Information
How to purchase a print
Biography
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Screen Printing Steps Power Point Presentation
New Stickley
Hamburg, NY Scenes
Deposit/Stilesville, NY Power point
AN ARTIST’S METHOD - SCREEN PRINTING FOR PLEASURE
The supplies needed to get started
Making the stencil
Printing Making multicolor prints
Simple direct photographic stencils
Stencils made with rubbings
Sources of supplies
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Introduction
Silk screen printing evolved from early Japanese cut paper stencils which were used to decorate textiles. The isolated elements of the stencil were held in place with human hairs or with fine silk threads glued across them. Eventually silk fabric was used to support the stencil.
Early in this century, commercial screen printing developed rapidly. Today, everything from grocery store signs and shampoo bottles to china and printed circuit boards can be screen printed.
During the depression, in the 1930’s the government financed Federal Art Project (part of the WPA) encouraged the development of silk screen printing partly to create "original art for the masses". Many emerging and recognized artists of the time responded by creating "serigraphs". This was a name for fine art silk screen prints as opposed to commercial work. The WPA artists investigated creative methods of making stencils directly on the screen. They used blockouts and resists, cut paper and cut film stencils as well as simple photo silk screens. Ever since the creation of the National Serigraph Society in 1940, screen printing has been recognized as a fine art medium.
Many prints of the late thirties and early forties have a socialistic message in their images of typical scenes from life. In the fifties Abstract Expressionism was the all the rage and screen printing was an ideal method of expression. Pop Art arrived in the sixties and again screen printing was used extensively by artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Edward Ruscha. Then came Op Art and Josef Albers who found screen printing to be the perfect media. Later Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and others would combine screen prints with painting to create original works.
Screen printing has continued to develop. The commercial market has encouraged so much new technology that it is impossible for the average print maker to know all that is available. The term "Serigraph" is now obsolete. Silk, as in seri is no longer the screen fabric of choice. It has been replaced by polyester, nylon and stainless steel. The old oil based inks have almost been eliminated in this ecology minded society. Techniques for stencil making can involve expensive, high tech. equipment.
There are serious artists, who are using the new technology combined with the old method of working directly on the screen. They produce original art that has a character all it’s own. There is a controlled freshness in each color pressed onto the paper with the pull of the squeegee. The image may be painstakingly made on the screen, but it is spontaneous in the printing.
Thirty eight years ago when I moved to Western New York, I had an immediate impression of the strong character of the buildings and of the landscape in this area. After a few years of painting local scenes in oil and acrylic I began experimenting with screen printing to express what I was seeing. I found that breaking down my images into areas of flat color and value strengthened my work. My subjects are often historical architecture and figures as well as wild flowers and quilt patterns. The same basic technique is used for all.
The image will print as you design it, there is no reverse image as in other print media.
You can use photographs, old advertising art and book illustrations as well as your own original art work as subjects to print. The resulting screen prints on paper can be used as framed prints note cards, posters etc. Prints on fabric can be sewn into wearable art, quilts, pillows, tote bags and of course, you can print T-shirts.
THE SUPPLIES NEEDED TO GET STARTED
The frame can be ready made, custom made or home made. There are many sources for ready made frames and screens. The common ready mades are of 2" x 2" lumber, I find them cumbersome to handle. As a result I have been using frames of my own design, made of 1" x 2" lumber. The important thing is to have a stable, rigid frame. For printing on paper, the frame can be hinged onto a printing bed with loose pin hinges. This is to permit the frame to be easily removed from the bed to be cleaned and to be replaced in the exact position for printing.
The screen printing fabric that I use is a fine mesh monofilament nylon ( 280 threads per inch) for very small detail. For general printing, I have been using a monofilament polyester ( 169 threads per inch ). Either fabric is stretched tightly on the frame. I have had a number of screens professionally stretched and held onto the frame with epoxy glue. When I need an odd sized screen, or want to replace the fabric on a frame, I stretch the fabric by hand and staple it in place with light duty staples. I then varnish the frame and fabric over the staples, taking care not to get any varnish on the printing area of the screen.
Squeegees can be plastic or wooden handled. The wooden handled ones are sold by the inch. I often use a window cleaning squeegee for small work. The squeegee should be at least two inches wider than the image to be printed and at least two inches smaller than the inside if the frame.
Hunt Speedball Screen Drawing Fluid comes in an eight ounce jar. It is a blue, water soluble liquid that is used to paint the image to be printed directly on the screen.
Hunt Speedball Screen Filler comes in an eight ounce jar. It is a dark red, thick fluid used as the blockout on the screen.
Home made blockout is made by simmering "Future" acrylic floorwax in a pan on the stove until it thickens to a paintable consistency. I add a little red food coloring to make the acrylic blockout visible. Ammonia is the solvent for this.
Hunt Speedball Textile Screen Printing Ink comes in many colors plus a transparent acrylic extender base. These can be mixed to make any hue. I also use Hunt Speedball Acrylic Screen Printing Ink for work on paper. The textile ink will work on fabric or paper, but the acrylic ink cannot be used on fabrics that will be washed or dry cleaned. All of these inks are soluble in water until they dry.
Water color brushes that come to a good point are needed. Drawing pens with blunt points are useful.
Paper for printing can be vellum bristol or cover stock from an office supply store. There is an envelope available that fits an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet cut in half. This is very handy for greeting cards. Art papers, water color paper, drawing paper will all work. For professional work I use acid free, archival papers. Arches 88 is an unsized paper made for screen printing. Stonehenge is another 100% rag paper that works well. It comes in soft colors as well as white and is less expensive than Arches.
Both of these papers come in sheets of 22" x 30". I cut them to whatever size I want on a paper cutter.
Fabric for printing should be light in color and have a smooth surface. A cotton/polyester blend is good. T shirts and sweat shirts should also be a blend.
Other items that you may use are:
Masking tape 3/4" is fine Crayolas
Paper towels Hair dryer
Rubber cement Spoons
Dry transfer letters Scrap paper
Mat board strips or card board
You can work from your own sketch, photograph or a composite of pasted up images. The finished print will be the same size as whatever you are working from. From now on I will refer to this as the working drawing. If you use a photograph, get a good photocopy of it enlarged to the size of your finished print and keep the original handy to refer to.. You can use a copier to enlarge or reduce whatever images you want to use. Plan to have at least a one inch margin around your print. If your working drawing is 6 1/2" x 9" your print paper should be at least 8 1/2" x 11". If you plan an edition of prints, prepare a few extra sheets of print paper to allow for mistakes.
Center the working drawing onto a sheet of print paper and paste it down with rubber cement. Tape this onto the printing bed, centered under the screen. The hinged side of the screen should always be away from you when you print. The opposite side will be referred to as the bottom. If your image is horizontal, the "bottom" will actually be the side of your image - that doesn’t matter. Set register guides in place. These will be three tabs of poster board or cardboard that are just a little thicker than the print paper. Two are to be glued so that they butt up to the bottom of the print paper and one will be at the side.
Lower the screen over the working drawing, insert a strip of mat board to separate the screen from the drawing. With a watercolor brush carefully paint everything that you want to print with screen drawing fluid. Any mistakes can be removed with a little clear water on a brush and blotted up with a paper towel. Don’t rework an area until it is dry.
Remove the screen from the printing bed, keeping it horizontal Elevate the screen from the table with two blocks, cans or whatever. Let this dry to the touch, hold it up to the light to see if you have missed any spots. The image should look just the way you want the print to look.
With the screen supported by blocks, spoon about two teaspoons of screen filler across the top of the screen. With a strip of matboard spread the filler across to the bottom in one pass. It is important to cover all of the drawing fluid.
applying the screen filler
A small piece of mat board can be used to fill in any open areas near the edge. If you missed covering any of the drawing fluid, allow the filler to dry before going over it. The drawing fluid as it is very water soluble and will smear if you go over it when it is wet.
Let this dry thoroughly. A hair dryer can help.
Then take the screen to the sink and wet both sides with cool water and spray. Keep the water cool. The drawing fluid will dissolve leaving open areas in the screen filler.
Let this dry. Apply masking tape to the inside edge, where the screen and the frame meet, half on the screen and half on the frame.
You are ready to print.
Replace the screen onto the printing bed. Remove the working drawing. Before you start have your print paper, ink, spoon, squeegee, scrap paper, paper towels and a place to put your wet prints ready. Place a sheet of print paper against the register guides. Spoon 2 to 3 teaspoons of ink across the top of the screen. Then with your squeegee, firmly draw the ink across the screen towards you.
The squeegee should be at a 45 degree angle to the screen. The corner of the blade is all that should be in contact with the screen.
Right after you finish printing the edition, clean the screen. Scrape off the excess ink with a piece of mat board and return it to the jar. Scrape it off the squeegee and spoon too. Take the screen and tools to the sink and with cool water, rinse all the ink off. Use a soft sponge and a spray. Get all of the ink off both sides of the screen. This must be done right away so that the ink doesn’t dry in the screen.
If you never want to print the image again, it can be cleaned from the screen by using hot water. Wet it first, then spray with 409, liquid Spic and Span or a similar cleaner. Let this sit for 15 minutes of so and then spray with hot water. Any spots left can be scrubbed out with cleanser. Let it dry and you can use the screen for your next project.
blended colors
A blend of colors printed across a print can be made by putting two or more colors of ink on the screen. With the pull of the squeegee the colors will blend with each other. Print a few on scrap paper until the colors look right and then print on the good paper. No two prints done this way will be alike.
MAKING MULTICOLOR PRINTS
"A screen print composed of images printed through a number of stencils can be extremely complex. All the stencil images must work together to make a final, single statement. This requirement is complicated by the fact that the finished statement is not revealed until the last stencil has been printed. Each stencil adds its own particular elements to the final effect. All stencils contribute some degree of modification, some more than others. The stencils are printed sequentially, one color at a time, one over the other. Each color is printed in turn on all copies in the edition before the next color is applied. Thus, the size of the edition cannot be increased after the second stencil has been printed..." Lawrence Rugolo, The Process of ScreenPrinting "
Progressive Block out Method or Reduction Print
| First color | Second color printed over first |
With this method you can print a number of colors using the same screen. The stencil is reworked after each color is printed. Each time additional areas are blocked out . The registration is simple because parts of the original are still on the screen You can reduce your subject into at least three values and work from light to dark. Often the lightest color is the sky and any highlights. The first stencil is created by blocking out only those areas . The medium color is printed and then all areas to stay that color are blocked out. This leaves only the darkest color to be printed. The block out can be painted directly on the stencil or drawing fluid can be painted onto the areas to be the next color. Then screen filler would be spread over all, dried and the drawing fluid removed to make another stencil on top of the previous one.
Prints made from two or more screens
| first color | second and third colors | first color printed over second and third colors |
This works well for an image that has strong lines and areas that enclose other colors. Make a stencil of the main design on one screen. With register guides in place print two copies of it. Clean the ink from the screen and set it aside. One of the prints can be hand colored with water color, crayons or whatever to show where the colors will go. With another screen hinged onto the same bed and with one of the prints in place make a stencil where you want another color. A new stencil is made and the edition is printed for each color. When all the additional colors have been printed use the original stencil to print on top of all the other colors.
You can combine methods of stencil making. A photographic stencil can be printed over a background made with drawing fluid and screen filler. Various techniques can be used in a single stencil.
SIMPLE DIRECT PHOTOGRAPHIC STENCILS
"Clara and Arthur, 1913"
SIMPLE DIRECT PHOTOGRAPHIC STENCILS
You will need a transparent positive of the image to be printed. Any black and white art work, lettering or high contrast photograph will work. Get a transparency made at any place that makes copies. When translated into direct screen prints photographs lose any gray areas. This creates a very strong image. Another way is to draw or letter on a sheet of acetate with a black permanent marker (Pilot,Sharpie,etc.) Dried pressed flowers, laces and other objects that will block the light can be used.
You will also need a Speedball Diazo Photo Emulsion kit.
As a light source for exposure, I use a light box with three fluorescent tubes and a Plexiglas top.
The transparent positive is placed on the light box so that the image looks the way it should when printed. Transparent tape can be used to hold it in place.
From now on all work is done under very subdued light or a darkroom safe light. Speedball Diazo Photo Emulsion comes in a jar. Sensitizer is mixed with water and mixed thoroughly with the emulsion. The directions are in the box. An even coat of the mixture is spread across the under side of the screen and the screen is quickly dried with a hair drier.
Place the coated screen, fabric side down, centered on the transparency on the light box. Place a black, soft pad inside the screen, over all and weigh it down ( I use heavy books). This keeps the image and the screen in good contact.
Turn on the light box for five minutes. Turn it off. Then take the screen to the sink and spray both sides with warm water.
Now you can put the lights back on. Keep spraying until the image appears on the screen. Hold the screen up to the light to see if the areas to be printed are open. When they are, the screen can be placed on a towel and blotted and the dried with a hair dryer and you are ready to print.
When you want to clean the image from the screen you should wet it with warm water and let sit to soften. Then with the screen down in a sink, put Emulsion Remover directly on it. I use a sponge brush. Follow the directions and spray with hot water. Your screen will be ready for a new project.
Any textured surface can be used to create stencils that capture the look of the original surface. I often use antique, embossed book covers, dried flowers and leaves, ribbon and laces, coins and wood.
The screen is placed over the surface to be used. It is important to have a comfortable grip on the screen with one hand. Then with the other hand use a crayola crayon to make the rubbing directly on the screen. Don’t let the screen move, or you will have a double image.
The crayola will act as a blockout to the water base ink. The image will be the color of the paper and the area around it will be the color of the ink.
It is necessary to have a border of blockout around the rubbing. An open area on the screen can be made first and the rubbing can be done in it. To reverse the print - to print the image rather than the background - screen filler can be spread over all. When it is dry the crayola can be removed with paint thinner.
When I use antique books, I cover them tightly with saran wrap to keep the crayon from getting on them. Dried flowers and leaves should not be too dry and brittle as they would crumble when rubbed.
After printing, clean the ink off with cold water. The crayon rubbing will stay on the screen. When cleaning the rubbing from the screen use hot water and a strong cleaner to remove the crayola.
A complete selection of screens, printing inks,
papers and other supplies is available by mail order from Dick Blick Art
Materials
1 800 447-8192 http://www.dickblick.com
I get many of my supplies from Hyatt's - 914 Main Street,
Buffalo, NY 14202 (716) 884-8900
Vellum Bristol, BS 67 or card stock 8 1/2" x 11" and 11" x
17" is available from most office supply stores
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Screen Printing, Contemporary Methods and
Materials by Francis and Norman Lassiter is published by Hunt
The Artist's Silkscreen Manual by Andrew B. Gardner, published by Grosset and
Dunlap
The Complete Guide to Screen Printing by Brad Faine, Quatro Publishing
he Buffalo and Erie Co. Library System has an extensive list of Screen Printing books. Look under Serigraph and Silk Screen as well as Screen Prints. Even though materials have evolved the process is the same and you can get ideas from many sources.