Screen Printing | Techniques

Screen Printing...

In the second year of my A-level art course, I discovered a love for screen printing. As an avid drawer who likes to capture fine details in portraits and textures, I was sceptical about starting a new technique process which I'd only ever associated with graphic design. However, screen printing soon became a large focus within my work and something still of great interest to me today.

Because I am so intrigued by the finer details and textures you can find in a drawing, it seemed only natural to try and find a way to combine the Fine Art and Graphics element... and so the Screen Printed drawing was born...

Left (an inverted version of the drawing scanned onto a stretched screen)
Right (the result of a screen transfer in charcoal grey ink)

My work for this particular project is very close to home. With a continuous interest in the history of the mining industry, I wanted to capture a point in time by using my grandfather as the focus of my work. It goes without saying that this project wasn't short of its difficulties - creating pieces from unfamiliar techniques so late on in the course produced added stress, but the hard work eventually paid off with the finished design.

I'd fallen in love with the effect of Screen Printing. The way that I could combine light and dark greys to match the charcoal effects that I desired really allowed me to convey my concept and do justice to what I wanted to explore!

Since leaving college, I have started to develop skills in a fun and creative way to create the beginning of my own craft, card-making selection. As Christmas is only 10 days away, I wanted to surprise my family and friends with something a little different this season... below is my finished lino printed design ready to hit the welcome mats of lots of homes!

As I would now say I am an avid printmaker...I had the pleasure of being invited back to Thomas Rotherham College during early November to make Christmas cards for TRAC - a brilliant way for students and staff to collect funds for the department and charities! Thanks for having me for the evening!! :)  See their featured blog post all about the event here:

http://trcarthive.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/open-evening-festive-fun-trac.html