🌈 Abi Prints Takeover 🌈

Here at Hunt The Moon, we're proud to work with and support creative artists across the UK. With  takeovers, tutorials and showcases we're able to highlight the fantastic work being created. We were lucky to work with Abi.Prints for a Hunt The Moon takeover, find out more about her here. 

The Project 🚀

In a recent Hunt The Moon takeover, Abi decided to showcase her talent by creating her own screenprint known as 'Cosmic', she used Hunt The Moon Inks Midnight Blue, Process Yellow and Process Magenta.

She chose to show off these colours through a halftone design, overlapping them so they mixed on the paper to create more colour depth.

"So Abi, tell us about the process?" 

To begin with, I started by coating the screens, this is done with emulsion to cover screen mesh. Next, I prepared the positives, each colour of the design gets its own printout, these are done in black so they are able to block out light when the screen is exposed.

You can get each positive printed onto acetate, but to create them quickly/cheaply you can print them using a laser printer. You then need to rub vegetable oil to make the white translucent, so it doesn’t affect your design when exposed. You have to use a laser printer, as if you use an ink jet the ink will smudge when you use oil on it. 

Don't have a Laser Printer? Don't worry, we normally use an Inkjet Printer and transparencies. 

When the positives are ready to go, I line them up with the screen on the exposure unit. This blasts a UV bulb at the screen, exposing my design onto it. The design can now be revealed on the screen by hosing away the unexposed emulsion.

I created this print at Hot Bed Press, an open-access print studio in Salford. I usually print at home, using paper stencils to create my designs, but if a design is more complex, I will use the facilities at the print studio to get the best result.

I am printing the design one colour at a time, letting each layer dry for 10 minutes or so before printing the next. For this print I overlapped each layer in a reduction print style, lining them up with acetate, building up the colours by letting them mix on the paper.

The final product ✨

I created this final video, showing how the colour builds up as each layer is added. I have also taken some close up shots so you can see how the halftone has aligned in certain areas to create a mix of two or even three colours.

Final Thoughts ✨

I really enjoyed creating the Cosmic Screen Print, especially as the halftones on this print are so cool, I’m glad I spent time figuring out how to offset them to get the best result of the colours mixed and on their own.  

The message I would like to leave even beyond Half Tone Screen Printing is from my takeover is keep experimenting! Try different colours, styles and different printing techniques, mix things together. Try making paper stencils and using them with exposed screens, keep adding layers to get cool unique results. I think screen printing creates amazing results, which you can’t get with other types of printing, so keep pushing the boundaries of the limits of printing to see what you can create.