16/10/2017 - PRINT WORKSHOP - WEEK 2

I attended an extra booked session in the workshop to expose my screen last week, prepared my paper and premixed my colours too, which meant I was immediately ready to print at the start of this weeks workshop. I had also reserved one of the print beds to ensure I would definitely have a spot to work in. Because of this it only took me a small amount of time to get set up and I was ready to start printing.




I wanted to explore how each of the elements looked induvidually, and also what happened when I experimented with how the light and dark tones in the image were overlaid. So I created a variety of prints isolating each of the colours and changing their arrangement over each other.


I also tried inverting the colours (see left) and flipping the alignment so that the two layers mismatched, which produced and interesting effect. Doing this further abstracted the nature of the background, which had already become quite stylized throughout the screen printing process. (see right and small beneath)

Initially I had expected the ideal arrangement for this piece to first need the light moss layer, and then be framed overtop with the darker brown layer. (see left) However during these experiments I actually found that putting the darked layer underneath and then adding the light moss colour overtop gave me a much better tonal range. (see large right)

I quite liked the way turning the original photo into a 2 colour print had already stylized the design, and didn't want to detract from this effect by further confusing the forms in the image. I felt the design which layered the lighter tones overtop of the darker colour best preserved the image visually, and therefore thought this was probably the one I wanted to use in my final design. 

I also printed a second version of this background design onto plain newsprint, as I wanted a prototype which I could test arrangements onto without damaging my perfect copy. I really liked how the geometric elements of my design became more integrated into the print when laid against a white background. As on my initial image they had stood out strongly against the photo, yet when layered onto a white canvas they became suggestive and less defined.