Keith Sutherland instant positive
Screen Process Printing Essay
Screen process printing, or screen printing, is a technique of putting ink on to a
material by pushing it through a screen on which a stencil is placed. The original way to
screen print was using silk, so it used to be called silkscreen printing. However, with the
invention of polyester mesh, silk is no longer commonly used. Screen printing itself has
become more popular since the 1960’s when mainsteam artists started using it to help
them recreate works of art. There are also a variety of inks you can use to create different
effects. The most commonly used ink is plastsol, which produces a plastic-like finish, but
different inkscan create different effects and be printed on a variety of surfaces. Those are
just some of the benefits of the extremely useful meathod of screen printing.
Screen printing is a fairly old meathod of printing. It’s origins aren’t completely
known, but it is quessed that screen printng started in China at around 960 AD. Screen
printing didn’t make it’s way to Euorope until the late 18th century because of a lack of
transport for the silk screens that were needed. Early in the 1910’s, a man named Samuel
Simon finally patented the first commercial screenprinting device. His original intent was
to use it to print high-quality wallpaper for rich people. Later on, printers started
experimenting with chemicals in order to create a photo-reactive chemical in order to
make a stencil on the screen. This “emulsion stencil” meathd was not accepted early on,
however it is now a large part of the stencils printed today. The chemicals used now have
been changed to make the emulsion safer. Since the 1960’s screen printing has become
much more popular. That was because screen printing was kept as a closly guarded
secret, but it did have one drawback. The screen printing process was very slow to
complete. That changed when a man named Michael Vasilantone developed and patented
Keith Sutherland instant positive
a rotating, multicolor screen printing device. We can credit Andy Warhol for bringing
screenprinting into mainstream culture. Now it is used by artists to duplicate their works,
or to create new works, often with bright and vibrant colors. Some of the more recent
meathods of making a stencil involve getting your picture, then printing it onto posipaper
instead of having to draw it onto a piece of acetate.
Screen printing can be done with a variety of inks. The most commony used ink is
plasticol. It comes in a variety of colors, and has a plastic-like finish. There are also
water-based inks like aquatex, which are very similar to plasticol, however they penetrate
more into the fabric and yeild a softer finish. This ink is ideal for putting light colors on
dark clothing, and is good at keeping the original texture of the fabric. A type of ink
similar to water- based inks is discharge ink. This ink is also ideal for printing light color
onto dark fabrics, however instead of covering the cloth with color, discharge inks
remove the old dye, then lay the ink onto blank fabric. This process will leave the fabric
feeling a little bit softer, but they are less graphic and harder to conrtol the actual color.
Most other kinds of inks are plasticol ink with a special additive mixed in. With
additives, you can get effects like puff ink where the print raises off the garment making
for a 3D look and feel. There is also suede ink which is like puff ink, but with less puff. It
makes the ink have a suede feel when you are done. Mirrored silver ink s a highly
reflective, solvent based ink. Some inks like it are Shimmer inks where there are gold or
silver flakes added in, or mettalic, which is like shimmer except the particles are smaller,
so it has a mettalic look. The different inks are used to create different looks that you may
want to screen print. Some inks need a little more preperation, or a little harder cleaning
process, so you must read the directions for each one, so you don’t clog up your screen.
Keith Sutherland instant positive
There are different techniques that you can use to screen print. The usual
technique is to create a stencil by cutting out a lamenated piece of paper, then pushing ink
through a screen onto a material, usually cloth or canvas. You push the ink through the
screen with a filled blade or squeegee. Another meathod that is very similar involves
drawing the stencil onto a piece of acetate, putting a photo-sensitive chemical onto a
screen then exposing the chemical to light with the stencil on top. The areas where the
stencil is, the light won’t shine through leaving it soft, so it can be washed out to create
an emulsion stencil. When printing, some people use the CMYK model also known as the
four color process. That meathod involves only using four colors to create your color
scheme. The colors are cayn, magenta, yellow, and key(usually black). To print with this
technique, you print the picture in these four colors with the color beig more vibrant
where you want to see it more. Then you lay all four colors o top of each other in any
order for the desired effect that you want. For this you usually use a special ink that is a
little translucent and blends colors easily. In the industry, they use special macines tht can
roll ink through a stencil very quickly to print a lot of things in a short amount of time.
Overall, screen printing is a very versiltile style of printin that has been around for
a while. Screenprintin has gained a lot of popularity since the1960’s becausee you can
use it to print on balloons, clothing, electronic devices including cicuit board printing,
and snowboards. You can do all ths with a variety of inks for a fairly cheap price making
screen printing one of the easiest, safest, and most economical art meathods to use.