Once again I am back with another learning experience thanks to the guys who put together BTSNAT. This time I told them I would like to try my hand at something large scale and multicolored. My wish was granted and I was told that the BTS movie that would be shown is Arctic Blast. Since it will be in the month of December, I thought that was an excellent idea. I’ve created a 16×24 poster for the event and Arctic Blast.
In the meantime I took to Facebook and sent a message to Brian Trenchard-Smith asking him if he would assist Carolee and I. What 3 of the 4 organizers didn’t know is that BTS has agreed to sign the posters for the attendees. Christmas has come early this year! I mainly wanted to do it for Brian Kelley for his Brianmas present.
Because this was such a big thing to take on I brought on my lovely assistant, Carolee, to help me. All I needed to say was “chemicals, power tools, high powered lights, lumber, and various art supplies” and she was in and with the permission of the organizers I let her in on the movie and a few of the ideas I had.
I sat at my computer and the first thing I did was open Google and typed in “Arctic Blast trailer.” Then I watch the trailer and started looking for stock images from the film using Google Images. I played around for a bit using 2 that I found, but neither were a high-resolution enough to pull off such a large format.
So I moved on to Creative Commons through Flickr. Doing searches for snow, snowfall, etc. This yielded a really great idea. An idea that the organizers liked as well.
First Attempt
3 Color (including paper)
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I dropped out the full color from the original image and made some pretty heavy modifications to the image. I thought it would be great to use black paper and use blue and white ink. I moved on to some testing screens, but couldn’t get the half toning to work out properly. I showed Brian Kelley and Noah Lee the results. It was cool, but not what I wanted and didn’t convey what we were hoping.
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Second Attempt
4 Color
Carolee and I had a discussion and thought maybe if we tried full 4 color it would work out. So we went for it. I knew when I exposed the second screen it wasn’t going to give us what we wanted. So I gave up completely on this image. I did learn how to do CYMK color separations in Photoshop, so it wasn’t a complete loss.
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Third & Final Attempt [Channeling Olly Moss and Sam Smith]
3 Color (Including Paper)
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Back to the drawing board (literally). I sat down at my computer during lunch and said to myself… self, this movie is about a solar eclipse, that is what the post should be about, so I went back to trusty Google. I did some research on solar eclipses on the NASA website and looked at images depicting such an event. After my two previous failures I thought that going fully graphic was the way to go and back to 3 colors black and blue inks on white paper. Carolee was instrumental in making the design cooler and it was so easy, make the yellow sun white. Icy, even.
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Since I had 2 ready to expose small screens I figured a test wouldn’t be hard so I produced a test print roughly 1/4th the size of the full. And it turned out perfect! But because I had to go to Ohio for a week for Thanksgiving I had to put the project on hold for a week. I was definitely itching to get back home to work on it, especially after seeing Sam Smith in Nashville and receiving some words of encouragement on taking on such a large format in my guest room.
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The day after I got home I spent nearly the entire day working on the 2 screens needed to print the posters. 1 failed attempt in the morning sent me reeling and got me feeling aggro. After 2 trips to Home Depot and a reset on 2 very large working screens (it was my own damn fault) I finally had 2 workable screens for printing.
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Helper, Carolee, helped so much with the blue prints. So much ink. EVERYWHERE! After Carolee left I managed is get black ink all over my hands and somehow under my shirt. What tha? But I did get 15 viable prints from the experience. 2 were completely unusable because text was smeared. For a first time multicolor print in such a big format I give the big THUMBS UP! I don’t know how many large format multicolor prints I’ll be doing, but I can see myself doing small format multicolor prints. Big formats are hard on the hands/body, everything is clunky, but there are some great tools out there to help you along if you are interested in screen printing with multiple colors.
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Lessons Learned
1. Have the right squeegee for the job.
My small ass squeegee wasn’t going to cut it in the big format world. So I had to get a large squeegee. 12 inches wide and I still don’t think it was wide enough. I think I would have preferred a squeegee that was just a bit wider than the print itself. All worked out though, because of the nature of the screen it evens out the ink so you don’t get ink streaks.
2. Hinge frame clamps are a sign that God is real and he provided these miracles as a gift to humanity, or at least the sanity of artists.
Hinge clamps are essential for those making more than 1 multicolor screen print. It allows you to line up the print area multiple times. It works like a champ and they are only about $22 at Jerry’s Artarama.
3. A co-conspirator is a must when dealing in large formats. Especially if they don’t mind trial-and-error.
Use your helper when you can, because otherwise you will ink yourself into insanity. They are a person you can talk to so you aren’t rambling to yourself in your own little corner of the world. But they also make the “heavy-lifting” not so heavy. Plus you can go to Home Depot and Jerry’s Artarama and get lost in the “cool stuff.”
4. A drying rack is essential.
My art room, my guest room bed, my guest room couch, my computer room table, my laser printer, my computer room chair, and my computer room floor. They all have one thing in common. They served as surfaces for drying the posters. Once I get a little bit of money I think I will be investing in a drying rack.
5. If you can pull off having a flat file, do it.
Damn you flat files. Why are you over $1,000? Ahhh but there is a couple different ways around this unfortunate steep price. First, are there any fabric stores going out of business? The metal file drawers for holding patterns are, believe it or not, perfect for such a use. The second option and the one I will probably in the future go with is the Home Depot option. You can buy metal flat files from their online store for about $500!! It will also make a perfect base for that cool drying rack.
6. Patience is your friend.
It’s a life lesson. Life is like screen printing. You are going to have issues, you are going to make mistakes, all you have to do is be patient, and get back on the proverbial horse when you get knocked off. Be prepared for your hands to hurt if you are stretching your own screens and building your own frames in addition to getting photo emulsion and ink on your hands this is rough and can be painful, but it is worth the pain when you have a finished product. Patience is a virtue after all.
And that my friends is how it was done. The BTSN4T poster for Arctic Blast.
