PROFESSIONAL PRINTMAKING PRACTICE

My first aspect of professional printmaking practice was really a trial run, making the finishing touches to the Kobusher print as I began to describe in my previous post, ONGOING PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE - MOOSEY ART.


Although the screen I used for this was very simple, it was a very complicated job as it also required a white layer before blocking off half the 'sprinkles' at a time to print in blue and yellow overtop. The fact that the rest of the print had already been professional created also meant I had to be incredibly tidy with my work as there was no room for error.

I had been a little nervous before I started, as I was well aware I was somewhat stepping into unknown territory and also taking on jobs that Print to the People would have otherwise been paid more to do themselves. However I needn't have worried as everyone was very nice and actually told me what an incredibly tricky job it was and how well I had done. Some of them even said themselves that they don't think they would have been able to achieve the needed results.

This really boosted my confidence and started me thinking that maybe I was cut out for this after all. I also felt intense gratification from producing something that was technically accurate and of a standard that could be called truly 'professional'.

I then felt ready to take on a print entirely of my own from start to finish. Me and Frazer looked through a list of the upcoming print images, and I chose a piece by ___ artist Pablo Dalas. The image was inspired by
a piece of street art on a wall, and interested me because the entire image was only comprised of three colours so would not be that time consuming to expose and print, but still maintained visual complexity to both challenge and build up my skill level.

I turned his provided image into a vector and then seperations for printing, which I then booked in as negatives from the large format printer at NUA.

Once these were done I booked in three 3 hour printing sessions with Print to the People. When my screens were exposed Jo, the head printmaker with PTTP, told me that the very back black layer could be problematic as it was a very large blocked area to print consistently. I hooked myself up to the mechanical printing arm and had to pay careful attention to the 'snap' distance between the press and print bed to make sure the printed area of the background came through clearly.

Printing the area of this size did mean I had to put my back into it, but did actually also produce a very beautiful grain of irregular white speckles across all of the backgrounds consistently. Although this was not part of the plan, both myself and Frazer agreed we really liked the effect and decided to proceed.

As with both the Kobusher print and as I noted in my very first multilayer CMYK prints in 1st year, the accurate process of lining up the registration perfectly was something I really enjoyed. The meditative qualities of this process were truly manifesting to me now in the professional working environment of PTTP, and even though the job I was working on was incredibly important and precise, I didn't feel particularly stressed or under pressure.

I began to add the final layer of the print, and it was amazing to see the piece come together finally after having worked through every stage of the image since the photo of it on a wall. However there was a slight diffusion in colour on the final red layer as it overlaid the pink and black which altered the opacitiy of the linework. Both myself and Frazer noticed this and agreed it would look better without. This was a lesson for me in the formulation of my vectors, to ensure that where possible the printing process always worked from lightest to darkest, and where this couldn't be achieved, ensuring that darker layers aren't printed under other low opacity colours. These are the kind of little skills I need to ensure I pick up wherever possible to improve my production standard, and are an invaluable part of my training.

To remedy the issue on this current print however, I was back to the same method as the Kobusher piece, in re-printing another layer ontop of the red linework. It worked and both me and Frazer were finally happy with the edition. Even though it was only 15 prints, I really appreciated the amount of work that went into this process, particularly if it was applied on a bigger scale with a larger edition.

All I had to do now was crop the paper and send the pieces for signing, then on their return I would photograph the print, prepare the images for the web and then launch the new products on the website. Every single aspect and stage of production would then have been completed entirely by me.

I have found so much enjoyment in this professional print and am absolutely over the moon that this is not even just work experience, but actually the start of a postgraduate career path for me. I can't wait to see where this develops and what the future holds.