I’m always searching around for new (to me) ways of making prints. I also seem to be making a slow and stealthy approach to doing some actual painting. As described earlier on here, I have enjoyed painting blocking fluid directly on to the screen mesh to make stencils. So I thought I’d explore a little more of a technique I’ve only demonstrated to students before: making mono screenprints (well actually perhaps better described as ‘trioprints’ – as one does get at least three versions of the same image) by painting on to the screen mesh with ordinary watercolour paints; and printing the image through on to the paper with a water based clear screen printing ink base. It really is as simple as that, and I’m sure some very exciting things are possible.
First, here’s a short video which shows the printing process. In this case, this is the third of five images of a running hare which were printed one on top of the other. Note that three printings are possible as the watercolour paint gets dissolved by the water based ink base.
The third or ‘ghost’ printing one of the three was very delicate, so I worked directly on the printed paper with more pencil to make what was my favourite print (or painting…or drawing?) of these experiments thus far. I have framed this one as I like it so much.