This weekend sees the Tour of Flanders, and next weekend is Paris – Roubaix. Since it’s been a while since I last did some screen printing, I thought I’d try to make a print based on the cobbled classics.

I’m quite pleased with the results, but I thought I’d run through my process.

I actually started from a photo that I took on the Molenberg at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad a few weeks ago. The same hill features in the Tour of Flanders.

From there I went into Photoshop and started masking off large parts of the picture that I didn’t need. This is quite slow, but masks work well for mistakes. In any case, I didn’t need perfection because I’d be adjusting the image pretty radically. So yes, I’ve not quite removed all the background through some of the bikes’ spokes.

Next it was into Illustrator where I am a bit of a beginner. But the Image Trace function is superb and I played around a bit until I got something I was satisfied with. I took that back into Photoshop and added some lettering.

Then I made a screen. I tend to use Speedball materials, although I’ve bought third party screens and other bits and pieces.

Finally I printed my T-shirt (see top). But I also made a paper print too.

I’d love to tell you that prints were on sale for reasonable prices, but, er, I only made a couple of shirts and one paper print (I messed up the others). But if you really wanted one…