I'd decided to use the 'All beard and eyes' design for todays session - mainly because i wanted to make something different form the lino print session, which i made unicorn skull prints.
As it was a large group again, we paired up with people willing to use similar colour inks - we went through the various steps from preparing the screens with emulsion, exposing the positives, mixing our colours, then a lot of waiting for things to dry etc. I'm always left wondering why we're told to mix up the paints whilst we wait, but don't actually get to use them for another 2 1/2 hours. Surely this allows the paint to start drying up a bit, even though we'd put medium in the paint? Just a general wondering .
I was paying closel attention to all the process steps as i wanted to return on my own to make more screen prints more often, and i know i wouldn't always have a print tech floating about to assist. The 'marigold' layer were all printing out pretty well, it's when it came to putting the black layer over the top is went things went down the toilet.
I remember having the same problems the last time, which was also whist printing black. For reasons unknown to me then its was coming out streaky and patchy, coverage was poor. Registration had gone well out the window by this point. I thought it was the paint drying up or not enough paint, but turns out i was simply pulling too fast with not enough pressure. Worked this out with about two prints left. So basically my days printing was a write-off, and thats not an exaggeration. They looked terrible. I couldn't even look at them to see just how terrible they were!
But they were.
These were the best of a bad bunch. The only ones i'd allow to be photographed. I did refrain from chucking them all in the bin though. I just shoved them in my studio drawer and went home to rethink the way i live my life.
T H E R E T U R N
Determined to put the wrong things right, i used my spare time the next day to return and face my squeegee demons. It would also give me a chance to suss out the general print studio whilst flying solo - and it turns out its so much more enjoyable when you're doing with lots of people around you all trying to so the same thing. Maybe i just got lucky on a quiet day?
As with the day before, all went well up until applying the black layer. Same patchy, blotchy coverage. I really didn't want to carry on making unusable prints but i didn't really have a lot of choice. I stuck it out, thought back to what i was doing wrong yesterday,which was rushing things and being too weak with the pulling, and made sure i went slooow and super strong. Bob's your uncle, massively improved results ensued. If id sorted out the the alignment on these then id have no bones to pick about the final prints.The registration marks were always in the front of my mind from the moment i made the positives, but for some reason they didn't materialised and i thought it'd be straight forward enough to do it by eye. Not so. Really annoyed at myself for not seeing to this, as I'm not sure if they'd really be sellable in this state? I suppose it shows that its been made by a human, for all the analogue purists out there.Plus i guess some people might like the 'off-set' effect. But its something to correct for the next time.
I N S U M M A R Y
+ Managed to screen print through all the process stages without assistance.
+ Pleased that the background 'texture' effects came out well.
+ Kept a cool head to work through some technical issues
+ Managed to save a few of the previous days prints(ish) by attempting to print over the linework
+ Was given a killer, print day saving tip : Flood the screen whilst I'm setting up paper for the next print. This means the screen is likely to dry out.
+ Really enjoyed the working environment, and had made me want to use the facilities as much as possible.
+ Its a process i'd like to use for my final author A3 prints,if i can get some consistency on the paint pulling.I don't want to have to go digital, as it seems like the easy option, even though its guaranteed quality results.
- The omission of registration marks made lining up layers very hard, and has led to wonky colour alignment. Enough to wind me up.
- Maybe should have used more of the orange colour in the design somewhere. Possibly used another dark colour alternative to black.
- The bitmapping of the eyeballs couldve been a bit more dense. Although i wanted it subtle, some of it is quite hard to make out.
- Looking back at the prints, somehow i failed to see the main figure is off-centre. Enough to wind me up.
- I'm still not giving myself any room for mistakes or imperfect results. Possibly being a bit hard on myself, this is only my 3rd time screen printing,ever.
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