Illustration Friday - Round

round and round she goes...

Gabriel von Max

On a recent trip to Seattle, I visited the Frye Art Museum, a beautiful little museum on First Hill.  After a painful up-hill struggle of trying to remember how to drive a stick shift over the steep Seattle landscape, I was confronted with paintings of monkeys and doe-eyed women, the creation of a 19th Century Austrian painter named Gabriel von Max.  Nothing about the paintings particularly struck me and I was beginning to think I'd wasted a trip when I came upon a tiny side room that contained von Max's illustrations for Goethe's Faust.  My trip was not wasted.  While I have not been able to find some of the most amazing etchings online, there are a few that you can check out here.  The internet, of course, doesn't do them justice, so if you ever get the chance to see these in person, you should definitely take advantage of the opportunity.

Illustration Friday - Silent

Should be seen and not heard.

Screen Print Process 2

The open areas on the edge of the screen are blocked out and then taped over.  The screen is attached to the press, which is essentially an arm or hinge that moves up and down.  Ink is added to the screen.  Every new print requires two passes with the squeegee, the first to fill the reservoir of the design and the second to press the ink through the screen onto the shirt.  The shirt is then dried under a high-heat heater to allow the ink to cure and voila, t-shirts.

Screen Print Process 1

As promised, a brief and simplified explanation of the process of screen printing:  After the designs are scanned into the computer and sized, we print them out full-size on transparency.  Printing screens are prepared with a coating of emulsion, aka light-sensitive ooze.  The emulsion is allowed to dry, the transparency is placed on top, and the screen is exposed to direct, intense light for about 8 minutes.  The screens are rinsed to remove the emulsion that wasn't exposed, and the design is revealed.

Fox Hunt

The newest piece.  It started as an English fox hunt, but evolved into a butterfly net fox chase.  It's somewhat introspective, I suppose.  One of the characters is convinced that she is inches away from success.  The other character, along with the rest of us, know it's not going to happen.

Final Screen Print Preview

A piece of the final design that will be featured on my screen printed merchandise. Siamese twins.

Screen Prints #2 & #3

My two newest designs for screen printing on tees and totes.  Look familiar?  That's because these two designs are just old designs reworked into a new and exciting screen-print-friendly format.  I've got one more design in the works, then it's time to print negatives and make screens.  The blank tees arrived today!  I'm having second thoughts about the all gray and white order.  Should have gotten some brown and yellow.

Hey you, I'm serious.  Bring me something to screen print for you.  You deserve it for being one of my fourteen followers.