Screen printing has been used commercially since the 1920s. It first began with artists in 1930s America. Screen printing was traditionally called silkscreen printing also known as serigraphy. It is a printing technique where a mesh fabric is used to transfer ink, apart from the ‘non printing’ areas that are blocked off by glue or lacquer. There are many different ways you can assemble the screen such as applying adhesive film or paper, or painting a light sensitive resist onto the screen which is then developed as a photograph. Once the screen is set you then begin to glide paint across the mesh fabric with a squeegee.
With the acrylic paint you have to add a medium to the paint before using it onto the screen. If you used pure acrylic paint it would dry up in the mesh screen, so the formula is normally 75% medium 25% paint however this changes depending on how dark or light you want your colour, the less medium you add the darker and brighter it will be, however the more medium you add the lighter the colour and the more faint it will be.
There are many ways you can screen print however the technique I am drawn to is CMYK, cyan, magenta, yellow and black. CMYK is a subtractive method of printing that relies on layered dots of colour to mask the white background of the paper, if there’s more ink on the paper this means less light that reflects. CMYK inks are applied in set patterns of tiny dots that appear to create a solid colour. The colours needed to make a coloured image are CMYK so once you’ve finished layering up the individual colours you will get a pixilated dotted print that looks similar to a photograph.
The reason why I am so drawn and passionate towards print, is the fact that each individual ink or printing method gives you a slightly different result, so no print is the same, there are many different variations within print. Also the freedom to mix up colours and create different prints by swapping the colours or by layering up only a certain amount of layers to create this contrasting print. I was introduced to print when I first started University, I had never done it before so I was eager to learn all these new different techniques. Looking at my CMYK prints from my first ever attempt to my current work now, I believe my work has developed massively, I am now confident enough to screen print of different fabrics, and experiment with colours, enabling me to push myself further and challenge myself within art.