Digital Imaging and Photo Emulsion Silkscreen

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Digital Imaging and Photo Emulsion Silkscreen

• Carolyn Brown and Russell Kahn
• Camden Hills Regional High School

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What is Silkscreen Printing?

• Silkscreen is a stencil printing process.
• Ink is forced through a stencil made on
  fine-mesh polyester or silk fabric.
• Stencils can be made with cut paper, contact
  paper, photo emulsion, and other materials.
• Silkscreen printing is used to create multiple
  prints of your image, or image and text.
  Silkscreen can be used on paper, fabric, canvas,
  clay, and other flat surfaces.

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Silkscreen Examples
Lincoln by Robert Rauschenberg
16 Jackies by Andy Warhol
Poster by Carolyn Brown
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Digital Process Silkscreen prints from photos
This is the digital version of the Photo Lith
process. Instead of making a high-contrast
print with Kodalith paper and chemicals, it can
be done in Photoshop, and printed onto acetate
transparencies. This is great for detailed
images which would be ridiculously hard to
hand-render. Color planning can also be done in
Photoshop.
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Supplies and Tools
Diazo Emulsion- Speedball and other
brands Emulsion remover- Speedball,
etc. Silkscreens- polyester for acrylic wter
based inks Squeegee Silkscreen inks Black
stencil made of paper, toner on acetate, ink on
acetate or translucent paper
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Selecting a Photo Image
When selecting photos for silkscreen, look for
clear SHAPES or LINES. Photos with good
contrast are best, but others can be fixed in
Photoshop. Avoid photos with distracting
clutter around the main subject.
Poor photo for silkscreen Better photo for
silkscreen
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Preparing Photo in Photoshop

• Each image needs to be output in black to create
  the photo stencil.

• Open photo in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements
• Create a high contrast image
• ImagegtAdjustgtThreshold OR ImagegtAdjustgtContrast

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Planning Colors
Once you get the basic image done, you can use
Photoshop to plan colors for printing.
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Cool Websites
http//www.foundation-gallery.org/index.html A
Silkscreen Art Collective. Interesting silkscreen
monoprints done by layering random
images. http//www.warhol.org/interactive/silkscre
en/main.html Andy Warhols silkscreen technique-
an interactive website! http//webexhibits.org/co
lorart/marilyns.html A great site showing the
science and art of color through various artists
works, including Warhol. http//www.artchive.com/a
rtchive/W/warhol.htmlimages Art Archive website.
This link is for Warhols work. http//www.artcyco
pedia.com Artcyclopedia website. A great site to
search art by period, artist, media, and more.