It was a busy teaching week, especially for the screenprinting classes. I did four demonstrations about making photo-emulsion stencils and two demos about printing blended colors. Here are the results from the blended color demos:
The screenprint above, from the morning class demo, was the result of blending grey with a deep fuchsia.
To print a "blend," you start by pouring puddles of two colors side by side at the top of the screen. Next, use the squeegee to mix them together by moving it side to side and back and forth until you see a seamless gradation from one color to the other. This requires a little time and patience so that you don't end up with unintended streaking. When you have the colors mixed well, you are ready to print. It is really fun to see each print with blended color come out from under the screen.
For the same demo in the evening, I used two different colors. Blending contrasting colors usually brings striking results; two shades of the same color can provide a lovely subtlety. You can also blend an opaque color with a transparent one for another kind of result. The image you are working with and your artistic intent help you decide what colors to blend.
Here is the same screenprinted image in graphic black on cream, no blend.
I like seeing how different it looks with different color choices. (And I keep wondering what the writing says )
ReplyDeleteHi Cathy,
ReplyDeleteThe writing is meant to be recognizable as such but unreadable. Just a nice textural background. That portion of the photo-emulsion stencil was created by photocopying a page of something I had written in pencil. Pencil marks are ideal because a copy machine - especially when you hit the "light copy" key - will only pick up the heavy handed parts, resulting in the suggestion of a text without revealing the content. A bit of mystery, perhaps.