Twin lense reflex camera
This artist has some very interesting graphics that I enjoyed:
Irina Batkova
This site had some very interesting images:
Depthcore: Digital art and media collective
I found many interesting sites in this article:
33-new-places-to-get-design-inspiration
Do you have any sites that give you inspiration?
One of the first things I advise people to do when working with screen printing and direct liquid emulsions is to use 100% opaque film. This is something that we have become accustom to not having. In the early days of screen printing the film positives were made using a genuine photographic process producing a silver nitrate piece of film that was just absolutely opaque. The density of the image area in the film was 100%. The film was made with “process” cameras or “stat” cameras and processed through small automatic developing machines. As the computer came of age we started to see cheaper and easier methods of producing film positives emerge on the commercial market. The draw back or compensation for the lesser cost is: many computer produced laser vellum products and inkjet or laser films are inferior compared to their true film predecessors. Check out the article called Outputting Artwork To Film on the Catspit website. [...]
Read the full article…. »
Today was a very fun, creative day!
I was inspired to make a gift set for a family who is soon expecting their first baby. I decided to hand sketch my image this time. I am exploring different styles that work well as a screen print image.
After sketching my “cute as a bug” image I scanned it into my computer.
I used the eye dropper in Gimp to make sure that I selected the darkest black for the outline and also added some contrast. I did several test runs to get the size just right for the very small onesie. Next, I printed the images on my transperancies. I cut the images apart so that I could get maximum use of my 220 screen. [...]
Read the full article…. »
I recently have been exploring the internet for educational information about screen printing and I found Jonathan Monaco of Catspit Productions, LLC I enjoyed his enthusiasm and obvious love of screen printing. He agreed to an interview to tell us a little about himself.
Jonathan how long have you been screen printing?
Screen printing has been in my family ever since I was born. My father has been involved in the sales of equipment and supplies for a very long time. As a result the act of screen printing has been a part of that as well, especially with the people around him. When they hear what he does for a living, they often ask how they can get started printing.
I printed my first tee shirts with my uncle in the basement of my home when I was only 11 years old. He built a wooden table top press and printed his own line drawings of animals in black ink on lighter colored shirts. I helped my brother while I was in high school to build a screen printing shop. He still runs his shop today in upstate New York. He taught me much of what I know about screen printing. The bottom line is I have been involved with screen printing for about 28 years. And textile screen printing is my forte. [...]
Read the full article…. »
What do I print? Maybe you are like me and find that a challenging question. I have lots of ideas but it seems like it is difficult to get an image I like on a transparency. I am not very familiar with image editor software, but I am slowly learning to use Gimp in my spare time (ha, ha).
This weekend, I found a way to make images that I think has potential to work with my limited experience and time. I opened a generic flower photo in Gimp and made it into a black and white photo. I added a layer that was trasparent to trace the image. I then used the touchpad and traced the image. I picked the flowers that had the shape I wanted and just loosely drew around the design. I magnified the image and smoothed up and cleaned up the edges. I saved the transperancy with a white background and adjusted the image to be darker.
I am anxious to have a chance to make the transperancies and print the design. I would like to add a second color to the center of the flower with a paint brush to give the slight green highlight that dogwood flowers have. I am looking forward to experimenting with this idea to get more images to use. The best part is that I used free software and photos that I already have!
Michelle
Drawing by Jim Bickell
Al took used photos of our cameras and used PhotoShop to create the images. You can learn how he acheived this effect HERE
Twin lens reflex camera
Minolta SLR
Here’s what I learned when I was using YUDU emulsion sheets. The YUDU tutorial has good information watch it a couple of times before you start. Lots of good information is also found here:
Yudu forums
This site is an excellent resource for YUDUers. Let it be noted that I no longer use the sheets as I find that liquid emulsion is just as easy as the sheets, but that’s just my opinion. Also I do not discount using the sheets either. If the YUDU sheets were not so expensive I may still be using them. They work just as well as liquid emulsion. Their high cost caused me to do some research and I found using liquid emulsion much less expensive. I also found less expensive sources for emulsion sheets. So do your research and save yourself some cash.
The first thing you should do is clean your screen just in case…. There may be some foreign substance on the screen which may ruin the emulsion. Use a bit of dish soap that has ‘NO’ hand softener in it and rinse thoroughly. [...]
Read the full article…. »
The YUDU is a fun machine for home crafters, however, when it comes multiple color registration it does have its limitations. If you are just laying color over color it is fine and you can get some really cool looking images that way. If you need accurate registration when laying color next to color, then you may have some problems.
I have tried all the tricks I could find to minimize the problems by researching and using every trick others have used. I started with spot color separation images that had registration marks applied by Photoshop. I checked them on the light table then I carefully burned my screens, made sure everything was lined up every time. [...]
Read the full article…. »
An important part of having good detail in your screen printing is having a good smooth coat of emulsion. For the new DIY screen printer this may seem like a daunting task (it did to me). You can read about our first experience in these two earlier posts.
I learn best when I watch a task several times and see how different people approach the task. So with that in mind, I have included three videos that show how to apply liquid emulsion from You Tube. I thought each had an interesting aspect to share and together give a pretty good look at how it is done. [...]
Read the full article…. »
Below are some pics of a 3 color image I just did. It didn’t require any real registration basically I just laid the three images over each other and printed them.
The first pic shows a printout of how I wanted them laid out and the colors I wanted to use. At first I had the black camera at the top but it looked too heavy up there so I moved them around till I liked what I saw and printed it out.
Next I printed black images of each camera on Ink Jet transparencies. I then laid them out on the YUDU in their positions and made note where they were in relation to each other. I then burned each screen I was going to use placing each positive in its noted position as I went. [...]
Read the full article…. »
