From Afar silk screen print on paper

Dear fans,

Back! With another print! “From Afar” is a six color silk screen print on paper using contact paper as stencils.

This is a print that talks about seeing something from a distance, and thinking how beautiful it is without having a clear idea what it really is. It is precisely this ignorance of the reality of it that makes this thing you can’t quite see or obtain so beautiful. So, would you pursue it, hold it in your hand in close examination, risking your appreciation of it, or would you just admire From Afar? Your choice :)

There is not really a central focus in the composition, rather it is a collage of bubbles with different patterns and colors. Yes, just like seeing the street lights at night without your glasses on. So, you ask, what’s the inspiration for those particular patterns and colors? Well, they each represent something but if I tell you, I’ll have to kill you. Or, you’ll have to kill me, unearth one of my hidden sketchbooks and maybe you’d know. Heeeeee…

Here’s how it was put together:

1) The original sketch I got the idea from one of my marker drawings that I do daily. The color combination had some kind of Bob Marley flavor to it. Hmm.

From Afar marker drawing

2) Designing it Illustrator I redesigned it in Illustrator. The final font chosen was Orator Std Slanted.

Designing the print in Illustrator

3) Making the stencils for each layer I separated out each color and shape, printed it onto a piece of paper from a printer to help cutting the stencils from contact paper.

the stencil print out

Cutting the stencils

Cutting the stencils

Cutting the stencils

 4) Printing the first layer One circle, quite easy!

printing the first layer

5) Printing the second layer I had to tweak the color of the pink a little to match the tint of the yellow circle.

tweaking the pink color

printing the second layer

6) Printing the third layer Because all the circles are pretty small that it didn’t make sense to use up all the contact paper to cover the whole screen. So I just taped some extra paper to cover the rest of the screen up so the ink wouldn’t leak. For this layer I used a fun metallic colored ink.

stencil of the third layer

printing of the third layer

close up of the third layer

 7) Printing the fourth layer I used some left over ink and added a bit of different colored ink here and there to achieve the dark green color. As long as you have basic colors such as black and white, yellow, blue and red, you can mix any color. It may not be as bright or pure as store bought ones but it is often times more interesting.

mixing the dark green

printing the fourth layer

8) Printing the fifth layer or rather…NOT printing it! I experimented with a scrap paper and found it too distracting for the whole composition, so this layer was scratched. Again, printmaking is all about the experimentation process.

the layer that never was

9) Printing the fifth and sixth layer yes with the previous layer scratched all that’s left are the highlight dots. They were pretty straight forward and I took the colors right out of the can. For the yellow color, I had to change it to more of an orange for it to show on top of the yellow circle better.

testing the colors of the dots

10) Okie Doke sit and look at them from afar. No, from very close!

all the circles

From Afar silk screen print on paper

Yes, that’s it for now. I love you, thank you for stopping by. Again, thank you Larry for teaching me how to print. As with all things in the universe, ask, believe and receive. If you want this, let me know.

Ciao Ciao!

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cross the swamp screen print

Dear fans,

Oh my god, I made another screen print! Cross the Swamp is a screen print on paper with 5 layers of colors using contact paper as stencils.

I’m totally addicted to the process of interacting with ink, paper, stencils, my hands, water, the wind that blows through the curtain in my room, the sun that shines through the window, and my own breathing while laying down the screen. And most importantly, in the end of all this, I get to hand them out to people who I love and care about. What in the world is better than this!? Hmm…sex? But that’s something else entirely :)

So what does “Cross the Swamp” mean? What is this swamp? I recently read the book Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown, who is a love and joy researcher, but before that she was a shame and fear researcher. She said,

In Jungian circles, shame is often referred to as the swampland of the soul. I’m not suggesting that we wade out into the swamp and set up camp. I’ve done that and I can tell you that the swampland of the soul is an important place to visit, but you would not want to live there.

What I’m proposing is that we learn how to wade through it. We need to see that standing on the shore and catastrophisizing about what could happen if we talked honestly about our fears is actually more painful than grabbing the hand of a trusted companion and crossing the swamp. And, most important, we need to learn why constantly trying to maintain our footing on the shifting shore as we gaze across to the other side of the swamp–where our worthiness waits for us–is much harder work than trudging across.

So yes, it’s the swamp of shame! How dark. well, we’ve all got it, you’ve got one too. Have you tried crossing it? Or have you crossed it many times? It fracking sucks!

Here’s how I put it all together.

1) Pencil sketch and creating shapes in Illustrator

pencil sketch and creating shapes in illustrator

2) Designing in Illustrator

The final font selected is Kabel LT Standard. It is such a thin, beautiful and elegant font with a nice contrast with big blocks of color.

designing in illustrator

3) Layers sequence

Since there are multiple colors which will layer on top or overlap each other, it is important to decide which layer to print first. Usually you’d want to print the lighter color first, then finish off with the darkest color to make sure everything shows through nicely.

layers sequence

4) Cutting stencils

I use contact paper to cut out stencils for each layer.

stencil for the swamp

stencil for the flowers

5) Printing the first layer

The first layer is usually the easiest and really no big deal.

printing the first layer

6) Printing the second layer

The second layer was a bit trickier. Since I was using the leftover semi-transparent ink from the last print Twin Heart, I had to tweak the colors and transparency several times to get the right shade. For multiple color layers, registration, which is lining up of each layer, becomes very important and can go wrong a lot of times.

experimenting with colors for the second layer

7) Printing the third layer

The third layer, the flowers, was the easier layer since they pretty much just floats on top and doesn’t matter if they line up with anything.

close up of the third layer

printing the third layer

 8) Printing the 4th layer

This layer was easier too since it only involves the tree trunk and the text that is kind of far away.

printing the 4th/text layer

 9) Printing the swamp

The swamp is decidedly the main element in the whole composition. The dark color and swirly outline anchors down the whole image.

On the top right area of the swamp there are two white reflections. For this kind of “white out” or “donut hole” you need to cut out those particular shapes and stick it back on the screen to block out the ink.

It is also why on my prints, the O, the A, the R and the P of the text layer all have a black out style, because I was too lazy to put the hole back to the donut you know what I mean :)

the white out area in the swamp layer

testing the swamp layer

printing the swamp layer

On registration 

One of the toughest things to get right on a multi-colored or multi-layered print is to line up all layers correctly. Here I’m showing the mistakes that I made before I could get them right. For every good print in your hand a number of prints died because of registration or other mistakes. Even more regular printing paper also died for experimentation. They sacrificed bravely for the collective (collectable) good—the limited edition.

registration mistakes

cross the swamp screen print

Voila, that’s it for now. Thank you for visiting and I hope you found it useful or entertaining either way. Again thanks to Larry who taught me how to print, and the universe who provides all that’s necessary for this to happen.

Talking about the universe, ask and you shall receive! If you’d like a print from this edition, just let me know :)

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