Screen Printing on Plywood

In the quest of expanding on some recent techniques I learned at Highpoint Center for Printmaking, I've been wanting to go beyond printing on paper and work with materials that are a bit more architectural - like plywood! Interestingly enough, the one thing that I have noticed is that despite the material and thickness differences, printing on wood actually behaves quite similar to paper with the added bonus of the wood grain as a part of the piece. 

Still using the Iceland image, since it was already burned, the top image shows a watercolor print, the second down is a graphite print, and last but not least is an opaque print. Most of the plywood (with the exception of stray unknown pieces) that I've been printing on is Baltic Birch. 

Unleashing my inner hidden woodworker, I made one sample panel for a more involved four screen print with the help of my fathers tools and his garage. First we took two pieces of plywood and cut them down to size, with the flat side for screen printing, and the frame side meant to sit flat against the wall and accommodate the hanging hardware. Next we glued them together with standard interior grade elmer's wood glue.  They dried overnight, and the next morning we planed down the edges so they aligned flat. The final step involved taking the rough piece to a wood worker with a router or table saw.  The ply's in plywood are one of the inherent characteristics that show how it is constructed, so I wanted to have the edges of the piece beveled, exposing the ply's like a reverse frame. 

Lessons Learned:

01. To avoid an excessive amount of planing, cut the two pieces of plywood at the same time

02. Don't shop at Home Depot or Menard's.  Finding quality plywood there is impossible. Go to a specialty wood store.

Time to expose the screens!

"Alternative" Screen Printing Methods

About a weekend ago I had the chance to take a class on "Alternative Screen Printing methods at Highpoint Center for Printmaking taught by the talented Drew Peterson.  I have to admit that I immediately signed up for this class as it brought back memories of those fun days in thesis hanging out in the print studios and playing around with different print media and my screen. And in one short weekend I learned a lot...

New materials! Including graphite (used directly on the screen), Carbon Black (acrylic painted on acetate and then burned to screen), and Screen Drawing Fluid/Screen Filler.

Normally I tend to be a bit more pre-meditated and composed with my images, but most of what we experimented with was completely free-form - so a free form weekend it was!

Below are a few of the images I created using 2, or a combination of all of the options above.

From left to right... 1. graphite, black acrylic from acetate transfer, and water color via screen drawing fluid 2. Same as the first, but with the first pass of graphite 3. Black acrylic from acetate transfer, and water color via screen drawing fluid 4. Graphite and watercolor (from burned black acrylic acetate transfer.) and 5. Watercolor on watercolor.

The interesting thing about working with the graphite was that it got lighter with more passes on new paper (obviously), but some parts didn't transfer at first, and by the last piece, they transferred quite dark while everything else transferred light.

Free form graphite passes on the drying rack. Notice the difference from right to left as far as what pushed through the screen and what was already been used up.

For a closer look at using watercolor directly on a screen, on the first day I did some free form drawing directly on the screen.  My understanding is that you can use anything that is water-soluble including watercolor pencils, watercolor crayons, and traditional watercolor.  You never know ahead of time exactly how it will turn out, so it's always a surprise:)

This first one is a more traditional "old school" architectural illustration with both watercolor and graphite drawn on the screen (separate screens), and the second is completely random - just getting back into the swing of things!