Disgusted with what happened in Congress? Want to express yourself but want to be hip as well? Here’s a tutorial on how to make your own anti-GMA protest shirt. (I was going to post this earlier but Flickr was inaccessible yesterday.)

Before we start, you might want to read this Livejournal blogger’s cheap screen printing tutorial first (also found here).

Materials

• plain T-shirt
• a paint brush
• textile paint
• glue
• GIMP and GIMPshop (or Photoshop)
• silkscreen frame

Looking for a Photo

The first step is to look for a photo of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo using Google’s image search. Try to get a photo with a background that would be easy to erase. I’m using the one above. (Someone who saw my Flickr tutorial suggested that it would be better to use a funnier picture. I’m in total agreement. In fact, my next protest shirt will make use of a smirking GMA. For this tutorial though, I was a little more conservative with my choice.)

Editing the Image

Now, it’s time to manipulate the image to make it easier to use as a template for our silkscreen. I know a lot of you use Photoshop, but since I’m actively advocating opensource software now, I’m recommending the GIMP. Since I too am used to Photoshop, I’m using a GIMP hack named GIMPshop. The hack makes the GIMP’s menu structure and tools look similar to that of Photoshop’s. (It’s available for Mac OS, but scroll down the comments on the GIMPshop article to get to the Windows and Linux versions. Thanks to Pau for the link.)
Anyway, load the image of your choice in your photo editing software and start erasing the background. What you need is an image of GMA on a white background.

Now to make the image you have black-and-white. If you’re using Microsoft Paint, just save the image as a Monochrome Bitmap file as shown in Kristy’s tutorial. For Photoshop users, you have to use the Threshold option (Image > Adjustments > Threshold). In GIMPshop, there is also a Threshold option, as shown above (Image > Colors > Threshold). Fiddle with the controls a bit to find the right amount of detail for your black-and-white image. Too much detail will make the image difficult to use as a template. Too little detail will make the image unrecognizable.

Now the image you have should be black-and-white and with little detail. Using your photo editing software, add any text you want, then save the image. Print the finished product.

You can use the image I made by the way. I’ve licenced the above image under an Attribution-Noncommercial Creative Commons licence.

Screen Printing

Now, follow the instructions in Kristy’s Cheap screen printing tutorial. You can actually buy a ready made silk screen frame at any local bookstore (I bought mine at National Bookstore. Price range: 73.75 to 106 pesos. The larger the frame, the more expensive — so stick to the smaller frames). Trace the image on the screen and then paint all the “negative space” with glue. Once the glue dries up, you can use a brush and some textile paint to “print” on your shirt.

The Finished Product

The finished product, shown here worn by yours truly on one of our trips to Subic. Sorry, I don’t have a nicer pic. (And sorry that I don’t exactly have a model’s body.)

The original version of this tutorial was posted in Flickr as a photo set. If you manage to make your own protest t-shirt using this tutorial — a shirt you would be willing to wear — please send me a photo of yourself wearing the shirt and I’ll post it in Flickr.

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