more screen printing

I have continued to screen print throughout this week with the plan to add to a body of print samples which help me gain an understanding of layering my screens onto dyed silk. I am satisfied with the development of my prints. Even looking back at my work from the beginning of unit BA4, my prints have become cleaner, more detailed and pay more attention to the clarity and precision of print, ensuring to keep to a sophisticated colour palette. Throughout the units I have become very enthusiastic to work with silk, because I enjoy the feel and luxurious quality as well as how successfully the material takes colour. Therefore, I am currently enjoying designing specifically for silk and other fabric scarves as well as the process of dying and printing onto silk. I will next continue with my prints, now creating 1 metre squared scarves and trying compositions onto a more rectangular shape.

screen printing

I love the process of screen print, how you can quickly create flat, clean shapes of colour and layer them up for different tones and interesting effects. These images show how I am thinking about composition on my scarves and how I could possibly create an exciting repeat print. I wanted to add more colour to the background of these prints, however when printing onto the dyed red and orange silk, the colours appear very dark, even though the discharge works extremely well on these bright dyed fabrics. I cut out a template of my blue tit print and printed a block colour as a background. this left a thin white line around the birds which I believe made them more outstanding and gives an edgy hand-printed look. I will continue to print block colours around my bird prints rather than dying the fabric darker colours, unless I am discharging bird silhouettes onto the fabric first, to then print back onto.

dying fabric

I have dyed silks to match my vibrant colour palette which is inspired by WGSN colour forecasts for summer 2016. I have also been inspired by the "Made in Britain" textiles label and wanted to take a twist on the British red, white and blue.

I am very satisfied with how the silks have taken the procion cold dyes, plus acid dye for the strong dark navy/purple colour. I am also very happy that these colours have discharged successfully, leaving white for areas that gives highlights and tone to the layered bird prints.

initial screen prints

These images show my first screen prints where I am trialling layering colours to produce birds which reflect the effect of my watercolour drawings but with the impact of bold colours using up to 5 screens. My favourite of these prints is the first, because of the tonal appearance. However I also like the touches of blue and orange to make it relate more to my colour palette. I am satisfied with the textures that appear in these prints which I achieved by colour reducing my own watercolour drawings.

scarf designs

Trying something different, by creating pattern and layers of colour with my colour palette in mind using photoshop to edit my watercolour drawings.

I believe my scarf designs are becoming more successful with the use of texture. I like how the spots and stripes give the scarves a more interesting appearance as well as giving a commercial look to appeal to more people and will also match a variety of outfits. 

scarf ideas

I have begun using photoshop to arrange compositions for square scarves. I have chosen to stick to my carefully selected colour palette, but have also kept the natural colours of the birds in my paintings. I would like to produce a variety of scarves which demonstrate different scales, so that some scarves may show the detail of my drawings whereas some are a small motif so that they can be seen when the scarf is ruffled when worn.

As I believe these scarf designs are beginning to show development and potential, I will most likely use digital designs for the mid-term exhibition. However, I would also like to produce my bird drawings using a screen printing method, so that they prove to be suitable for a commercial market. This may also enable me to continue printing after I graduate, where I don't have access to a digital printer.