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From Scratchboard to Screenprint

(This is a guest post by my super cool friend Mike Ferris. Mike is a recent graduate from the University of Central Missouri with degrees in Commercial Art Illustration and Studio Art Printmaking. He is currently working and living in Kansas City, Mo. He finds that travel, looking at other artists, and working with other artists is essential to growth, improvement, and happiness when creating his own work. And he has a mysterious love for candy cigarettes.)

1. For any project I take on, I do thumbnails, sketches, research, etc. to get an idea of a final composition. I look at all of my major influences like Dan Grzeca, Graham Francoise, Gustave Klimt... research is key.

2. I have my final sketch down, after doing a few small character studies. I liked the guy with the buildings on his back, so I did a really small black and white study and pasted him in my sketchbook for reference. Im very interested in the idea that humans have a need to collect, build, travel etc. especially when it comes to cities.

3. The next step in my process takes a bit of patience and stamina. To get to my final illustration, I ink up a piece of what is called CLAYBORD. It is a hard board coated with some sort of clay, but it is soft enough that if you scratch it, it will come off. So I ink it up, then take a piece of graphite paper, put it on the inked board (graphite side face down), and draw on the top of it. What this is doing is transferring the drawing over to the inked board, giving you a key to scratch out.

4. The final scratched image.

6. The final illustration is going to be screen printed, so I keep in mind that when designing in photoshop, I need to keep the colors in separate layers. This is a 3 color print. So I have to have at least 3 layers, with each color having it's own layer.

7. Each layer will be printed out of what is called a transparency printer, in a super thick black coat. This is used to expose a screen covered in light sensitive photo-emulsion. The screen is exposed with UV light, and the black layer blocks the light, keeping the emulsion underneath soft. After the exposure is complete, the screen is taken to a washout booth, and washed with a hose. The soft emulsion will wash out, and this creates a stencil that is used to push ink through.

8. Keep in mind that when screen printing, you need to print from light colors to dark colors.

9. 2 colors are down, one more to print. PRINTING ACTION

10. And the print is done. Always sign and edition your prints!! And this is my process to get from idea to completion. Do research, sketch a ton, look at other artists, and practice practice practice.

exciting things!

My friend Dan, of Dead Dog Output, is building a guitar pedal and I'm in charge of decorating it! He asked for a circle pattern and helped me pick out a color scheme, and here is what we have:

I'm not sure yet how to adhere it to the metal (I'm thinking a vinyl sticker, perhaps?) but I'm super excited to finish this project!!

Meanwhile, Dan has just finished his second album. Download it here! I also designed the layout for his site, and my geranium pattern made an appearance:

In other news, my friend and fellow screenprinter Mike Ferris got my t-shirts in the mail! We did a trade and I got one of his cool posters, but I accidentally lieft it at home. At any rate, here is Mike wearing the bow shirt!

 

 

triangle patterns

my next few patterns revolve around triangles.... i don't really like this one.

my favorite:

this one's got a bit of a paper texture behind it.

squares next, probably!

circle patterns

Some quick circle-related patterns I did tonight! I am obsessed with this, seriously.

my first one was inspired by my favorite quilting pattern, cathedral windows. and the pattern comes from my screenprinting sample here!

this is just messing around with layering and colors...

And here is my renewed attempt at cathedral windows, but a bit more literal! the background pattern is from some abstract watercolors I did.

Look out for more quite soon!

sitting pretty

Today was my last class for Textiles I. Sad day. But I got my final project back! Here it is:

And here is how I did it: 

One of our assignments in textiles was to do a photo emulsion on a silk screen. I'm not exactly sure what photo emulsion is, but it involves putting chemicals on the screen and putting it in a huge machine that sucks all the air out and makes a really scary noise... Anyways we had to make a Commemorative Cloth using a symbol that defines us, and I chose geraniums. Red geraniums are my favorite flower and I'm also so excited to have them in our yarn every summer! I think this was the picture I used:

And here is a detail of the Commemorative Cloth:
First I dyed the yellow background stripes, and then printed layers and layers of green, black, and pinkish red. 

Next I scanned it into the computer and used photoshop to grab details from the print. I used my tablet to draw this sketchy flower design, and I made it into a repeating pattern.

Next my design was printed on fabric, and here's what it looks like in real life:

But I couldn't just turn in some fabric! So I bought a small vanity chair at Goodwill, painted the frame pink, and reupholstered the cushion. Voila!

screenprinting it up!!

Here's what I've learned about screenprinting: IT IS AWSOME. It's what we've been studying in my textiles class lately. Here are my two samples; the designs were made using a stencil I cut out with an X-acto knife and they're meant to be deeply layered. Each is around 2 feet long--these are just details!

They took about 5 hours each to finish. After each color the screen, stencil, squeegee and spatula had to be rinsed and dried, and the fabric had to dry as well. Who knew that screenprinting was mostly about clumsily spraying myself with water and then using a hair dryer to blowdry the paint?

(Second post about Chicago coming up next!)

globe/brain/chewed up gum

My first art project of college! We were supposed to use the techniques we had learned so far in the semester: shibori & fiber reactive dyes. It was also supposed to be a self-portrait without concrete imagery. So naturally, I made this ball thing.

I was inspired by globes with textured typography: the kind with raised mountains that you can touch. So I glued my fabric onto a rubber ball in a wrinkled, ridged manner. It looked pretty legit, no one knew I had used a glue stick!!

Here's how it's a self-portrait: The globe represents a journey through emotional ups and downs, with dark patches and light patches all mixed together. I really like the way the black makes streaks through the pink. I wish it wasn't so pink though-- it was supposed to be more of a flesh color, but it's nearly impossible to mix that with the basic colors we had to choose from!

My classmates seemed to like it during the critique, but they also said some weird things... Somebody called it chewed up gum and someone said it resembled a brain. Which.... both of those things are true. Haha. I guess if chewed gum represents who I am... who am I to argue?

<3 birdfriend

dyeing and bunting

So, this semester I'm taking Textiles I at IU, which is definitely my favorite class ever. The technique we're learning right now are shibori (traditional Japanese tie-dye) using fiber-reactive dyes on cotton fabric. We had to make 8 samples using different shibori techniques and dyeing them different colors. Then we cut each in half to make 16 squares, half of which we dyed again. This created a really colorful, layered look. Of course I just had to take pictures of them to share! After a long epic journey to acquire clothespins, I decorated this tree in the courtyard of Collins at IU:

Here are a couple of detail shots:

And here is some colorful bunting that I knitted not long ago. I'm going to decorate my dorm with it. I should be posting a tutorial on it soon-- so simple!!

birdfriend