Printing Experiment

For my editorial, I have decided that I would like to print to go alongside my text as I have always liked how prints , expecially screen printing prints look along side writing. As I have done quite a bit of screen printing in my first year, I have decided to experiment with MDF printing as I would like to see the difference in finishing of the two methods so I can decided which technique lends itself more for my writing. ​​I have chosen to do my print on Malii as it was a very complex drawing and therefore I wanted to see whether or not a print would be able to pick up and replicate all the details as a screen print would.

Laser cutting was a method I haven't experimented with before therefore I was quite unsure on what thickness I would like to engrave my image. I was also unsure of what thickness MDF I would like to engrave. Thicker ? or smaller? Bigger print or smaller print? Pinewood? So with all these questions in mind, I have decided to produce a prototype first to see what thickness would work best for my image.

I have also decided to produce my prototype very small - a size of an A5, as I was told that due to all the details, laser cutting a bigger piece would simply take too long. So on the following Wednesday, I decided to go to the print room and start experimenting.

At first, I was finding that the ink was showing up very blotchy when I would peel back my paper therefore I decided to forgo the press and use this tool instead.

This tool allows me to press really hard on the print without creating any friction on the paper, preventing it from moving around. At first, I went with crimson as a wanted a more bold, vibrant colour that had the potential to stand out against my text. However, crimson just didn't look right nor did the print turn out very good therefore I then turned to gold. I've always liked gold accents in ink illustrations especially black and white illustrations therefore I have a feeling that gold would look really interesting.

I decided to go with a black background as I found that lighter backgrounds I chose weren't allowing the tiger to turn out very clear. I also decided to use more organic looking mediums like newsprint and craft paper as I wanted the print to have an organic and rustic feel to it. I also decided to tear the sides of the paper in case I wanted to incorporate the pieces in paper I collaging.

I really like how my prints turned out as the paper texture worked really well in making the big areas of ink look less intimidating allowing more attention to be drawn to the actually image. I would like to try and print on wood and fabric in the future as well to see whether or not the final product will turn out the same in terms of feel.

Doing this experiment really showed me how the final work differs depending on whether I used mono printing or screen printing. Screen printing usually allows me to capture each and every detail of my drawings therefore producing quite a clean, flat looking print whereas mono printing, even though a bit harder to work with, produces a much more interesting print with textures and no two print will look the same therefore I will chose to use mono printing for this editorial.