Goal

The goal of this assign­ment is to develop a dis­cern­ing aware­ness of the con­cep­tual, visual and tech­ni­cal attrib­utes asso­ci­ated with screen printed media.

Objective

The objec­tive of this assign­ment is to cre­ate and print an edi­tion of five, mul­ti­ple color prints that uti­lize clas­sic or mod­ernist styl­is­tic attributes.

Background Reading

• Mac­Dougall, All chapters

Safety Notice

• Do not look directly at the ultra­vi­o­let light
• Safety apparel required: gloves, safety glasses, ear plugs, respirator
• Safety Data Sheet (SDS) Index

Assignment

Cre­ate a 5 x 7 in. or 8 x 10 in. com­po­si­tion that explores the pos­si­bil­i­ties of screen printed media through a fig­u­ra­tive or an abstract image.

Screen print­ing is more of a binary medium than many other forms, such as draw­ing with char­coal and pen­cil, or design­ing in a full color envi­ron­ment. Pru­dent and judi­cious use of flat color, as well as the approx­i­ma­tion of grad­u­a­tions through an illu­sional process, is vital to a suc­cess­ful print.

These tech­niques influ­ence the con­cep­tual and aes­thetic deci­sions with cre­at­ing effec­tive visu­als. This project explores the pri­mary tech­niques for tonal con­trol: halftone screen­ing (dots); Sto­chas­tic screen­ing (ran­dom) com­bined with line art solids (thresh­old or posterization).

The use of flat (spot) col­ors and/or line art, is essen­tial, though lim­ited use of gra­di­ents is per­mis­si­ble. Full color (CMYK) solu­tions are not allowed, but any color hue is per­mis­si­ble as long it fits within num­ber of col­ors. Explore over­lap­ping col­ors, abstract shapes and imagery or use fig­u­ra­tive and ges­tural forms. Final solu­tion should fit into a clas­si­cally inspired or mod­ern abstract category.

Cre­ate and print ten (10) one color 5 x 7 or 8 x 10 in. prints.

Part One

Brain­storm sev­eral con­cepts and col­lect any nec­es­sary source mate­ri­als. Pre­pare sketches and/or a dig­i­tal proof of your best con­cepts. Once approved by the instruc­tor, pre­pare art­work for final film positives.

Part Two

Coat and dry screen using tech­niques demon­strated in class. Print or pre­pare final proof and color sep­a­ra­tions. Dig­i­tal sep­a­ra­tions must be pro­duced dur­ing assigned time peri­ods by the instruc­tor or lab per­son­nel. Repeat part two as often as nec­es­sary for each color.

Part Three

Expose and wash out screen using tech­niques demon­strated in class. Repeat part three as often as nec­es­sary for each color.

Part Four

Print a total of ten prints using tech­niques demon­strated in class. Clean up ink and reclaim the screen in prepa­ra­tion for the next project. Repeat as part four as often as nec­es­sary for each color.

Select the best five (5) prints for an edi­tion. Label the oth­ers as artist proofs.

Warn­ing: Do not allow ink to dry in the screen. Doing so will cause per­ma­nent dam­age to the screen.
Warn­ing: Do not allow emul­sion remover to dry in the screen. Doing so will cause per­ma­nent dam­age to the screen.

Technical Specifications

• 5 x 7 in. or 8 x 10 in. art­work area cen­tered on an 9 x 12 in. sheet of paper.
• Two color minimum
• ART 304 Google Dive

Assessment

• The fol­low­ing rubric posted on D2L will deter­mine assign­ment score: Assign­ment 02.08: Clas­si­cally Inspired or Mod­ern Abstract

Techniques

Brain­storm­ing, con­cep­tual devel­op­ment, draw­ing, dig­i­tal image devel­op­ment, emul­sion coat­ing, expo­sure, washout, reg­is­tra­tion, print­ing, cleanup, reclamation

Supplies

Art­work, com­puter, appro­pri­ate soft­ware, film pos­i­tives, screen, emul­sion, expo­sure unit, washout booth, print­ing press, squeegee, paper, emul­sion remover, scrub brush.

Deadlines

Monday/Wednesday, March ⁶⁄₈, 2017. Assign­ment Given.

Monday/Wednesday, March ²⁰⁄₂₂, 2017. Parts One and Two due.

Monday/Wednesday, March ²⁷⁄₂₉, 2017. Parts Three and Four due.

Mon­day, April ³⁄₅, 2017. All Parts due for review in class and in appro­pri­ate D2L section.