I recently wrapped a screen print collaboration with Greg Pizzoli. This print will be featured in this years Screens ‘N’ Spokes art show. For those of you not familiar with Screens ‘N’ Spokes it’s small non-profit (2 people and their families and friends), dedicated to raising awareness and money for the National MS Society through art, music and bike riding. Every print sale goes toward the annual MS: City to Shore Ride. If you are interested in buying art or supporting their bike team please visit their Etsy page or team fund-raising page.
An alternate version of this print will also be feature in our up coming 2 person show Peaceable Kingdom: New Screenprints by Tim Gough & Greg Pizzoli. Opening Reception Saturday, September 18th 6-10pm at Masthead Print Studio 340 Brown Street Philadelphia, Pa 19123.
Greg and I created this print without and computers or long discussions. We showed up at the print studio did some sketches, rough drawings, cut some amberlith and 12 hours later we had a 4 color print. I wanted to share how we put this all together.
Thumbnails, and working on the full sized drawing.
We started with some very simple thumbnails that help work out the composition and decided what kind of elements we be drawing in the final. From there we moved to a full size sheet and worked in timed 5 minute intervals drawing buildings and structures in our city landscape.
Tight Pencil Sketch
Above is the final pencil drawing. This would be our guide for blocking out color and creating layers for the final print.
Cutting Amberlith
Next we blocked out where our first color would sit in relation to the sketch we just finished.
First Color
Our first color was a split fountain. Which is a way to blend two colors in one pull. We used green ink at the top of the screen and blue at the bottom and when you pull them at the some time they create a subtle gradient.
Second Color
Our second color was drawing by hand on translucent mylar with brush and ink that we laid on top of our original sketch and added more details.
Third Color
We used amberlith again to mask out areas for our next color. While creating this layer we kept in mind that we would be using a transparent ink that when printed on top of another color would mix with the ink underneath that would give us an additional color with out having to actually print it.
Transperent inks
By printing with a transparent magenta we were able to create a purple color when ever it printed over our blue-green gradient.
Final Color
We once again used brush and ink on mylar to complete the final outline and bring all the layers we have been building up together.
The Finished Print
This was a great way to create a print. Being away from the computer screen and creating color separations by hand was a freeing experience. If you like this print and want to see more please check out our show in September.
Peaceable Kingdom:
New Screenprints by Tim Gough & Greg Pizzoli.
Opening Reception Saturday, September 18th 6-10pm
at Masthead Print Studio 340 Brown Street Philadelphia, Pa 19123.
