8. Third color printed

I have printed green using the same technique of painting drawing fluid every where I wanted green, covering all with two coats of Future and then washing out the drawing fluid.

I realize that I have forgotten a little piece of a rose on the left hand side. It will be easy to go back and correct this as I have my screen filler stencil still on the screen.

I think that I will make the leaves and the squares in the corners darker. The Future stencil is still on the screen. I have only washed off the ink. I will paint drawing fluid on the leaves and squares and put two more coats of Future over all.

7. The second color printed

This shows the second color printed over the first on fawn, Stonehenge paper.

This is the print that I made with the previous screen (6.)by itself. It is on white paper.

It is of just the areas where I had painted screen drawing fluid. The Future and the screen filler keep the ink from printing in the other areas.

After printing some proofs and all of the edition, I cleaned the ink from the screen with cold water and then used clear ammonia to remove the Future.
I will go on and rework the screen for the third color. I will paint drawing fluid wherever I want to print green. And then use Future to make a stencil to print green.

6. A homemade temporary blockout

I am still working on the stencil (4.) that I made on the screen. I have painted drawing fluid (blue) over the areas that I decide to print with a rose color. If the drawing fluid goes over the dark red screen filler on the screen that is OK. After the drawing fluid is dry, I will spread a blockout of Future floor wax over the image. I reduce Future in a pot on the stove until it is about 1/2 the quantity that I started with. Clear ammonia is the solvent for the floor wax. You will need it to clean up your pot. I put on two coats of the floor wax using a hair dryer to dry the first coat before spreading the second. After this is throughly dry I wash out the drawing fluid. After it is dry again I may need to use a stiff brush to remove and floor wax that is left on the surface where I want to print. It is hard to see the floor wax because it is transparent. Hold the screen up to a window or other light source to be sure all of the printing areas are open. Now it is ready to print.

I have mixed a soft rose color that will go wherever I had painted the drawing fluid.

5. Only two more days until Christmas

This is a print from the reworked screen over a print from the first screen. I like the way that it looks, maybe I should leave well enough alone. But - no, I will keep adding colors. I will make the roses rose.

But before that, I will go and bake some cookies, do some house cleaning and hang up the rest of the Christmas cards that we have received. We have family coming here to stay tomorrow and more for dinner on Christmas day. I probably leave the screen printing alone for the next 5-6 days.

I will be teaching a couple of grand daughters how to make a photo screen and use it to print t-shirts.

The process that I use to make my prints works well for someone who has a lot of distractions. I can do a little bit of work on the screen and then go do what I should be doing. Nothing will change while I am away. With all of the drying periods, this can be an advantage. I walk past my "work in progress" every time I do some laundry or get something from our well stocked shelves. I just might feel that I have to paint something on the screen as I go by.

4. The next step

Reworked screen

I have painted drawing fluid inside my original stencil wherever I wanted any additional colors to be printed. I kept the drawing fluid away from the edges of most of the original image. This will permit the lighter color from the first printing to show. I did paint right up to (and over) the edge of the tree trunks, I don't want them to have a light border. Above the sceen, I have printed this stencil on white paper to show you what I have done .This step will not be part of the final print. I will be printing different areas of this screen with various colors.

3. Multicolor semi-reduction print

The first color printed.

The principal of reduction prints is that the artist uses just one screen. He prints the first color of the whole edition after making the first stencil. Then he must rework the stencil on the screen and print each additional color over the first. The printing area of the screen is reduced with each color to that small area which will print the final color.

I modify this technique by using a temporary blockout, made with Future floor wax. I can remove this without disturbing my original screen filler blockout. There is more under "supplies" in my manual http://www.dorothymarkert.com/my_manual.htm.

In this print "first color printed" all of the darker color is tan ink. The lighter color is the paper.
The first stencil that I made on the screen includes all of the areas that will be any color other than the paper. I printed the first stencil onto 40 sheets of fawn, Stonehenge (100% rag) paper that I cut to 10" x 13".

From now on I will use drawing fluid to paint inside the first stencil wherever I want any additional colors. Wherever I don't paint drawing fluid the tan color will show. The areas that are just paper will stay that way throughout the edition. The original screen filler will stay on the screen until I am finished with the print.

As with all printing in more than one color, registration is very important.

For collectors this technique has the advantage that even the most successful edition cannot be extended with later prints. This is sometimes refered to as the suicide method - you can never go back.

2. Charles Rennie Mackintosh

My sketch for the print

I have just finished reading "The Quest for Charles Rennie Mackintosh" by John Cairney. I found myself back in late Victorian Glasgow, Scotland, later with the Vienna Secessionists. "Toshie" (as he was known to his friends) created extraordinary art work from the time that he was 16 years old. His wife, Margaret McDonald Mackintosh worked with him to design revolutionary interiors and paintings even before their marriage in 1900.

I have been intrigued with the range of work that C.R.M. produced. His paintings of wildflowers at Walberswick, UK around 1914 are what first drew me to his work. But there is so much more. For more go to http://www.crmsociety.com/ . I decided that I needed to create a print that would say somthing about what I was experiencing. I made a pencil sketch of three "Mackintosh Rose" trees along with a pair of abstract birds. The sketch can almost be a collage of different elements. You can cut them out and arrange them until it suits you. The sketch was mounted onto a piece of print paper and placed under the transparent scteen.

Using it as a guide, I painted the design onto a screen with Screen Drawing Fluid, a blue liquid. I used small watercolor brushes and a drawing pen. Then I spread Screen Filler, a dark red liquid over the entire screen with a strip of mat board, let it dry and washed out the Drawing Fluid with cold water. This created a stencil on the screen. I then mixed a color for my first printing. I chose a soft golden tan that would not contrast too much with the fawn Stonehenge paper that I will use for this print.

This photo shows the screen with the image painted with drawing fluid that has been covered with screen filler.

1. Hand made screen prints

October - original screen print

I think that most people associate screen printing with t-shirts. For over 40 years I have been creating fine art by screen printing. It is the way that I paint.

Years ago when I realized that my home is an Arts and Crafts bungalow of sorts, I began collecting suitable furniture (my unsigned Stickley). Then I needed the right kind of art work to decorate my walls.

I have always been an artist, I had been making screen prints for a long time. The idea occured to me to use Arts and Crafts pottery and stylized flowers as my subjects. These have been successful, there are many people who have been collecting my prints. My method of producing editions of screen prints is very hands on. I actually paint the image directly onto a screen using a pencil drawing to work from. Each successive color is hand printed onto 100% rag paper layer by layer until the print is complete.

As well as actually making prints, teaching printmaking has been my joy. I am writing this blog to record my discoveries and to tell anyone who is interested how I go about making screen prints.