-shirts though and, I found that the loose cotton is difficult to work with (that is it takes a lot of fussing to get it stretched across something so that you can paint it).

Buy in Bulk

When you are ready to practice on crisp, clean brand new t-shirts make sure you buy them in bulk.... a case of t-shirts typically works out to less than $2 per shirt... whereas buying them one at a time from a craft store can cost more than $6 per shirt.

The biggest bonus of buying in bulk? If you have a stack of 50 t-shirts to practice on as opposed to 3 you will won't feel bad if you screw one up... just toss it aside and grab another one off the stack!