One Week Map: Screen-printing our Map

 

What went well?

• I am really happy with how the screens exposed. all of the detail came out perfectly. The only thing that I would have liked was if the pomegranate had more of a texture to it.

• I am really happy with how the design printed. Something that surprised me was that I almost preferred the design when the screens were't lined up, even though they weren't designed like this. I think that this is because the design is so simple and so not lining up adds an interesting level of ambiguity to the design.

• I also think that the red and blue work really well together. They really animate the design and as well as making it look sleek. I definitely think that these colours work way better than when we were more experimental with colour (looks too complex). However, painting the screen does create an interesting effect.

What challenges did we face?

• We found that we were really pushed for time when we were printing. This meant that we didn't have time to print a perfectly aligned design if we wanted time to experiment with colour. This was a shame as we designed our positives to match up perfectly. (Maybe this was a mistake as this was more of an experimental printing project?)

• We also found that we spent a lot of time sitting around because the two group members printing the red screen were a lot slower than us. This meant that we didn't get a chance to print on top of one of the red designs. Trying to line up the designs would have been a good learning curb and it would have been interesting to see if it made a difference printing the blue on red rather than the red on blue. 

• I also found flushing back the ink, while holding the screen away from the table really difficult. If you didn't do it totally evenly then the next two or three deigns would print badly. 

How am I going to move forward?

• Having learnt how to screen print I definitely want to use it again in my own practice. I love the slick very finished looking results that it gives and the way it really allows you to experiment with colour (and composition to an extent) because it is such a quick process. I also think that it will work well to help me simplify my work. I definitely want to do this soon before I forget everything that we learnt in the induction.