This past spring I was biking down Interstate Ave – on my way downtown - Portland, Oregon and saw this awesome Palms Hotel sign. I had to take a picture and make into a cool piece of artwork.
The process was not easy and took several weeks of reading up on screen printing, emulsification, building frames and many trips to the hardware store as well as silkscreeningsupplies located in Vancouver, Washington.
The first couple of steps were easy. Editing the photo in Photoshop CS5 – through desaturating the image and increasing the levels resulting in a sharp positive image also known as: Tusche-resist or ” positive!’ method. After getting the image ready I was on to the next step of printing the image onto a transparency. Since the image was larger then 8.5 x 11 – I had to cut the image into four quadrants and print them out individually – then piece them together to make a large poster size image for my screen-mesh/frame.
Next it was onto my lighting table and Emulsification – a messy job but fun when I saw the results after pressure washing the chemical off. PRESTO – the positive of the image washed off – and now I was ready to PRINT!!!
Below is the final end results of the spring bike ride trip – downtown. Post me a comment and if you have questions please feel free to contact me via my contact form. I cannot wait till the next print – coming this fall along with two paintings! Art show 2012.
