Printmaking - Spectral Waves

Archive for the ‘Printmaking’ Category

Printing on a Saturday

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

With the nice weather in full swing and the arrival of the weekend, I was able to start and finish my edition of prints for the Oregon Ink Spot 2010 print exchange. The print I made is based on a drawing I did for the MAFAC Exhibit I had at the beginning of the year, yet added in some background decoration and depth. I really like the way it turned out but it’s not 100% perfect. As to be expected with the first print of the year I suppose, have to brush the dust off from the long winter season.

I tried my best to document the process so without further adieu , here are some pictures:

Printed film positive for exposure

Exposed frame ready for printing, the yellow parts are what will be printed

The 3 ink colors I mixed to match my color mockup

Two colors down, waiting to dry for the third and final color

Final color flood stroke, almost complete!

Drying the final prints. I think a total of 20 were made, 3 were duds.

Candlebeams - Edition of 15 - 2010

Finally, one of the songs from the day’s soundtrack:

Like I said, I’m very happy with how they all turned out, and how quickly I was able to print them with very little errors. If I were to do it again, I would thicken up the outline (dark blue) so that more of the fine lines would have printed better. On the screen they looked great but when printed, the ink just didn’t want to squeeze through.

Several things helped me out a ton with this print session: pressure washer, packing tape, mixing knives, and grilling. I look forward to printing a lot more this season. Also, can’t wait to see the prints I get back from this years print exchange.

Posted in DIY, Fine Art, Printmaking, Work In Progress | No Comments »

Get It Right the First Time, That’s the Main Thing!

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

Blue logo on grey shirts, printed with no problems!

Over the past couple of weeks I have gone to work on printing the logo I designed for Meier Electric, Inc. and I have printed about 45 shirts so far.

Got It Right the First Time

Fortunately, for my spirits, I printed blue ink on grey shirts first, which worked flawlessly. The inks are Union Waterbased Textile Inks from Valley Litho Supply out of Milwaukee, WI.

Got It Wrong… Many Times

I was all hyped up after printing the grey shirts so I dove right into the white ink on blue shirts. First thing I noticed is that the white ink was like that liquidy marshmallow topping stuff, and was much more difficult to work with. The blue ink was shiny and sort of like pudding, which helped it slip right through the screen.

I printed many test prints and was ready to go, but by the time I had lined up a shirt, the ink dried in the screen (even with a nice flood coat). I was freaking out so I printed a couple more hoping it was just a fluke… bad idea. I goofed up about 5 shirts total out of that batch.

White ink on blue shirts, not as easy…

I Suppose It’s Now or Never

The next batch of blue shirts (30 total) came in and I was really eager to pull it off correctly. With the few corrections I made they printed really smooth, and I was really happy with the results.

In a mixing container, I sprayed in a fairly good amount of water, and a couple of tablespoons of Speedball Retarder Base for waterbase inks. What a world of difference, made me feel much better about printing with Waterbase Inks.

Posted in DIY, Graphic Design, Printmaking, Updates | No Comments »

…Just Cleanin’ My Guns

Monday, June 8th, 2009

Registration was off quite a bit here, who’s at fault, me or the hinges?

Registration Deadline Has Ended?!

I tried a two color print again and this time had much better success than I’ve had before. However, I am still suffering from poor registration and I have to believe the hinges are at fault. Once the screen is inserted the hinges allow it to shift about 1/8″ each way, left and right, creating a total of about 1/4″ error. Some prints may be perfect in registration, others may be off by that small amount. However, the entire print is never completely off, it’s limited to the top or bottom… which is why the hinge skewing the frame is throwing up a red flag.

The Fix

I’m thinking about getting a set of clamps from Diesel Fuel Prints based in Seattle, WA. I trust what these guys sell because I believe they use the products themselves and produce some pretty bitchin’ work.

On almost all prints, the registration was extremely solid on the bottom half.

On a positive note

This is one of my best experiences with color matching and mixing of process inks. I’ve mixed paints and other inks before but I’ve never tried to match a color to an existing color. I was pretty happy with the way they turned out, and I’m glad I mixed plenty of ink and I look forward to when I have a good stockpile of a variety of ink colors.

Posted in Fine Art, Printmaking, Work In Progress | No Comments »

Wen U Gat Time

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

My friend Eric Oss and I got the opportunity to put up a variety of our works from the 2009 school year in the Whipple Art Gallery at SMSU. It was an extremely spur of the moment show and we were wanting to do it right, and I think we were pretty satisfied with how everything turned out.

My wall of 8×10 screen prints.

I put up 9 all new works, including a diptych I had been working on over the semester: a drawing of two identical coin like objects with semi-mirrored birds. Also, Eric and I collaborated on two pieces, combining and destroying our film positives and making two large prints and then hand illustrating over the tops of them.

Back wall of the gallery. Left: my two drawings, Right: our two collaborative prints.

I wish we would have had more time to make it something we were 110% proud of, but I think the spontaneity of it made it a lot of fun. Also, after collaborating on a piece, I wish we would have done more collaborative work together, hoping we can start something long-distance in the future.

Thanks to Rebbecca Benson for helping us and setting us up for the show!

Posted in Drawing, Exhibits, Fine Art, Printmaking | No Comments »

They Prefer the Term "Server" Now

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Work has begun and progress has been made on the Big Time Perfect Club House which is basically my new studio spot in the garage. It’s coming along pretty well and I’m really happy with the way the storage unit is turning out.

I realized that, during college, I had a lot of items which I took for granted: storage space, drying racks, tools, paper, etc. Now that I’ve moved all of my supplies out of the art rooms, I’ve set up shop back at home and have been trying to recreate what I’m missing.

Two-In-One: Paper drying rack and screen storage unit.

I knew for sure that I needed a storage container for unexposed silk screens and thought about making a drying rack for the prints. Half way through the drying rack project, I realized I had enough room to build a storage box underneath.

Close up of drying wires, the ends will get taped down eventually.

I ended up undoing a lot of the work I initially did, but it turned out much better than I expected. All that’s left at this point is to add in a hinged door and sealing the box off from light. I am almost finished with the construction and then it’s on to the big time.

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And He Has A Really High Pitched Voice!

Sunday, April 26th, 2009

I finally got down to business and tried to print another two color print. This is my second attempt and I think it turned out much better than the first. Registration was almost spot on (compared to my other attempts) and it printed really well.

Second attempt at a two color print, black and gray on white paper.

Getting the hang of how to push and pull the ink around is definitely something that will take time, but I think progress has been made. With this print I just need to mix up the appropriate colors for the design and print away. I’ll post more as I finish up.

Posted in Drawing, Fine Art, Printmaking, Work In Progress | No Comments »