Studio Series: Screen prints

Dots and Optimism screen prints © Karen Thiessen, 2015

This week is the half-way mark of my winter screen print class and I'm stressing a bit because there is so much more that I want to do. Above are three successful prints. The blue Dots print is on a security envelope and the purple is on a black-and-white design. The chartreuse Optimism print is on plain off-white art paper. As I was printing with the chartreuse ink, I learned that it looked terrible layered over other colours, but looked fantastic on its own. HINT: If you wonder how to mix chartreuse, add a tiny drop of black to yellow and mix. Add white as necessary to achieve the desired opacity and lightness of colour.

This semester I've had more failures than successes, but because I print so very much, I have more than enough to collage with. The so-called failures are bases for future prints. Already I'm anticipating the beginning of the spring screen print class.