Wednesday 28 January 2009

Screenprinting Week 3

A few photos from last night's session:

Screenprinting mosaic

Awesome old till they have there.

I am printing a Spooky Alphabet. It's an idea I've had rattling around for a good two years but finally I've had the opportunity to do something with it.

The one really clear image I've had in my head all that time is "H is for Haunted House". In my mind, it's always been a square format and purely black and white. You are looking down on the house and a ghost or two flutters from the window frames like ripped curtains. I don't know what it is - and I'm sure it's not just me - but I very rarely can I take what I can see in my brain and reproduce it exactly on the page (it's like singing, I suppose. In your head you sound great, but out loud....eek), but here is my approximation up close:

version2.jpg

As much I like this, this sneaky second, longer, thinner version started appearing...:

version1.jpg

...and I went with that.

The past two weeks we have been learning the basics - how to make a screen and how to print from it. This week we learned how to produce a "possie" (positive) from a drawn/computer generated/photographic image and made our own screens from it. There's a lot to remember from two weeks ago and I was thankful I made lots of notes afterwards! I still made a few mistakes making up my screen, but I think it's one of those things that you just learn by doing over and over. I managed to print the backgrounds (the orange part of my image up there), one lot in a dark orange and another lot in a sparkly limey green, and I'll go back and print the "key line" (ie, the outline, or everything that's black above) next week. Can't wait! It's so much fun and I really feel like I'm "creating" something. Obviously I create images all the time, but I'm really enjoying the physical aspect of this. Who needs weight training, eh?

Monday 26 January 2009

Screenprinting Week 2

Well, I took my camera with me and everything but I was so wrapped up in the actual printing I completely forgot to take any photos. So I've taken pictures of some of my finished prints instead:

print2.jpg

print3.jpg

print5.jpg

print1.jpg

print4.jpg

I made two simple screens, one with strips of torn black paper and one with lines cut out of film. We were suppose to make the two screens line up in some way, but once I started printing I preferred just layering the one screen upon itself in different colours. I really like how using only two colours looks, so I've come up with an idea for a two-colour print to work on for the next couple of weeks.

Watch this space!

Monday 19 January 2009

Ummm....Happy New Year?

Bit late, I realise, but you know how it is when you sit down to work on the 2nd January and then you don't stop til the 17th, right? Nearly four weeks late it might be, but here's my Christmas dinner:

xmasdinner.jpg

So finally I have chance to blog, although I don't really have that much to blog about! My Christmas was very relaxing, then I was chucked straight in to finishing two projects and roughing out a third. That's where I've been for the past few weeks.

In more exciting news, last Tuesday I started an eight-week screenprinting course, which I'm so far very much enjoying. I'm going to take my camera with me tomorrow night to document my processes. Hopefully it'll also help me remember all the stuff I need to do to get the process right! The aim of the course is to enable you to come in and use the print studio by yourself without supervision, so I'm hoping I will be able to produce some more personal work this way.