drawing on a tarp

resynthesize · Post by **resynthesize** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 3:12 pm

Hey all,

We're building a monkey hut (see pic here: http://picasaweb.google.com/btallent/Mo ... 3272159522 and I want to project an image onto the tarp with a projector and trace it. I was planning to use a sharpie, but it occurred to me that the sharpie ink might not stick to the tarp.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Will a sharpie or some other kind of indelible marker work? I want to avoid painting if at all possible because it'll make the image we want to put on there take MUCH longer to do. Any hints would be greatly appreciated!

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 4:12 pm

What's the tarp made from? Plastic?

resynthesize · Post by **resynthesize** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 4:14 pm

Ugly Dougly wrote:What's the tarp made from? Plastic?

It's this tarp: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010Z ... oh_product

Says it is made out of Polyethylene. I guess that's plastic...it just looks like a regular tarp you'd buy at home depot or lowes :)

Jiva · Post by **Jiva** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 4:20 pm

It depends on the material that your tarp is made of. Most of the blue/silver plasticky tarps are made of polyethylene, and sharpie will rub off of them readily. The big nasty toluene/xylene based markers will stick a bit better, but PE is just really slick stuff and is difficult to mark indelibly.

If it's billboard vinyl then get some vinyl dye (try a craft store).

resynthesize · Post by **resynthesize** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 4:37 pm

Jiva wrote:It depends on the material that your tarp is made of. Most of the blue/silver plasticky tarps are made of polyethylene, and sharpie will rub off of them readily. The big nasty toluene/xylene based markers will stick a bit better, but PE is just really slick stuff and is difficult to mark indelibly.

If it's billboard vinyl then get some vinyl dye (try a craft store).

Thanks for the tip. I'm going to buy a couple of xylene loaded king size sharpies. Kind of funny that most markers were advertised as NOT having xylene or toulene...I'm looking for the toxic stuff that will stick to the tarp!

We'll be drawing outside so we should be ok for ventilation.