Art 101 - Steps of Screen Printing Process

6 Steps of the Screen Printing Process

1. Choose an image with large areas and contrasts of black and white.
2. Image processing - Crop the image. Have it transferred into a high contrast black & white image on transparent film. This transparency is called a film positive, used to burn the image onto the silkscreen.
3. Screen burning - Transfer film positive onto the silkscreen. Coat the screen mesh with a light-sensitive emulsion. When the emulsion dries, the positive is placed onto the silk screen and exposed to a bright light. This fixes the image onto the screen, creating a stencil where an area is open for ink to be pushed through. Complete the silkscreen.
4. Tracing - Before beginning decide on the multiple or single composition for the final painting. Lay out quidelines for the final image onto the canvas, by tracing the film positive and creating a drawing of the silkscreen image. Transfer the tracing onto the canvas by using carbon paper.
5. Under painting - Choose colors to paint the canvas. Use the traced lines as a guide or use various sizes of color lines.
6. Screen printing - After the layer of paint dried, line up the image on the silkscreen with the painted image on the canvas. This process is called registration. Next, put some ink onto the silkscreen and drag the squeegee across the silkscreen, pushing ink through the open areas in the mesh of the screen.


Works Cited
Anonymous. "Create Your Own Screen Print." 2005. Online. The Andy Warhol Museum. Internet.
Available: warhol.org