DREADTIMES - SILKSCREEN PRINT VARIANTS

After being commissioned by Dreadzone to do the sleeve art for their last studio album i was given the opportunity to also develop this project further and produce a silkscreen print release. I ended doing a couple of different treatments of this production. The original one i produced was created using a monotone colour pallate utilizing subtle fine grain metalics on a deep brown acrylic ink flooded background. It took quite a few attempts to get the detail absolutely crisp on this production as the image was highly detailed and very granular in its composition. After running off several screens and taking the studio's exposure unit apart and rebuilding from the ground up i finally got the defintion i was looking for.  Things started to head in the right direction once this hurdle was overcome. After succesfully creating the master edition i decided to develop a very limited run of spectrum blended variants as well. This was to be a  an ultra limited production run of around twenty piece using this overprint technique.

 

Film positive on the studio ultra violet expsure unit ready for expsure of the screens that were to be utilized in this print production.

The first test proofs on the press, ensuring the fine grain metals were visible once dry and also ensuring the detail was crisp one all sections of the image. Trying to replicate smoke out of ink was quite a challenge!.

Film stage and alignement on the press. I was looking at this in daylight as i was getting the press set up and thinking there is no way this is going to work as the detail on the lighter areas of the image was so incredibly fine. I was amazed once the master screen was produced and set up that the science had actually worked.

Opacity reduced red, gold and green blending test on the press before the overprinting stage commenced..

A few of the first finished prodcutions drying before the stamping and signing stage commenced. A batch of the finished silkscreen editions were dispatched to Londinium upon completion. Some of these made their way into the hands of Don Letts, reggae legend Earl 16, Greg Roberts, Leo Williams and various members of the extended Dreadzone family.