The printing process: from pencil to artisanal screenprint

⏲ 3 min read

⏲ 3 min read

Every design in the Paul Felmer catalog starts from original sketches drawn in 2B pencil and HB leads on 250g Canson paper. No shortcuts, no starting vectors, no digital references. Everything begins with the hand and the paper.

From sketch to screen

Ideas take shape through gestural scribbles. There's no single "correct" sketch that gets approved and sent straight through — there are dozens of versions, layers on top of layers, lines that come and go until the design finds its final form. The drawing process is the design. What ends up on the shirt is the conclusion of an argument the pencil had with the paper.

Once the sketch is ready, digitization happens in Adobe Photoshop. But it's not a clean scan and done — it's an edit that respects the paper textures, the pressure variations from the pencil, those imperfections that make the design feel handmade because it is.

Color separation and photoemulsion

Through CMYK and Pantone color separation, Ulano self-developing films are exposed onto photopolymer emulsions. This is the process where the digital design becomes a physical positive that goes to the screenprint frame. Each color is a separate screen, a separate ink pass, an opportunity for something to go wrong.

In a 3-color design, there are 3 screens, 3 passes, 3 moments where registration has to be exact. One millimeter off on any pass and the design goes out of alignment. That's why you run tests — several, until all colors are exactly where they need to be.

“Everything starts with pencil and paper. Always. Screenprinting is the end of the process — the pencil is the beginning of everything.”

Why artisanal screenprinting

Artisanal screenprinting gives fabric a texture that digital printing will never replicate. The ink goes into the fibers, it has body, it has physical presence. You can feel the ink when you run your finger across the design. That doesn't exist in a DTG or sublimation-printed shirt — it's exclusive to hand-done screenprinting.

Every shirt is slightly different from the previous one. Not because the process fails — but because that's the nature of something made by hand. There are pressure variations, temperature changes, the way the ink behaves in that specific moment. That's not a defect. It's the signature of the process.