I forgot to mention this last week, but An Exquisite Beast crossed the 8 month mark! I still have not missed a single day :)
My contribution to Uplift this year. When thinking about the theme of hope and positivity, I decided to stick with one of the simplest positive things I could think of—smile!
My poster for ARTCRANK Minneapolis 2012 really attempts to delve into the minds of cyclists. I can only imagine this is what they’re thinking while they’re cruising down the street!
It’s a 19”x25” 2-color screen print that I printed myself. I’m still working on how to perfect my alignment technique. There’s also some spots where the screen either washed out too much or not enough…ahhhh the troubles of doing it yourself.
I know the image is pretty small here, so if you’d like a bigger view, check it out on flickr!
A shirt I designed for local bike clothiers Grouch Sports is available for pre-order! This shirt is recommended for rad dudes (and dudettes) with rude ‘tudes, or those who aspire to increase the rudeness of their ‘tudes, only.
I forgot to mention this yesterday—my daily drawing project An Exquisite Beast turned 6 months old! Pictured above is drawing number one hundred and eighty four.
Grooveshark asked me to create a Premium Theme for them and I gladly obliged. The only thing better than finding your favorite jam is sharing it with your friends!
Spring is almost here! Celebrate with this cheery 10”x10” print illustrated and printed by yours truly :)
This is my first time printing a split fountain and I couldn’t be happier! If you haven’t tried a split fountain before, there’s nothing to be scared of—it’s much more simple to pull off than you might think.
Here’s a sneak peek of my print for Big Table Studio’s latest show “For The Love Of Love”.
On Friday, February 3rd, Amsterdam Bar & Hall and MN United (http://www.mnunited.org/) will be throwing a fundraiser to help support the campaign against the proposed Marriage Amendment that will appear on the Ballot in Minnesota in November of 2012, Big Table Studio is hosting a poster show tentatively called “For The Love of Love”.
With this print, I focused on getting the overprinting to look exactly how I wanted. I’ve had problems in the past with inks not being as transparent as I needed them to be.
With my previous prints, I’ve always printed the blues/greens first and the reds/oranges on top. This time I printed the red first hoping that it would be easier to make the blue ink transparent. It turns out that wasn’t the case—I still wasn’t getting the desired transparency. The solution was to start with a bunch of transparent extender base and ink to it bit by bit (I had been doing it the other way around). I’m really happy with how it came out!
Prints Printed & Lessons Learned
What I love most about exploring a new art making medium is how quickly you learn and evolve your art making process. I’ve printed 3 new prints since my OK! post and I’ve learned something new and adjusted the way I work each time. Each new print I make is my new favorite one I’ve ever printed!
The Print: Bundle Up
The Lesson: I had some issues with ink drying in the screen last time. It created a bit of unwanted texture in the print so this time around I intentionally added a whole mess of texture. I also printed a smaller run than last time which forced me to really work on getting the alignment right. Only two of the prints turned out bad, much better than the 15+ that were crap last time.
The Print: The Hybearnation Experience
The Lesson: The colors in Bundle Up turned out fine, but they really weren’t what I envisioned when I designed the print. This time around I really focused on mixing inks to get exactly what I wanted. I’m really happy with how the colors turned out, but the overprinting didn’t have as much contrast as I would have liked. It takes a lot more extender than I thought it would.
The Print: Greased Up
The Lesson: This time around, I didn’t want to worry about color mixing or overprinting and instead I focused on just getting a nice clean print. I had some issues again last time with ink drying in the screen. The red went down perfectly, couldn’t be happier with it. The black was quite a different story. I think the black ink was way too think and thus was getting stuck in the screen. After thinning the ink quite a bit, it was better, but still not perfect. I wish I could say all of the texture in this piece is intentional. I know what to work on next time!
I’ve added all of these prints to my shop!
Today, my forearms are sore arms, and I love it. I printed my first two color screen print over the weekend!
It was a long road—a lot of trial and error and a lot of frustration were involved. Exposure times, mesh counts, even coating, washing out the screen after burning it—all of them had beaten me down for the past month and a half. Finaly, FINALLY, this weekend everything came together wonderfully.
This is such a huge relief for me because I gained something more than just 40 new prints over the weekend—I fulfilled a years-long dream. Ever since I graduated from UW Madison, I wanted to have my own space where I could pull my own prints. Someplace I could have control. Someplace where I could break a small sweat and create something nice in the process. I never gave up on that goal. Here I am 6 years later with sore arms and everything is OK.
Huge Shop Update
I’m finally making good on my first New Years’ Goal “Increase PRODUCTivity”. This week I added five new products to my shop! Check ‘em out won’t you? Every poster/print/button you buy will help me get to ICON 7 next year!
First up, a five color 18”x24” screen print—Forest Mist
Next a four color 18”x24” screen print—Rabbit Party!
And a 3 color, including glow in the dark!, 18”x24” screen print—Dearly Departed
Moving away from screen prints, a set of five 5”x7” giclee prints—5 by 5
Moving away from prints altogether—Buttons!
