It is just a photo-mechanically reproduced image, often scanned and then mechanically printed en-masse. With original fine art prints, the tactile quality of the ink on paper and the printing style, are inseparable parts of the artwork something you cannot achieve with reproductions.Ī reproduction is a copy of an already existing work.
Silkscreen printmaking plus#
This, plus the fact that later impressions are sometimes superior to earlier pulls, means that lower numbers do not generally indicate better quality impressions.Ī fine art print is a "multiple original" made by hand, one impression at a time, from a plate (usually wood, copper, zinc or in this case amberlith film) etched or carved by the artist. The number indicates the order in which prints were signed, not necessarily the order in which the impressions were pulled. A print marked 2/25 is the second of twenty-five images.
Silkscreen printmaking series#
The upper number represents the impression within the series and the lower number indicates the edition size. Prints are signed and numbered in the bottom margin of the print with what looks like a fraction. Since the stencils are destroyed after printing, each edition is unique. Edition size can be determined by the printing process itself, as when a stencil wears out, but usually the edition is limited by the artist. Editions of silkscreens range from 1 to 500 prints. An edition of a fine art print includes all images published at the same time. In my printing, large prints can take 3-4 months to complete while a small print can be finished in as little as one month.Ī silkscreen printer usually makes a limited edition of his designs. Typically a silkscreen printer allows 10% more of what he wants for an edition size to account for images rejected due to errors in printing. The printing process is very labor intensive from the creation of designs, to transfer to the screen, mixing of colors, and printing of an edition. This process is repeated on all sheets of the edition, and then the stencil is destroyed. The ink is then forced through the screen and onto the paper below.
The screen printer pulls ink across the printing frame, which has been placed above a sheet of paper that will hold the art work. In my prints, the number of colors on a silkscreen print varies: usually there are at least six different colors, but there may be up to 40 colors on a single image. Inks are custom mixed by the artist and matched to colors of the original and desired outcome of hue and value. Each stencil is then adhered to its own screen. Then the screen printer uses his knowledge of and preferences for color to develop a separate stencil for each color. This is called "pulling" Each color must be printed in the same place and in the same order for each print to resemble the original.Īn original image is the first step in the process. The basic printing process is the forcing of ink through a stencil onto paper with a squeegee. The original material used in screen printing was silk. Silkscreen printing found its way to the west in the 15th century. Japanese artists turned screen printing into a complex art by developing an intricate process wherein a piece of silk was stretched across a frame to serve as the carrier of hand cut stencils. From 221-618 AD stencils were used in China for production of images of Buddha.
Silkscreen Printing can be traced as far back as 9000 BC, when stencils were used to decorate Egyptian tombs and Greek mosaics. Silkscreen Printing is a stenciling method that involves printing ink through stencils that are supported by a porous fabric mesh stretched across a frame called a screen. Silkscreen Printing is ideally suited for bold and graphic designs. Painting, on the other hand, is a process for producing a single original piece of artwork. In printmaking, each print in an edition is considered an original work of art, not a copy. Printmaking is a process for producing editions (multiple originals) of artwork. The Word Serigraph is a combination of two Greek words, seicos, meaning silk, and graphos, meaning writing. Silkscreen Printing and other stencil-based printing methods are the oldest forms of printmaking. Silkcreen Printing, also goes by the term: Serigraph.
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