06/12/2016 - PRINT

I printed my half tone designs onto drafting paper to create the positives used to then create my silk screen. The process of curing the ready coated screens took a lot less time than I anticipated due to the stronger light at the uni that I had previously used. Watching my design appear on the screen as I washed away leftover emulsion was interesting. Also learning how to carry out this process in a mass production way as opposed to the way DIY way I had experienced it in my foundation course was interesting and definitely expanded my ideas of what print could achieve.

I mixed together a translucent orange colour for the egg and a earthen red colour for the font as red was one of the colours most prevalently used in Chinese art and imagery.

I found taping the edges of my screen tricky until Carl demonstrated the technique of using my thumbs to fold the tape into the edges more accurately. Little techniques like these over time will streamline my ability to produce prints quickly and effectively.

My first few pulls of the screen did not go effectively, either too much or too little ink was pushed through and it had gaps or splodges in it. I also made a bit of a mess of the screen with ink getting over the squeegee, my hands and areas of the screen which didn't need it. 

I had trouble reaching over the large print bed and applying enough even force to give my prints a consistent finish. I also wasn't getting my angle correct from the beginning and hadn't gotten into a good rhythm of flooding and pulling the screen. However as time went on and I received more tips from Carl I became more confident and the resulting prints improved in quality. By the end I was able to add the last layer of my design, the text, almost faultlessly, printing the complicated Chinese letter forms crisply and evenly.

Initially I composed my print simply with the text below the image however in later editions I tried changing this around until I eventually settled on one I liked most, with the font overlapping the top of the orange smoke. To improve the finish of my print I would've liked to have given the orange egg some tonal depth as I feel the plain orange colour flattened out what should have been the focal point of the whole image. I would also liked to have tried creating a version of the text which read vertically as well, as this could have opened up more compositional options and also been more authentic to how text is presented in typical Chinese artworks.  

I really fell in love with the printing process over the course of this activity, as my results improved and I felt my competency grow. What I was most satisfied with was the regularity of finish in my prints (when I managed to pull each layer perfectly). The uniform nature of each result was very satisfying, and the depth and quality of the strong colours really made the prints pop. The way the elements could be layered also created unexpected areas of beauty, such as the red text overlapping the half tone orange smoke curls, giving the piece a retro aesthetic. I also think I captured elements of Chinese visual arts succesfully, but also collaborated them with aspects of my own style to create a piece which was headed in an entirely fresh direction for me and felt very liberating.