How is a screen print made?

Since I started printmaking (only a year and a half ago), I’ve explained to lots of people how screen prints are made. Having come across quite a few people who don’t know what they are, who can blame them for not seeing why they should pay more for a screen print over a digital print?

The super short version (in my case) is… they are handmade, limited edition, printed using archival inks and (usually) on acid free paper, so they are safe from discolouring or fading. I do like to experiment by printing on coloured/recycled papers too - these are not acid free and can discolour if placed in the sun, for example, so I price these prints much lower to reflect that. Whether on acid-free paper or not, a screen print should be looked after… You might be pushing your luck if you hang it above a radiator or in a damp room, for example, and a professional framer would use an acid free mount inside your frame, too.

Experimenting at printing on coloured paper

The digital prints I sell are printed on high quality, heavy weight board and are digitally press printed. You will get lots of joy out of them and they are a perfect choice if you want some purse friendly art to make your walls look beautiful! A screen print, however, would be more of a special purchase. Not only will it’s quality last for a lifetime, but it will be limited edition. Only so many have been made the same. It might be printed again in a different colour or variation, or brought out as a subsequent edition and marked clearly that it’s from an additional run. 

See the bottom left corner, usually, where the print is individually numbered out of how many prints were made. So if your print is marked 3/20, that means that only 20 were made of that variation. Prints can be numbered from 1/1 (a single print) to numbers in their hundreds or thousands. So the lower the out-of number, the more valuable it might be… especially if the artist makes it big! I keep my print runs short for now - I currently have no editions that are larger than twenty. Things can go wrong, too, so there is a number of prints that aren’t included in the edition because they’re not good enough.

An example of a print, numbered in the bottom left corner
(my signature goes over on the bottom right).

This print can be found here on my etsy shop.

As well as its long lasting quality and limited edition; each print has, of course, been made by hand and has involved much more of the artists time and attention than you might realise… which leads me on to the juicy stuff… how a screen print is made! 

There is some labour and a lot of love that goes into a screen print. First of all we need the facilities. I make my prints at West Yorkshire Print Workshop in Mirfield. I choose a screen first - I hire it for the session, which means transferring my design to it first and then removing it at the end of the session. 

I coat the screen with a light sensitive fluid called Azocol, using a trough and a pulling action. You have to wear rubber gloves because it can be harmful to the skin, get the lid back on the tub as quick as you can so it’s not damaged by the light, then get the screen into the drying cupboard quick sharp before it’s exposed to too much light. Then you wait for about half an hour while it dries and you eat a sandwich or prepare your artwork.  

The first stage - the coated screen drying

Once the Azocol has dried, it’s then time to transfer the artwork to the screen, using a transparent overlay. There are different ways to create the overlay, but the way that suits my work best is to scan my drawings in and then print them on to transparent film. The screen is placed inside a large UV light exposure unit, with the artwork overlay underneath. A lid is closed and a vacuum is used to hold everything in place, while the screen is exposed to the UV light for a set amount of time. 

My artwork on acetate, ready to transfer to the screen

The screen inside the light exposure unit, note the vacuum action!

Once the screen is taken out of the exposure unit, it is then washed. The areas that were blocked from the UV light will wash away from the mesh, leaving a stencil behind, ready to print from. It needs to dry first, so time for another sandwich or cutting paper/mixing ink. Once the screen is dry, it’s ready to print from, hooray! 

Block colour stencil transferred to the silk screen

Linework layer on a separate screen (I printed both layers on different days)

The screen gets clamped into a frame to keep everything in the same place throughout printing. Paper is held in place using a vacuum bed. I mix my ink with a medium that will help it push through the mesh without drying too quick and then use a squeegee to push the ink through the screen on to the paper. This is the bit that feels amazing! 

The screen clamped in place

Multicolour squeegee action!

I swear not all my prints are in pink!

Using the squeegee to push the shiny, rolling pile of ink downwards feels lovely and it’s then so exciting to lift up the frame and screen to see how the print has come out. There can be some troubleshooting along the way, as they don’t always come out perfect. You have to work quick, so that the ink doesn’t dry into the mesh and block the stencil. It is meditative and I always have a moment when I think, ‘I haven’t been thinking about anything else since I got here!’ and my mind feels very clear. It’s a lovely, therapeutic process.

Lifting the screen to reveal the result

Happy prints, drying on the racks

After that comes the sad bit… cleaning the screen. Wearing rubber gloves and goggles, the screen has to be coated with a chemical called Pregasol and left to sit for a few minutes, while the pretty picture starts to fade. It feels like on Mary Poppins when it starts raining and the chalk picture land gets ruined. 

Sad screen about to be washed

Printing in the summer = sweaty brow.

I haven't been wearing these the whole time...

just for the Pregasol.

The screen is sprayed clean with a pressure washer, which removes all traces of Azocol (the chemical we used at the beginning) and the design. If you have your own screens and want to keep the design on for next time, you can just wash the paint off. I don’t have my own screens yet, but hopefully this year I will be getting some and that will save me some time.

Well, I’ve written a right proper essay. If you’re still reading, thankyou! I hope you learnt something and feel a bit more knowledgable next time you’re looking round a print fair.

For further geeking out, here are some links I’ve found helpful in the past… and of course, you can check out my range of both digital and screen prints here.

A good little explanation of acid-free paper:

http://www.memories-nostalgia.com/acid-free.htm

Quick tips on signing prints:

https://makingamark.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/how-to-sign-art-print.html

Some further explanation of different print edition initials:

https://dcimprint.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/printmaking-101-edition-numbers/

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Screenprinting Sheffield Town Hall - experiments!

After returning to screen printing at West Yorkshire Print Workshop, the next piece I screen printed was another experimental run, using a drawing I showed recently of Sheffield Town Hall. I printed some block colours digitally and then screen printed the linework over, to see what colours and options worked best. I had also experimented at some hand coloured techniques again and chine colle (tissue paper collage). 

In the end, the prints with coloured sky were my favourite. Because the town hall is such a finely detailed building and the drawing is so delicate, I found it worked best staying in black and white, with a block colour in the sky behind to frame it and contrast against the detailed line drawing. 

My next plans are to make more prints of Sheffield Town Hall, this time with the colour also being screen printed, now that I’ve found what works best. I’m also working on some other new drawings of places in Sheffield that I’ll be making into screen prints in time to sell at the Etsy Sheffield fair in December. 

I haven't put these prints on my etsy shop yet, but please email me at jd@josephinedellow.com or message on etsy, if you would like one.

The Saltaire Review magazine cover illustration

I was really happy to be asked recently to design a front cover for the August/September edition of the Saltaire Review magazine, using my illustrations of Saltaire shops and houses. I was also asked if they could feature an interview with me... I hope the readers found it interesting! Below is the full interview and you can view the magazine online here.

Don't forget you can keep up with all my adventures through whichever social media stream you prefer! I am on twitter, instagram and Facebook. I have also started publishing newsletters, please click here if you would like to join my mailing list.

How would you describe your artwork?

I often get told my work is quirky, cute, very detailed and neat. My passion for children’s literature comes across in a storytelling nature to my drawings, along with a love for graphic detail. Combining real life documentation with my imagination, the way I work probably reflects the way I live and see the world – appreciating the joys of what’s in front of me while also spending a lot of time in a different, daydreamy place!  

Do you have a preferred style or medium?

Fineliners have been integral to the way I work since I was a small child! I use them in different thicknesses and love drawing tiny details with the smallest nib I can find. I like to draw in pencil too, which can suit more emotive subjects like people and animals and can be very versatile once it’s scanned in. I then scan in and usually colour digitally, but I have also started screen printing, which is a process I fell in love with as soon as I tried it.

When did you decide you wanted to become a full time artist? 

I always wanted to work in a creative job and tried a few avenues when I first left school. I started studying fashion at university before eventually realising all I wanted to do was draw. I transferred to an Illustration degree and never looked back!

Who are your biggest influences?

Looking at other artists, my main inspiration has always been children’s books. I am inspired in different ways by Shirley Hughes, Richard Scarry and Janet and Alan Ahlberg, to name just a few. My university lecturers were very influential in the start of my practice and most importantly, my supportive - and creative - family. My Dad was a skilled joiner who could make anything out of wood and my Mum is a fine artist, so I now see traits from both in my design approach to art.

What inspires your work?

My main inspiration is my happy and colourful childhood. With four older brothers and sisters, our house was always vibrant and busy and my parents were brilliant at keeping us entertained. Our home was the perfect backdrop for my imagination to flourish as we played and drew and made things. Maybe that somehow links to my other inspiration which (you can probably tell from my work!) is architecture. I get excited at the sight of characterful houses and shops and want to draw as many as I can! I go through stages of working out, spontaneity and repetition when I am drawing buildings. Each stage feels fresh when I get to it and then therapeutic in the process.

What's your relationship with Saltaire?

I lived in Leeds for five years and used to visit Saltaire regularly after first discovering the arts trail in 2009. I can spend ages looking at children’s books in Salts Mill and used to drive over specially for that. In May this year, I showed my work for the first time in the open houses of the Arts Trail and it was a great weekend. I made a trip over when I found out I’d been accepted and took photos of some of the lovely old buildings to draw and make prints of. It was really good to see firsthand what people thought to my work.  

What are you working on at the moment and what are your plans for the future?

I had just started screen printing before breaking my right (drawing) hand in a car accident earlier this year. It has been a long process and I am still having physiotherapy, but my hand is finally feeling much better and ready to get back to printing. So that is my focus at the moment. I always have ideas for children’s books ticking over too (I have a masters in children’s book illustration) - I like to write my own stories as well as illustrate them. I have also been working on some commissions, including house portraits - which I will be updating my social media streams with as they progress.

Where can we find more of your work?

I have very recently set up an online shop on etsy, where some of my prints are for sale. I will be adding more screen prints here along with some other ideas I’ve been developing for products... https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JosephineDellow

Screenprinting!

I’ve had a crazy busy time lately, one of my recent developments is that I did a screen printing course at the West Yorkshire Print Workshop. I had only tried it briefly before in college, but not using my own designs, so it was extremely satisfying to make my own illustrations into screen prints and it seemed to really suit my style. I absolutely loved the process and can’t wait to do more!

I have made some sales already, including some prints I donated to the craft sale at my work to raise money for the Macmillan charity. So it’s a very nice feeling to know that my shopfronts illustration will be framed and on some people’s walls soon!

Here are some photos from my weekend at WYPW…

Emily Sutton Town and Country at YSP

I went on a lovely inspirational trip today to see Emily Sutton's Town and Country exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Emily's work was awe-inspiring, the skilfully drawn tiny details in her illustrations are beautifully combined with her playful, free approach to shape, colour and perspective. Just amazing!

Printing in the garden

The other day was the first hot sunny day I've been in my new house and free to bond with my garden (I didn't have a garden for 5 years before this!)... So I did some printing! I've got some ideas in mind for how I'll use the textures... watch this space!