Screen Printing: Part 2

Okay, FINALLY, here are the results from my very first screen printing project! Each year The Center for Cartoon Studies makes a "Facebook" for the new batch of first year students. Each student (and Fellows, like me!) creates a self-portrait which they screen print with two colors on cardstock. Then all of the portraits are assembled into a book!

I have resisted learning screen printing for years now, because I thought it might tempt me into making screen printed covers for my minicomics (which would only take LONGER to make). Well, I can now safely say that such a thing will never happen. Because it is SOOOO much work to create a screen printed image! I'm glad I learned how, but I'll be surprised if I use this technology again while I am at CCS... I will say that I now have a much greater appreciation for screen printed comics!

Anyway, as you can probably tell here, I printed the red layer first and then the brown layer on top. There were only so many paper colors to choose from, so I chose yellow, to keep things warm. The image represents a sort of "before" and "after" comparison for how I will look this year! I made 60 copies, which was enough to bruise and blister my hands. I've got a few more images to make for the book, and then I'm probably going to hang up my screen for a good long while!

Screen Printing: Part 1

This week at CCS I will be learning how to screen print. This will be my first time ever, so I am pretty excited! Our first project is to create a "Facebook" for the new class. Each new student (and the Fellows) will have a photocopied bio on one page, and on the other we get to have a two-color screen-printed self portrait. My design is above, which shows how I started the school year, and how I will most likely end it, with my Basewood Beard.

Next week I'll post the finished image. Wish me luck!

Friends of Lulu Prints

My buddy Jed, over at The Albatross Press contacted me a few weeks ago about making some letterpress prints to benefit Friends of Lulu. For those of you not familiar with the organization, Friends of Lulu is a national nonprofit organization that promotes and encourages female readership and participation in the comic book industry. A good cause if ever there was one!

Jed wanted me to try and capture that feeling of immersion one gets when returning home after a comic convention with a stack of new comics. One girl is reading up a storm and the other has made the jump to creating her own comics! These were a lot of fun to draw. :)

These will be two individual letterpress prints, which will be available for sale at this years MoCCA Arts Fest June 7th and 8th in New York City. If you can make it, swing by the Friends of Lulu table and buy a print!

(jeez, my fourth post in a row in black and white... I gotta get some color going in here!)