How do you make vector art silhouettes?

Question

I would like to make t-shirts with white silhouettes of people.

Answer 1

Are you asking how to do the vector or how to make the t-shirt with the silhouette?

Well the easiest way to do the vector is drawing out the design, scanning it into Illustrator and hit Live Trace and then Make and Expand.

But as far as getting it on the shirt, here's some low cost alternatives to do it yourself:
You could do a stencil template and use textile paint to fill in or you could also do a bleach out on a colored t-shirt. The best way to do a low-budget cut-out anything on t-shirts (whether you're painting in or bleaching out), is to use contact paper (that stuff they use to line the inside of drawers with a slightly sticky side. Available in Wal-mart, Rite Aid, etc.). Draw your design on the contact paper and cut it out with an exacto knife. Iron the shirt you're using and insert a piece of cardboard bigger than the design inside the shirt. Then find a nice flat surface to tape the shirt on, making sure you stretch it on a bit (any table top will do as long as it's wide enough) with masking or painter's tape (something not too tacky). Before sticking on the contact paper, make sure to lightly mark it where you want it to go. Now you can either paint in the design with some textile paint or bleach out using a light misting spray bottle with a mixture of 1:5 (I THINK - test this first to get it to bleach without destroying the fabric. I can't remember the proper proportion) bleach to water and mist on a fine mist and let it bleach. There is a better way of bleaching out the color without dissentigrating the fabric but it's more expensive and you'll need other materials with it.

Some other ways you can do the design at home is using a foil. It's basically what they use to get the shiny metallic surface on clothes. What it is is basically a textile glue that you use for the design and you simply iron on the foil on top and done right, you get an even flawless metallic version of your design. Here's where you can get a kit: http://www.bellanonnaquilt.com/shopping/quilt_embellishments.asp or http://www.lauramurraydesigns.com/. They have a silver that can kinda pass for a white but look at the selection--they may have a white.

Answer 2

using tracing paper and fabric paint you can trace the image and attach the paper to stiff card cut it out and use it as a template to lightly spray over(dusting) this will give a silloutte of that image ,with practice you can produce great artwork. LF