Fine Art Screenprinting E-Book

Maggie Jennings

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 134

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Fine Art Screenprinting explains the thrilling process of pushing ink through a mesh to produce large areas of vibrant colour. With step-by-step examples, it explains the many and varied ways of creating your designs as prints. It also encourages you to experiment, to achieve exciting and unexpected results. Written for beginners and enthusiasts, it will inspire and stretch artists to try new techniques and ideas. This new book covers the equipment and materials found in the printmaking studio and explains the screenprinting process and how to use positives with photo-sensitive emulsion. There is advice on printing techniques such as making prints from paper stencils and mono-printing and it also gives full guidance on screenprinting kits for use at home.

Leseprobe

fine art

screenprinting

Maggie Jennings

First published in 2015 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book published 2015

© Maggie Jennings 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 982 7

Frontispiece: Streaked Tulip on Pale Yellow

AcknowledgementsThanks to Andrew Warrington for photographing almost all of the book (the photos of the processes and many of the artist examples). I’d also like to thank him for his help and generosity. Thanks also to the Heatherley School of Fine Art for kindly allowing the use of their premises and equipment; to Jeanette Barnes and Fabienne Khial for their contribution and help in Chapter 9; and to all the contributing artists: Ian Bailey, Sophie Barr, Nicky Basford, Lynne Blackburn, Martin Burrough, Jaques Cader, Paul Clark, Marie Coccolatus, Jane Gray, Nicola Green, Chika Ito, Niall Kirk, Kathryn Maxwell, Stephen Mumberson, Paul Munden, Penny Mundy, Christina Niederberger, Celia Normand, Sarah Riley, Ian Scaife, Jane Stothert, Esther Sunyer Parellada, Judith Symons, Andrew Warrington and Jairo Zaldua. James. C. Gray was the photographer for Jane Gray’s Morocco1 and Morocco2. Philip Gibbs was the printer for Christina Niederberger’s Chandelier. Gigi Giannella was the photographer and Katsura Isobe as the performer depicted in the imagery of Jairo Zaldua and Nicola Green.

CONTENTS

1   An Introduction to Fine Art Screenprinting

2   An Introduction to the Print Room

3   Understanding and Creating the Design

4   Making a Positive

5   Screen Preparation

6   Mixing Colours

7   Printing

8   Blends, Monoprinting, Paper Stencils and More Ideas

9   Printing at Home with a Kit

10   Presentation – Signing the Print and Editioning Terms

Further Information

Index

Maggie Jennings,White Poppy. Rich and vibrant colours with spontaneous free gestural marks.

CHAPTER 1

AN INTRODUCTION TO FINE ART SCREENPRINTING

In this book you will be introduced to the fine art and language of screenprinting. You will be advised how to develop your ideas through this new medium, exploring, with informative illustrations, the many and various ways of creating your print. Printing on paper with water-based inks, you will be guided step by step through the technical processes; having the pitfalls pointed out so you avoid stumbling into them.

●  The processes described to create your print include:

●  making screenprints with photo-sensitive emulsion in an equipped print room

●  making prints from paper stencils

●  using direct methods of applying ink to the screen including monoprinting

●  full guidance on screenprinting kits for use at home; this also refers to textile home printing.

The author with two flower prints. Screenprinting is mostly about colour. It allows you to produce large areas of vibrant colour. These works are 112cm x 71cm.

THE LUMINOSITY OF COLOUR

Screenprinting is mostly about colour. It allows you to produce large areas of vibrant colour. Pushing ink through a mesh allows only the thinnest layer of colour to be deposited on the paper. This gives a glorious luminosity. The white of the paper glows through, ensuring colour values remain bright, clean and rich. The print forms a satisfying bond with the paper.

Once the ink is printed, it dries quickly and will not smudge or merge with subsequent layers, giving a clean exact image. Prints seem to have a sense of authority and completeness.

The first photograph here shows the author with some of her work. This demonstrates how screenprinting is a great medium for producing strong, rich colour fields on a large scale. These works are 112cm x 71cm.

Sunbird Sips. In this large image 112cm x71cm, the colours are rich and vibrant.

In SunbirdSips, the colours are mixed to their full intensity and demonstrate the vibrancy of the screen inks.

All these colours sing. Jane Gray,Morocco 2.

In Jane Grey’s Morocco 2, the rich colours of translucent screenprinting inks are over-printed to create more variation and richness. Screenprinting allows you to use the same stencil over and over again in different places to create the design.

Printmaking techniques can seem mysterious and complicated. There are a series of steps that have to be taken which may involve quite complex mental processes, and decisions to be made that often seem to rely on hope and faith rather than exact certainty. But, after all the calculations and labour, all printmakers will recognize the exquisite magic of seeing their work emerge, maybe not quite as imagined, but satisfying, beautiful and complete.

After all the preparation, seeing the finished screenprint is so satisfying. Kathryn Maxwell,Diamonds Make Me Smile.

Kathryn Maxwell’s Diamonds Make Me Smile encapsulates the playful side of screenprinting. Using blocks of coloured shapes and also drawn lines, negative and positive shapes create a captivating and engaging print.

MULTIPLES

All print techniques were originally devised to create multiples for commerce. Screenprinting is still used commercially to print large posters and billboards.

Now digital processes are mostly employed for creating multiples, and the older reproductive techniques have been discarded by industry. This is good news for the creative artist who has adopted these printmaking techniques as new vocabularies to discover and experiment with, providing new structures within which to build ideas.

It is refreshing to be able to create an edition of your work that can be exhibited in many places simultaneously. An individual print will be sold more cheaply than a one-off painting, but, if the whole edition sells, then the artist may be renumerated equally well as if for a painting. Editions of prints also allow for the possibility of contributing to artists’ print portfolios. It is so easy to print large editions of screenprints that it can be a rewarding way of making greeting cards or business cards or even illustrating your own books.

PRINTING PROCESSES

Having set functions to perform gives a framework to the working procedure. When involved in the more mundane tasks the technique requires, the unconscious imagination has the time and freedom to propagate and ferment.

It is possible to produce large editions of identical prints, but also, it is great fun to push the boundaries of print, playing with the techniques to create something new with each work. This way each print differs slightly, making it individual – a one-off. Why not make a series, rather than an edition?

SILK-SCREEN

Originally, the mesh used for printing was made of silk, and the name silk-screen printing is still often used. Silk, though fine and strong, can rip easily, and may sag a little when covered in ink making precise registration difficult.Today, we use synthetic fibres for the mesh, so screenprinting is a better title for what we are doing.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SCREENPRINTING

Stencilling was used in China as early as 960AD for fabric designs. Intricately cut paper stencils were held together with hair and colour was dabbed through the stencils with soft pads or brushes.

Screenprinting arrived in Western Europe in the late eighteenth century to print fabrics. Silk was stretched over a frame to support a stencil. Ink was forced through the silk with a stiff brush. The magnificently named ‘squeegee’, the rubber blade which is now used to squeeze the ink through the mesh, was introduced in the early 1900s.

Early in the 1900s, experiments with photo-reactive chemicals started the photographic processes we use today. Then artists experimenting in New York in the 1930s wanted to distinguish fine art work from commercial design. They introduced the name ‘serigraphy’ which is used in America to distinguish their art from the manufacturing process.

In the 1960s screenprinting came into focus in the art world through Pop Art. Artists such as Warhol, Paolozzi, Hamilton, Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein embraced the idea that they were using a commercial process usually employed for creating ephemera. They made a focus of the fact that the images could be made in their thousands and, because of this, could equally be trashed. Bright, synthetic coloured inks with no intention of longevity were employed. Art was about disposability. Art was everywhere, and it was accessible to everyone.

Ironically, most of those screenprints now sell for top prices, accessible only to the wealthy art collector.

Ian Bailey,Rebellion 1.A mix of photographic imagery, simple shapes, text and strong colour demonstrate screenprinting characteristics.

CHAPTER 2

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PRINT ROOM

This chapter is an introduction to the equipment and materials you will find in the printmaking studio.

It is very important to know what everything does, where everything belongs, how to treat and care for things and how to take care of yourself in the print room. The hardest job by far is to keep things clean. Many a fantastic print ends up with grubby marks, splashes and fingerprints around it. It is easy to get in a terrible smeary mess very quickly. Be as organized as possible, especially in a shared print room.

Be sure you are aware of where to put things – the designated clean and dirty areas. There should be a separate clean area for preparing paper. Keep your paper in a plan chest drawer or bring in your own folio for storage. Keep to the separate areas for mixing inks and storing inky jars.

Collect old cotton rags; always have clean rags handy, one of the most precious pieces of equipment in the print room is a clean, dry, cotton rag. Wear an old shirt or an apron, one with pockets in which to keep that precious rag is invaluable. It may be worth buying your own rubber or latex gloves and keep them handy in your apron pocket.

When a busy print room is in full swing it can be quite hard to find places to put things. Keep your own belongings together in a bag that can be placed out of the way. It may be worth investing in a work box for your own drawing materials and paints. This can be stowed under the work tables.

These days, we use very few dangerous chemicals. A general rule is always to use rubber or latex gloves when handling any substance. If you have an accident, spilling anything on yourself, copious quantities of water is usually the best first step. Check out where the First Aid box is kept. There is usually an eye-wash station for splashes in the eye.

Although much care is taken these days to use only safe ingredients, many paints are made from poisonous substances. It is a general rule that food and drink are never taken into a print room. Remember to wash your hands before eating. Try not to dip your brush in your coffee mug.

EQUIPMENT YOU SHOULD BRING

An artist should always carry a kit of the necessary art equipment. Get used to having a pencil case that always contains the basic set of tools. This should include pencils, preferably HB or B, for drawing your ideas, for making registration marks on the print to be erased later, and for signing the finished print. If you like a fine point on your pencil you may like to get a propelling pencil. Lead in-fills of all different grades can be bought in a good art equipment shop.

Don’t use a hard pencil for making registration marks, for example 2H or even higher values up to 6H. Although they can be sharpened well to give a wonderfully exact point, which is attractive for precise registration, they can incise into the printing paper and be impossible to completely erase later.

A soft eraser is necessary for erasing registration marks on your printing paper. It might be a good idea to have a hard eraser too for tackling stray ink marks and splashes on the borders of the print when the ink is dry.

Always have a sharp craft knife or scalpel; this is absolutely essential if you plan to cut stencils. Hopefully the studio will have a cutting mat. If not, lay down layers of newspaper to protect table tops from scoring. Also Scissors are always invaluable. Gnawing off lengths of plastic tape with teeth is never the most efficient method.

A ruler is essential. The print room should have a long heavy rule for tearing paper. When using this, always check that it is clean before putting it down on your lovely clean printing paper. Keep your own ruler or tape measure for working out border widths and so on.

Buy a brush roll for transporting your brushes without damaging them. You may need both watercolour brushes for working in your sketch book and harder hogs-hair brushes for use in monoprinting.

Your own roll of masking tape is handy. You often need it urgently to fix a printing problem or for registration, and you don’t want to have to roam around the printroom searching for the communal roll. You can keep it handy on your wrist, ‘the printmaker’s bangle’.

Pens – for drawing or taking notes and marker pens, which can be very helpful in working out the colour layers in your design in your sketchbook. Always have with you a work/sketchbook containing all your ideas and with plenty of room for working out processes.

THE WASH-OUT ROOM

Use gloves for all these chemicals.

Chemicals used:

●  Degreaser (this may well be general washing-up liquid)

●  Photographic emulsion (kept in the fridge)

●  Stencil remover (slightly caustic)

●  Heavy duty bathroom cleaner

●  Alkaline cleaning paste (this is highly caustic, and to be used only with protective wear)

●  High pressure water blitz/power blaster.

To use the water power blaster, check that the water source is turned on, then turn on the switch at the machine. Wear a waterproof apron, earmuffs and goggles when blasting.

SCREEN VACUUM BEDS

Vacuum beds have small holes drilled in the bed surface and are attached to a vacuum pump.

The vacuum holds the printing paper onto the screen bed. This will keep the paper in the correct position for printing and also prevent it from sticking to the screen and leaving a tide mark as it pulls away. It will have been adjusted to switch off as the screen is raised, making paper placing possible.Try lifting the screen and you will hear the vacuum turn off, then on again as you lower it. The vacuum can make a lot of noise, which can be annoying. Some people prefer not to use the vacuum for added peace.

Vacuum bed.

Small holes drilled in the bed surface for the vacuum.

TABLE-TOP SCREENPRINTING

It is possible to print without using a vacuum. Screens for printing can be attached to a table top with a hinge. Hinges, that secure the screen to a table top or board, are available from printmaking suppliers. The ones shown were made by the studio technician.

Make sure the hinges are firmly secured as, when printing, it is possible to knock the screen out of true if it is not well fixed and that would give registration problems.

SeeChapter 9, Screenprinting Kit, for home printing without a vacuum bed.

The hinges can be screwed onto a table top or a board. These hinges were made by Joe Hanson from a design by Philip Gibbs.

Ensure the hinges are firmly screwed down so the screen doesn’t slip.

THE SCREEN

The screens are made of polyester, which is less likely to rip than the original silk, but care still needs to be taken. Don’t lean it against sharp corners. If you notice a small hole or the beginning of a tear, protect that area with plastic parcel tape. Small holes in the printing area are not usually noticeable in a busy print.

MESH PROPERTIES

Mesh at 45 would have only 45 openings per cm and let through a thicker layer of ink. This size would be good for fabric printing and printing on rough paper. You might be able to see the square edges of the holes. 200 mesh lets through a very fine layer. This is good for printing fine type, but is harder to manage as ink dries very quickly in the screen.