Sunday, April 25, 2010

Silkscreen discharge

Last night I made up some screens, drawing with Elmer's washable school glue gel, hoping to go outside and try some screen discharge. When I got up, it was pouring outside -- I mean POURING! Bummer.
Then all of a sudden, it totally cleared up, the sun came out, the birds were singing, the squirrels were frolicking...

And I hauled my gear outside.

This screen was writing, but didn't discharge well at all. It's the same bolt of fabric that I used for discharge last week, when it performed beautifully. Maybe the sun was a problem? Of course, part of the fun of discharge is it's unpredictability.

I was looking at the lino-cut prints of the tree when I was drawing on screens last night, so I drew that too. You can see where the watercolor sticks stained the screen, but it didn't affect the mesh.
I love how quickly this purple Kona discharges and the color it turns into. This is right before the next storm hit and I hightailed it back inside.

This wound up looking better after the washout.
I got 6-7 prints off of each screen before the glue degraded and started peeling off. .

This was from a third screen -- just some doodling

I love this piece...and that tree.

I was really pleased with the way there's a white ring around the moon and all the tiny white branches (that don't really show in the photo). It has a batik-like look to it. I'll probably be drawing that tree in hot wax next...

3 comments:

Dale Anne Potter said...

LOVE them all!
Inspired me to add discharging list for this week, now I hope it clears up & warms up.
GREAT JOB!!!

Vicki W said...

Those trees are spectacular!

Gisela Towner said...

Thank you so much!
We have a couple of sunny days in the forecast -- can't wait to get back out there!

I just looked outside and the moon is getting full...