Another thing to keep in mind is the pressure you used, or how fast you pulled the squeegee. Your biggest problem would be the off contact though. If you ever have any questions lmk! There’s a lot of problem solving in the process and I know a lot about it :)
When you flood the screen you want to do that very lightly. Don’t push any through the screen. Look at your screen when it’s clean for pin holes around the bottom right of the image. Use masking tape to tape that off
you're absolutely right! I was reading about off contact and completely forgot about it when it came to the printing process. thanks for your comment! I'll definitely try that next time!
The size of the mesh affects how blocky the image is, I recommend a 110 for the image there, or a 158, 200 or 300 for a really small, detailed image. (those are just numbers I’m used to using, close to those numbers will be fine.)
Hey PJ, I did screen printing at Uni, so here’s my advice for next time: 1. I think you got fuzzy edges because of using an inkjet printer for your acetate. Try to find somewhere that can laser print into acetate as that should give a cleaner edge to your shapes and also be more opaque. 2. I’m not sure if you did this or if the ink you were using was already mixed, but normally for screen printing you mix your ink/acrylic paint with a screen printing medium to make it a better consistency. This should help it flow through your screen better. 3. When ‘flooding’ your screen, only pull the squeegee across once (maybe you realised this, but not sure). Going across twice will force too much ink through and is likely to give you fuzzy edges and leave a mottled/bubbles effect in your ink where its pulled away from the screen mesh. Hope this helps!
@@KickThePj You could also just go over it with an archival marker that dries on acetate to make it more black rather than getting it professionally done. Or even a thin layer of acrylic, as long as it's as black as you can get any texture won't matter. There's also a mixing medium you can add to the acrylic paint you use when actually printing to make it glide easier
@KickThe Pj Also leaving the emulsion dry for such a long period can make it harder to expose the image as well which might explain the fuzzy lines. Try to have your acetate ready before you coat your screen so that you can expose it as soon as the emulsion drys. Plus as a tip you always need more ink than you think. Really lovely prints though please do more!!
Katy Minns solid advice!!! Maybe try clamping the screen down too when printing with it. Shouldn’t smudge then! Our screen printing thingies at uni have vacuumed installed into them as well so the paper and design doesn’t move.
hey pj, former industrial screen printer here: when you flood the screen, you should be using a lot more ink, there should be a layer thick enough that you can’t see the image on the screen. all the little fuzzies in your image are “pinholes” which result from having dust on your glass or your transparency when you put the light to it. the place i worked would put the smallest little dabs of a thick glue on the underside of the screen to plug those holes (not sure what kind it was, i was mostly just in the printing side of things and not the making of the screens). hope this helps!
@@KickThePj Ah yeah I realized that once you got on the phone with the "right guy" lmao. But hey I think it all turned out pretty amazing for a first time!! 😊
Hey pj as an art technician I have some suggestions that might be helpful :) 1: the fuzzy edges on your print can be down to either not having clean lines on your print or the contact of the assate was not enough. I tend to use a vacuum seal as it pushes the design as close to the screen as possible when exposing it. And make sure to be gentle when washing the screen so not to lose any details on the design. 2. You don't need to flood the screen, as if you use acrylic paint mixed with printing medium (1:1 ratio) it will clog the screen as it starts to dry. And if you are doing a CMYK print it makes it harder to register the design. 3. Don't pull the squeegee both up and down the screen. Pull it towards you only a few times as pushing it back up the screen can cause it to clog and difficult to clean. 4. If you use wetable parcel type it doesn't damage your screen or remove the emulsion and easily washes off. I hope that this will help you in your future screen printing adventures :)
I made a screen print dragon hoodie in high school. But our process was more old school. It was a bunch of stencils, one for each colour. Which meant each stencil had to be perfectly drawn and cut or else it wouldn't line up. Surprisingly it worked!
Aye PJ, I take a graphics class and I can give ya few tips😁. Tip #1 - you're pressing too hard on the screen, hence the not so smooth prints. Tip #2 - you're holding the squedgy wrong, its supposed to be held at a slight angle, a very little tilt. Tip #3 - make sure to clean the bottom of your screen to help with the smudgy prints Tip #4 - it could also be the ink you're using... Its best to use t shirt ink, or enaml type ink...you can find them in graphics stores😜 And there ya go! Hope these help! Have fun printing!! I absolutely love screen printing! Its so funny. Really messy but fun!
Hi I'm an art major and have a focus in fibers, currently in an advanced fiber class and do a lot of silk screening. The main thing I noticed was that you put a layer of paint on the screen before you actually did a print, from my experience usually you would do a line of paint above the image and then go for the print, I do 2 swipes but I'm proficient so maybe 3 would be good for the inexperienced. The reason you dont have clean lines is because there was too much paint and it spread when it got pushed through, that might be because you layered the screen before printing. One last thing, we use cushioned tables and depending on how fine the lines are depends on the cushion, so if you have finer lines less cushion. Also, I forgot to mention, different types of paper could help. Hopefully this helps, feel free to ask any questions if you have any.
You’re supposed to flood the screen to ensure the ink/paint/whatever you’re using covers the whole image, the key thing is not a lot of pressure when doing so, and if he’s using a thinner medium a higher mesh count screen will help prevent it from just running through.
I swear PJ the background music made me think my cats were going crazy. Cut to: me sleepily wandering around my house, confused because the cats are nowhere to be found
hi! i’m doing a foundation year in art and i love screen printing! I know you want to get clean lines and a repeated pattern but you can also do more disposable designs using procion dyes (basically work like inks) and felt tip pens... work on the screen, let it to dry and print using acrylic medium, and you can cut stencils out of paper so the inks wouldn’t seep through ;)) but yeah this works if you want something more painterly and it’s good the practice with the screen!
my dad does this professionally on shirts! I would say a make or break is to make sure you get all the emulsion out of the design. he uses a high power power washer to do it. you can hold it up to the light to help and see if your design is completely clean or not. that may be part of what your problem was or maybe uneven pressure while actually pressing the ink on it. he has a whole press with like six different screens that move up and down to helps make sure the screen doesnt move between coats. theres many variables but I hope you figure it out:)
I really hope some day I can learn new skills when I want without being limited by finances and locational lack of availability of anything. Okay, I don't 'hope', I dream. It's a dream. It will die with me.
Just some tips from a screen printer (working for 3 years in it and studied it in school): - fuzziness around an image can be related to not having proper contact when burning an image to a screen. Vacuums are commonly used for this purpose within the light table being used. Our shop has an old unit with a vacuum attached to keep contact as close as possible. - The splatters seem like pinholes. Those can be covered with tape on the non-ink side. Your screen did sit for a week and if any dust got exposed with it, it would have left some dots. - Don't flood your screen with it down on the paper. It lays down too much ink onto the print. - You can print full contact - I did it all the time in school - but you risk putting too much ink on the paper so I would always use very little if I printed that way. - You can make a mock off-contact setup by taping some chipboard or matboard onto the edges of the frame of equal height. - When flooding a screen, don't change the direction of your squeegee - keep it it the same as when you print. I find that a lot of people we teach make this mistake. - Red is a very viscous colour so if you don't want to worry about what that does - learn with printing black first. It'll help you troubleshoot technical problems. - if you plan on reusing the screen, tape off large areas on the ink well side with a proper tape. If you push ink through and tape is on the other side, the ink and tape will mix together and clog the mesh of the screen. This is more of a problem with our finer mesh screens. Just trying to make this less frustrating for you 👏
yeah the smudging is only happening because the paper is directly touching the screen, when i print we use stacks of cardstock about 1/16th of an inch to add a bounce to the screen
I’m going to be majoring in printmaking and i plan to open a screenprint shop in the future, and i can tell you for a fact that photo emulsion is terrifying and that it’s definitely a lot easier to use the screen blocking method for making the screen your first couple times. it’s more effort, but it’s so much more forgiving
My sister did screen printing in school and I think the lines didn't tern out 100% clean, but that's what I think made it cool and not just any old ink art peace. I loved the video and I thought it was so cool you did it at home, I didn't even know that was possible. As well, this being your first time doing this "WOW" your a natural.
I love your channel, its essentially everything I aspire to create, a space where wacky bizzare stories are told, shared and created and where the learning never stops.
@@judeandon I don't know how helpful this is, but PJ often uses birocratic's songs, many from his album beets 3. I don't think he has in this video though.
I do this for art gcse and I have a few tips :D ; 1. Usually you should mix the ink/paint with a screen printing medium as it makes the consistency better to work with. 2. An easier way to do this is you get a picture, and you scalpel out the things you want inked, and then rest that picture on a piece of paper with the screen on top. :)
We did this in art club at school. We cut out the sections with a craft knife and then put it underneath the screen. Then add and spread the paint as you did. It takes longer (I think) and you get the opposite of what you got (white lines with the rest red) Hope this helps
Next time you're buying a sheet of glass like that, ask about what extruded aluminium trim or framing the supplier has available. It should only protrude from the working face of the glass by a couple of millimetres, which won't affect your work, and it will protect, stiffen, and strengthen the edges of the glass to reduce the risk of chipping or breakage while also protecting your hands from the sharp edge of the cut glass.
im currently in a screenprinting class, and while we haven't done the photo emulsion technique (we've mainly been using drawing fluid and newsprint stencils), what i've learned is that flooding the screen too much will cause the lines to look a bit messier and dry slower. for best results, do just one strong pass :-)
Watching this back just realised you used ‘when I’m cleaning windows’ when you were actually cleaning the glass - stroke of genius there PJ George Formby would be proud
Hey PJ!!! For my art class we did screen printing, but we didn’t do the burning part of it, which seems very complicated. Instead, we got a picture of what we wanted, traced it on paper, and then cut it out with a pen knife. Of course this could cause it to not be as clean of a cut but it worked pretty well when we did it!
When we did it we had the teachers pre make the screens and everything, so all we did was scrape the color on it and press it down on our shirts. Kudos to you for doing every step !
So excited that you're doing screen printing! It's definitely my favourite print process!! I work in a studio with controlled settings and materials, but for what you've done, the prints came out amazing!! A few tips for getting a clearer image on your screen: -Something I'm not sure of, did you coat both the back ANd front of your screen? In my experience, it's best to just do one side. If the emulsion layer is too thick, it is harder to hold onto the image and get clean lines when you expose it. It also becomes more difficult to wash out after exposing. -Make sure that you expose it for the correct amount of time! I don't know specifically how much time that would be for you, but I would play around with it. To me, it seems like maybe you exposed it too much initially, making the image unclear?? -When washing out your screen, have good water pressure and consistent moving around the screen to get the emulsion off. It takes a while, but its worth it. You don't need to rub the screen or you might disrupt the image you just shot. Not so much pressure with the water to blast off the image, but evenly work the water over the until you can see the image. one thing that could really help in this area is getting a light behind the screen so that you can actually see what is being taken off. In my school studio, we have a wash out area where a light is being projected behind the screen so we can see areas that are fully clean or not. -Lastly, i think you need to post expose your image! The first exposure allows the image to transfer to the screen. Then you wash it out and let it dry completely. Finally, before printing, post expose your screen for the same amount of time you initially used to expose. This allows the screen to fully set so that no matter what ink you put on or if you wash your screen with water afterwards, the image will stay on the screen. Minor adjustments to the inking process: -Your inking technique is pretty good, the use of the squeegee and having someone hold down the screen so it doesn't move is great! One flaw I noticed is that you're not leaving any space between the paper and the screen. When printing on paper or a flat surface, it is nice to give space between the screen and paper to ensure that the ink doesn't stick or get sandwiched/squished by the screen. To create this space, just take a small piece of card or folded paper, and tape it to the sides of the screen. After giving the screen a bit of lift, put the screen on top of your surface and lightly push down on the screen, if you feel a bit of springiness, that's a good thing! -The lines could also be bleeding because your ink is too thin. If that is the case, only flood your screen once and then print flood again when printing. Excessive flooding of the screen can cause lines on your print to look squished. -When squeegeeing, it's best to hold the squeegee at a 45 degree angle. Yes, that sound pretentious, but I noticed that you were holding the squeegee parallel to the screen a couple of times. You want to use the edge of the squeegee rather than the side of it. Minimum contact with the screen to get a clean flood. Honestly, it just takes practice. Things you did well that you should keep doing: -Taping down your prints so they don't stick to your screen. Brilliant. -Using tape in general to cover up think you don't want printed. Good. -Waiting for the sun to set, keeping your lighting controlled. Really good. -Paper. Also the kind paper doesn't really matter. (If it was super thin like japanese paper, it would probably need less ink and if it was really thick like cardboard, it would need more, but from what I see you're working with, I don't think that's the reason the ink is bleeding). Ink doesn't really absorb into the paper until in drying, mostly it sits on top during the printing process. Which is why having a space between the paper and screen is key. Keep on printing and experimenting!! I hope to see more!! Good luck!!
This is an amazing first attempt peej, I can really tell you researched a lot and wanted to do it all professionally. I really like shmoxd’s videos on diy screen printing, because he makes prints by being extremely scrappy and improvisional all the way to buying and using his own printing press.
I screen printed in college and we got really nice paper from French Paper Co.! They have papers made specifically for printing on. There are also different extender bases you can mix with your inks to get different consistencies! Good luck Pj! Wish you all the best in all your artistic endeavors (:
if you don't want to go through the hassle of the having to use light sensitive emulsion, you can also cut designs out of acetate, tape them to a clean screen and print straight through it like normal. It's a quicker technique that lets you use the same screen for multiple designs, because all you have to do is wash it and change your stencil. Using clear acetate is also useful for lining up layers because it's easier to see through than the green. It's definitely not as "professional", bit is useful for practice!
Your design looks so good! I did this in high school and it was really fun! We did it a bit differently tho. Instead of the glass technique you did, we printed our designs in the transparency sheets and then put it up on the overhead to activate the emulsion thing. Also for the printing process, we had this clipboard kind of device that clipped our screen on so it made sure that our designs were straight. I'd love to do it again some day... It was really fun (although the hard part is making sure the screen is clean after using it)
Excuse me? Why does this not have a million views? Even if not everybody knows him, is this production value not convincing enough for you, mighty Algorithm?? I'm shocked!
Loved this! People always spoke about screen printing in college like we were supposed to know what it was - now I've seen it I'd love to try it! Can't wait to see part 2, part 3, part 4....
You can also use a paper template, so the version you used is great for multiple pins of the same thing, but if you only want a small number of copies you can create a paper stencil that you then put the screen over and put the ink/paint and squeegee across. We use to be able to get a couple prints out of each stencil, but each one did take an age to cut out
I'm currently in a screen printing class and I had the same fuzzy line problems. But I'm getting better and you will too! It just takes practice! I do wish I wasn't learning it for school because it's too stressful to do with the little time I have. But good luck in your learning!!
At uni we used to burn the image right on top of a light box using books to weigh it down...or run outside, expose it for like 3 seconds under the sun and run back in, you being extra careful is really cute. Also, we never used "off contact", so the pressure youre putting on it probably has a lot more to do with the bleeding. Good luck PJ! i really enjoyed screen printing and wish i could do more of it
Your videos help me to remember that's it's okay to not be the best at something the first time you try it, mistakes and fudges are all a part of the learning process. Your ability to accept 'failure' in your stride is something I'm working on learning :)
honestly? this is one of your best videos. i feel like this is similar to your old ones, and captures the essence of this channel. the editing & the music was spot on, you acquired a new skill, and it seems you had fun! so yea 10/10 would recommend
awesome to see screen printing at home. i've been blessed to be able to use my colleges serigraphy studio for the past 4 years. without a studio there's a lot to learn! keep it up, love this kind of content!
2:03 Everyone: Aussies: hahahahahahah snag as in sausages right? like bunnings snags.... geddit? ah mate whatta bloody ripper thats a bloody good one eyy
the reason why the prints didn’t turn out the way you wanted it is because the emulsion was over exposed to water and probably got under the emulsion, causing it to fall off and not create a crisp line. just a tip- take 30 second to 2 minute breaks while you wash the emulsion out so it doesn’t fall off and lets the water dry.
PJ the reason why the edges are not clean is that you need to keep a small distance between the screen and the surface you are printing on, something around 1cm. The screen needs to touch the surface you are printing on, only where you are pushing with the spatula
Prints are so cool honestly! When I was taking art appreciation in college, we did some carved prints for one of our projects and I was insanely proud of how they came out, even though they were super messy. I've never tried screen printing, though, and always thought that'd be super fun!
Studying serigraphy in school rn 🎉 - keep a spray bottle (of water) and rag handy when printing. If anything goes wrong and ink transfers from the paper on to the back of the screen (pretty sure that happened at one point when you flooded the screen while it was still on the paper (which is a no-go)) you can easily spray the back of the screen and wipe it down. Also handy if the ink starts to dry in the screen, clogging parts of the image, and you can simply spray it out. This especially happens in thinner lines of more detailed designs. Lmk if you have any questions I could answer! I’ve been doing this for a year or two so should hopefully be able to help.
I am in my 6th semester of visual arts and I do Screenprinting and in the beggining was disastrous so, I gonna give to you some tips: - your print on the acetate must look very very dark so, if the ink of your printing doesn't help i recommend to use a permanent marker to cover the light parts on your print also, you can draw directly into the acetate with the marker. - try to use hinges to hang your screen at the moment of the printing, they will help you a lot if you want to make more prints and if you want to add another ink into your design. - clean up the screen after a bad printing specially if at the moment of the printing the screen moves and does this like overrun because that makes that your next printing will be messy, we use chemicals as p100, or toluene (in this one u have to be very carefull bc you can get an intoxication) but it will clean up the ink of the screen without damaging the emulsion and it will not cover your design (some chemicals do quit the ink but they're kinda oily so can cover the design and ruin your print so, before you print you have to clean it up with a wiper and let it dry). - also if you want to perfeccionate your design you can fix it with emulsion and a brush in the moment of the burning your design. There's an artistic tecnique were you do the entire design in this way, starting with the background and then covering up the design with the brush and making the layers of your design and printing in different inks. It looks so cool because the brush gives it a texture at the moment of the print. - you can dry the emulsion with a dryer or a fan, it will make the process faster. - Also, another thing with the light is, well, i used and exposure box but, in the process of learning screenpriting we discover that if you put the screen in the glass (above the light) and then, you cover the screen with white paper and put some heavy stuff as books the screen recives all the direct light so the burning is faster and with more detail. - Try to use a bottle of idk windex or something that uses an sprinkler to take down the emulsion in details of your design bc sometimes if you use a lot of water or pression the emulsion will fall of the screen, this is when the design has details. - AAAAAAAAND to clean it up the whole thing, It may sound crazy but have you seen the green sponge that is used to water natural flowers and that appears in videos on instagram of ppl cut it (in spanish is called espuma floral) that THING, srsly that thing is gonna be your best friend, it helps to clean the emulsion without damaging your screen. Well, these are one of my survival tips with screenprinting, I do love screenpriting but trust me, sometimes it becomes a wrecking train haha and sorryyy if my english is very... broken sometimes, or If I did sound weird trying to explain it but it's because i don't know some words in english but I hope this would help you and i would love to see more prints from you!!! love from mexico:)
Your content makes me so happy. I love watching your process, feel inspired by your creativity, and love the little winks you put in your video editing: the spin and the Formby specifically. I would say never change, but I mean keep learning and changing. (I've gushed. Oh dear.)
i spent all my xmas money on screen printing supplies out of curiosity like 1 week before this video came out and the materials just arrived in the mail. never has a video been so perfectly timed
Hey been screen printing about ten years! See some people have suggested using off contact or a laser printer, while those thing would help the major problem here looks to be the mesh count of the screen. Most diy kits come with the standard 110 mesh screen typical for T-shirt printing. 110 meaning roughly 110 holes per square inch. For printing on paper and other less porous materials you want a much higher mesh count (around 200-300) to limit the amount of ink that goes through the screen. On shirts the fibers soak up more ink, requiring a larger amount to appear opaque, and in the case of dark shirts even need to be dried and printed in two layers. Try to find a higher mesh screen and I guarantee you’ll have a crisper print.
Hello! I'm a printmaking major in college right now. I don't do a whole lot of screen printing but from what I can tell, there are a couple of things that could have gone wrong: you used too much ink, you've got the wrong type of paper (easy solution, I recommend cotton paper with a fairly high gsm), or your screen's thread count is too low and you might want to invest in a screen with a higher thread count (which can get pretty pricey but is totally worth the investment). Overall I have to say you did a pretty spectacular job pulling your first round of prints! One more tip: remember to keep your arms straight and not bent at the elbows to ensure even pressure is applied to the squeegee at all times. It made a huge difference in my prints when I tried it!
This was really interesting - I didn't expect you to prep your own screen so I had no idea how that process would work at home! I'm not a professional printmaker but you should probably be using purpose screenprinting ink instead of paint (other comments have some great advice too!)
as much as I love Brighton, people are easily fooled about how artistic it appears. PJ having to call a million and one places was so accurate as to what it’s like looking for ANYTHING art-wise in Brighton.
You did so wel!!! I think holding the squeegee at a larger angle perpendicular to the screen will also help you get crisper lines, I always aim to only touch the screen with the 'pointiest' bit of the side of the rubber edge. And go quick! Then the ink will be less likey to creep into places you don't want it to go. Very excited to see you do more printing my guy!
I have learned how to screen print just recently too and it is fun to see PJ try it out as well. Its such an interesting art medium :)) Makes me wanna fix my burning light and get going again :)
the mesh count on your screen could have also come into play with the fuzziness of your prints too, but definitely next time tape some cardboard underneath the corners of the screen and use that to create a bounce between the screen and the surface you're printing on. it'll make a huge difference! screen printing is a really useful skill too, you can print shirts and zines and all kinds of cool things :^)
PJ!! You should try Block printing. I’ve been into it for a few months now and it’s so much fun. You carve your design into a piece of rubber/linoleum, ink it up, and transfer it to paper. Beautiful and so fun.
I started screen printing about a year ago and it’s crazy how fast you can improve at it and clean up the process. When cleaning off ur emulsion, be as gentle as possible to ensure clean lines. It takes some practice. Don’t let ur emulsion sit on a screen for more than like 3 days.
i screen printed a couple of times for a class once, but it was a flat broke public school, so instead of the longass process of burning your image into one single screen, we just cut our design into a piece of acetate (using xacto knives) and put it between the paper and the screen, while taping off the edges on the same side. it worked really well, we got really clean lines and the acetate stuck to the screen so we didn't have to reregister for each print. you could give that method a try if you want!
also, when using this method, we didn't preflood the screen, we just flooded the screen when it was on the paper and we got really clean lines. hope this helps!
Maaan, Pj, you are so inspirational! Every time I watch a video of yours I want to create something new!! I'm sorry your first screen print wasn't quite where you wanted it to be, but I personally think the edges have a neat style to them. :) Bravo to you for pushing through! Great Job!
The music reminded me of the music from OFF (and the design with the X eyes does too!) great video PJ x I’ve screenprinted with the extremely amateur (not-actual-screen printing) pantyhose, glue, and embroidery hoop method. But your results are much better!
I hope you give those prints you made to your patreons they deserve them for helping you make such fun content. I'm always happy to see a video of yours where you get your creativity out.
I think the lack of crispness in your lines could be due to over washing when washing out your screen or a combination of that and not enough exposure time. It could also be the type of film you are using in your printer or the type of printer you are using. I use a laserjet and usually don't have any issues with it, and I get a deep dark black which is what you want when exposing. I hope some of this advice helps and HAPPY PRINTING!
They did screen printing at my school in our art lessons but I was never allowed to do it (only certain people were apparently) always felt like I've wanted to do it so this video brought me some gratification. I enjoyed watching the process although does seem like you need a lot of supplies and patience... Maybe one day I'll try it out!
the fuzzy edges could be a couple things! check your print out - it could've been there from the beginning because you used laminate paper. try vellum next time! OR you flood the screen twice, when you really only need to do it once. flooding too much can push more ink through the design, causing spillage onto your paper. hope this helps!
i was hella confused at first cuz at my school we learned a completely different way to print. We transfers the image on some contact paper by using carbon paper and then put contact paper on the screen and then do ink. we did this in stead cuz A. it was easier and cheaper, and B. we can re use the screen
I studied Screen Printing in college, and we always sprayed our transparencies with toner aid to make the lines darker before burning the image. I've never tried screen printing at home, but it might help!
I do screen printing at my Univercity, it's so relaxing, I was surprised you flooded the screen first, when we do it we just lay the paint at the top of our image when ready to go and drag it down. No one in my class that I know of floods the screen and my tutor has never told us to? Maybe that's why I spattered? Because when you put it back down on the sheet of paper it may have wobbled a little bit?
Me : * is trying to do anything*
My brain: do something else
Me: but I’m busy this needs doing
My brain: something. Else. Soemthing. Pionltess.
Piontless... piontless.. Soemthing... soemthing..
procrastinating level: 999
LOL way too accurate
Once I cleaned my entire room just so I didn’t have to do homework. My room is a train wreck.
You’re missing off contact!! The screen is not supposed to be resting on the paper/whatever your printing on. I’m a professional screen printer :D
Another thing to keep in mind is the pressure you used, or how fast you pulled the squeegee. Your biggest problem would be the off contact though. If you ever have any questions lmk! There’s a lot of problem solving in the process and I know a lot about it :)
When you flood the screen you want to do that very lightly. Don’t push any through the screen. Look at your screen when it’s clean for pin holes around the bottom right of the image. Use masking tape to tape that off
you're absolutely right! I was reading about off contact and completely forgot about it when it came to the printing process. thanks for your comment! I'll definitely try that next time!
Not very often I get to give one of my favorite RUclipsrs advice, glad I could help :D
The size of the mesh affects how blocky the image is, I recommend a 110 for the image there, or a 158, 200 or 300 for a really small, detailed image. (those are just numbers I’m used to using, close to those numbers will be fine.)
Hey PJ, I did screen printing at Uni, so here’s my advice for next time:
1. I think you got fuzzy edges because of using an inkjet printer for your acetate. Try to find somewhere that can laser print into acetate as that should give a cleaner edge to your shapes and also be more opaque.
2. I’m not sure if you did this or if the ink you were using was already mixed, but normally for screen printing you mix your ink/acrylic paint with a screen printing medium to make it a better consistency. This should help it flow through your screen better.
3. When ‘flooding’ your screen, only pull the squeegee across once (maybe you realised this, but not sure). Going across twice will force too much ink through and is likely to give you fuzzy edges and leave a mottled/bubbles effect in your ink where its pulled away from the screen mesh.
Hope this helps!
thanks katy, all very good advice! :D
@@KickThePj You could also just go over it with an archival marker that dries on acetate to make it more black rather than getting it professionally done. Or even a thin layer of acrylic, as long as it's as black as you can get any texture won't matter. There's also a mixing medium you can add to the acrylic paint you use when actually printing to make it glide easier
@KickThe Pj Also leaving the emulsion dry for such a long period can make it harder to expose the image as well which might explain the fuzzy lines. Try to have your acetate ready before you coat your screen so that you can expose it as soon as the emulsion drys. Plus as a tip you always need more ink than you think.
Really lovely prints though please do more!!
Katy Minns solid advice!!! Maybe try clamping the screen down too when printing with it. Shouldn’t smudge then! Our screen printing thingies at uni have vacuumed installed into them as well so the paper and design doesn’t move.
you're instantly a cool person, I hope you know this.
hey pj, former industrial screen printer here: when you flood the screen, you should be using a lot more ink, there should be a layer thick enough that you can’t see the image on the screen. all the little fuzzies in your image are “pinholes” which result from having dust on your glass or your transparency when you put the light to it. the place i worked would put the smallest little dabs of a thick glue on the underside of the screen to plug those holes (not sure what kind it was, i was mostly just in the printing side of things and not the making of the screens). hope this helps!
Pj,,,,a sheet of glass. Literally you can find them in picture frames lmao
ya but i needed it to have a very particular uv count!
@@KickThePj Ah yeah I realized that once you got on the phone with the "right guy" lmao. But hey I think it all turned out pretty amazing for a first time!! 😊
my brain gremlin wants me to move to a log cabin where i restore antique clocks. that, or just get into linocutting
abi rose mine is telling me to drop out of school and live in a treehouse in the middle of the woods with a parrot. I honestly don’t know why
abi rose my brain gremlin told me to get into Lino to and now I'm going to uni to do it full time 10/10 recommend
Do it
I wonder if the brain gremlin has a brain gremlin...?
Asking the important questions here haha
@Jelly Cat we could go forever XD
@Jelly Cat for clarity I'm not a good artist
the anxiety when PJ threw his phone...
@Panic! At my chemical Piløts yessss i'm glad i wasn't the only one that saw that
PJ: *says "glass sheet"
Me: I'm in pane.
ok but. ur so good at everything wtf
I did this at school ! It’s really amazing seeing the end product
Pj, I'm sorry to tell you this but... The IKEA returns section is usually full of single sheets of glass.
It's like really *really* easy to find there
So is the gremlin in my brain the key to all my procrastination, because it always seems to scream "RUclips"
Hey pj as an art technician I have some suggestions that might be helpful :)
1: the fuzzy edges on your print can be down to either not having clean lines on your print or the contact of the assate was not enough. I tend to use a vacuum seal as it pushes the design as close to the screen as possible when exposing it. And make sure to be gentle when washing the screen so not to lose any details on the design.
2. You don't need to flood the screen, as if you use acrylic paint mixed with printing medium (1:1 ratio) it will clog the screen as it starts to dry. And if you are doing a CMYK print it makes it harder to register the design.
3. Don't pull the squeegee both up and down the screen. Pull it towards you only a few times as pushing it back up the screen can cause it to clog and difficult to clean.
4. If you use wetable parcel type it doesn't damage your screen or remove the emulsion and easily washes off.
I hope that this will help you in your future screen printing adventures :)
did anyone else fully expect him to smash the glass?
I certainly did
except it, I mean. I didn't actually smash it haha
I made a screen print dragon hoodie in high school. But our process was more old school. It was a bunch of stencils, one for each colour. Which meant each stencil had to be perfectly drawn and cut or else it wouldn't line up. Surprisingly it worked!
Aye PJ, I take a graphics class and I can give ya few tips😁.
Tip #1 - you're pressing too hard on the screen, hence the not so smooth prints.
Tip #2 - you're holding the squedgy wrong, its supposed to be held at a slight angle, a very little tilt.
Tip #3 - make sure to clean the bottom of your screen to help with the smudgy prints
Tip #4 - it could also be the ink you're using... Its best to use t shirt ink, or enaml type ink...you can find them in graphics stores😜
And there ya go! Hope these help! Have fun printing!! I absolutely love screen printing! Its so funny. Really messy but fun!
Still the most creative person on the Internet (if not the whole universe)
Hi I'm an art major and have a focus in fibers, currently in an advanced fiber class and do a lot of silk screening. The main thing I noticed was that you put a layer of paint on the screen before you actually did a print, from my experience usually you would do a line of paint above the image and then go for the print, I do 2 swipes but I'm proficient so maybe 3 would be good for the inexperienced. The reason you dont have clean lines is because there was too much paint and it spread when it got pushed through, that might be because you layered the screen before printing. One last thing, we use cushioned tables and depending on how fine the lines are depends on the cushion, so if you have finer lines less cushion.
Also, I forgot to mention, different types of paper could help.
Hopefully this helps, feel free to ask any questions if you have any.
You’re supposed to flood the screen to ensure the ink/paint/whatever you’re using covers the whole image, the key thing is not a lot of pressure when doing so, and if he’s using a thinner medium a higher mesh count screen will help prevent it from just running through.
@@kaylameinke I'm sorry, but there are different methods, im not trying to undermine yours. I've had years of experience. Thank you.
I swear PJ the background music made me think my cats were going crazy. Cut to: me sleepily wandering around my house, confused because the cats are nowhere to be found
hi! i’m doing a foundation year in art and i love screen printing! I know you want to get clean lines and a repeated pattern but you can also do more disposable designs using procion dyes (basically work like inks) and felt tip pens... work on the screen, let it to dry and print using acrylic medium, and you can cut stencils out of paper so the inks wouldn’t seep through ;))
but yeah this works if you want something more painterly and it’s good the practice with the screen!
my dad does this professionally on shirts! I would say a make or break is to make sure you get all the emulsion out of the design. he uses a high power power washer to do it. you can hold it up to the light to help and see if your design is completely clean or not. that may be part of what your problem was or maybe uneven pressure while actually pressing the ink on it. he has a whole press with like six different screens that move up and down to helps make sure the screen doesnt move between coats. theres many variables but I hope you figure it out:)
I really hope some day I can learn new skills when I want without being limited by finances and locational lack of availability of anything. Okay, I don't 'hope', I dream. It's a dream. It will die with me.
Screen printing is so interesting, it's fun to see it done homemade. It'd be cool to see more, (maybe try it on fabric?)
Just some tips from a screen printer (working for 3 years in it and studied it in school):
- fuzziness around an image can be related to not having proper contact when burning an image to a screen. Vacuums are commonly used for this purpose within the light table being used. Our shop has an old unit with a vacuum attached to keep contact as close as possible.
- The splatters seem like pinholes. Those can be covered with tape on the non-ink side. Your screen did sit for a week and if any dust got exposed with it, it would have left some dots.
- Don't flood your screen with it down on the paper. It lays down too much ink onto the print.
- You can print full contact - I did it all the time in school - but you risk putting too much ink on the paper so I would always use very little if I printed that way.
- You can make a mock off-contact setup by taping some chipboard or matboard onto the edges of the frame of equal height.
- When flooding a screen, don't change the direction of your squeegee - keep it it the same as when you print. I find that a lot of people we teach make this mistake.
- Red is a very viscous colour so if you don't want to worry about what that does - learn with printing black first. It'll help you troubleshoot technical problems.
- if you plan on reusing the screen, tape off large areas on the ink well side with a proper tape. If you push ink through and tape is on the other side, the ink and tape will mix together and clog the mesh of the screen. This is more of a problem with our finer mesh screens.
Just trying to make this less frustrating for you 👏
yeah the smudging is only happening because the paper is directly touching the screen, when i print we use stacks of cardstock about 1/16th of an inch to add a bounce to the screen
This saga that has unfolded between PJ and his printer is truly riveting. I'm happy to see that it was vanquished to the garbage though!
I have slain the printer with my own two hands
This is actually really cool! Maybe you can create some limited amount of merch with your screen burnt designs?
I intend to when I get better at it! :)
The world's tiniest greenhouse should be your next project lol
I’m going to be majoring in printmaking and i plan to open a screenprint shop in the future, and i can tell you for a fact that photo emulsion is terrifying and that it’s definitely a lot easier to use the screen blocking method for making the screen your first couple times. it’s more effort, but it’s so much more forgiving
My sister did screen printing in school and I think the lines didn't tern out 100% clean, but that's what I think made it cool and not just any old ink art peace. I loved the video and I thought it was so cool you did it at home, I didn't even know that was possible. As well, this being your first time doing this "WOW" your a natural.
I love your channel, its essentially everything I aspire to create, a space where wacky bizzare stories are told, shared and created and where the learning never stops.
IS SOPHIE WEARING HIS SHIRT!? THATS TOO CUTE
Edit: Omg I’ve never got this many likes holy crap thanks!!!😱
I know!!! They are honestly so cute!
Are they dating or are they just friends or are they siblings im honestly confused?????
@@michellerc they're dating but very low key about it
@@michellerc sublings
Mette wait what really ooooo
Hey PJ, would you consider posting a list of the great background music you use in your videos?
Someone has already made a playlist, I don't know if it's up to date but it's really cool. Just search for Kickthepj video's music on spotify.
also there was a list at the end of the video lol
@@thattheresagirl Yeah I've looked at some playlists before - they're mostly his older Monster Rally stuff
@@taylorfay3334 Yeah I know he sometimes also puts the artists in the descriptions - but just some specific tracks he uses would be useful :D
@@judeandon I don't know how helpful this is, but PJ often uses birocratic's songs, many from his album beets 3. I don't think he has in this video though.
I do this for art gcse and I have a few tips :D ;
1. Usually you should mix the ink/paint with a screen printing medium as it makes the consistency better to work with.
2. An easier way to do this is you get a picture, and you scalpel out the things you want inked, and then rest that picture on a piece of paper with the screen on top.
:)
We did this in art club at school. We cut out the sections with a craft knife and then put it underneath the screen. Then add and spread the paint as you did. It takes longer (I think) and you get the opposite of what you got (white lines with the rest red)
Hope this helps
Next time you're buying a sheet of glass like that, ask about what extruded aluminium trim or framing the supplier has available. It should only protrude from the working face of the glass by a couple of millimetres, which won't affect your work, and it will protect, stiffen, and strengthen the edges of the glass to reduce the risk of chipping or breakage while also protecting your hands from the sharp edge of the cut glass.
im currently in a screenprinting class, and while we haven't done the photo emulsion technique (we've mainly been using drawing fluid and newsprint stencils), what i've learned is that flooding the screen too much will cause the lines to look a bit messier and dry slower. for best results, do just one strong pass :-)
Watching this back just realised you used ‘when I’m cleaning windows’ when you were actually cleaning the glass - stroke of genius there PJ George Formby would be proud
Hey PJ!!! For my art class we did screen printing, but we didn’t do the burning part of it, which seems very complicated. Instead, we got a picture of what we wanted, traced it on paper, and then cut it out with a pen knife. Of course this could cause it to not be as clean of a cut but it worked pretty well when we did it!
When we did it we had the teachers pre make the screens and everything, so all we did was scrape the color on it and press it down on our shirts. Kudos to you for doing every step !
So excited that you're doing screen printing! It's definitely my favourite print process!! I work in a studio with controlled settings and materials, but for what you've done, the prints came out amazing!!
A few tips for getting a clearer image on your screen:
-Something I'm not sure of, did you coat both the back ANd front of your screen? In my experience, it's best to just do one side. If the emulsion layer is too thick, it is harder to hold onto the image and get clean lines when you expose it. It also becomes more difficult to wash out after exposing.
-Make sure that you expose it for the correct amount of time! I don't know specifically how much time that would be for you, but I would play around with it. To me, it seems like maybe you exposed it too much initially, making the image unclear??
-When washing out your screen, have good water pressure and consistent moving around the screen to get the emulsion off. It takes a while, but its worth it. You don't need to rub the screen or you might disrupt the image you just shot. Not so much pressure with the water to blast off the image, but evenly work the water over the until you can see the image. one thing that could really help in this area is getting a light behind the screen so that you can actually see what is being taken off. In my school studio, we have a wash out area where a light is being projected behind the screen so we can see areas that are fully clean or not.
-Lastly, i think you need to post expose your image! The first exposure allows the image to transfer to the screen. Then you wash it out and let it dry completely. Finally, before printing, post expose your screen for the same amount of time you initially used to expose. This allows the screen to fully set so that no matter what ink you put on or if you wash your screen with water afterwards, the image will stay on the screen.
Minor adjustments to the inking process:
-Your inking technique is pretty good, the use of the squeegee and having someone hold down the screen so it doesn't move is great! One flaw I noticed is that you're not leaving any space between the paper and the screen. When printing on paper or a flat surface, it is nice to give space between the screen and paper to ensure that the ink doesn't stick or get sandwiched/squished by the screen. To create this space, just take a small piece of card or folded paper, and tape it to the sides of the screen. After giving the screen a bit of lift, put the screen on top of your surface and lightly push down on the screen, if you feel a bit of springiness, that's a good thing!
-The lines could also be bleeding because your ink is too thin. If that is the case, only flood your screen once and then print flood again when printing. Excessive flooding of the screen can cause lines on your print to look squished.
-When squeegeeing, it's best to hold the squeegee at a 45 degree angle. Yes, that sound pretentious, but I noticed that you were holding the squeegee parallel to the screen a couple of times. You want to use the edge of the squeegee rather than the side of it. Minimum contact with the screen to get a clean flood. Honestly, it just takes practice.
Things you did well that you should keep doing:
-Taping down your prints so they don't stick to your screen. Brilliant.
-Using tape in general to cover up think you don't want printed. Good.
-Waiting for the sun to set, keeping your lighting controlled. Really good.
-Paper. Also the kind paper doesn't really matter. (If it was super thin like japanese paper, it would probably need less ink and if it was really thick like cardboard, it would need more, but from what I see you're working with, I don't think that's the reason the ink is bleeding). Ink doesn't really absorb into the paper until in drying, mostly it sits on top during the printing process. Which is why having a space between the paper and screen is key.
Keep on printing and experimenting!! I hope to see more!! Good luck!!
This is an amazing first attempt peej, I can really tell you researched a lot and wanted to do it all professionally. I really like shmoxd’s videos on diy screen printing, because he makes prints by being extremely scrappy and improvisional all the way to buying and using his own printing press.
A method of screen printing I've used is cutting the design out of contact paper and then sticking it to the underside of the screen.
I screen printed in college and we got really nice paper from French Paper Co.! They have papers made specifically for printing on. There are also different extender bases you can mix with your inks to get different consistencies! Good luck Pj! Wish you all the best in all your artistic endeavors (:
if you don't want to go through the hassle of the having to use light sensitive emulsion, you can also cut designs out of acetate, tape them to a clean screen and print straight through it like normal. It's a quicker technique that lets you use the same screen for multiple designs, because all you have to do is wash it and change your stencil. Using clear acetate is also useful for lining up layers because it's easier to see through than the green. It's definitely not as "professional", bit is useful for practice!
as i’m very uneducated on screen printing, this clearly helped me understand the processes of screen printing in a very visually pleasing manner!
Your design looks so good! I did this in high school and it was really fun! We did it a bit differently tho. Instead of the glass technique you did, we printed our designs in the transparency sheets and then put it up on the overhead to activate the emulsion thing. Also for the printing process, we had this clipboard kind of device that clipped our screen on so it made sure that our designs were straight. I'd love to do it again some day... It was really fun (although the hard part is making sure the screen is clean after using it)
Excuse me? Why does this not have a million views? Even if not everybody knows him, is this production value not convincing enough for you, mighty Algorithm?? I'm shocked!
Loved this! People always spoke about screen printing in college like we were supposed to know what it was - now I've seen it I'd love to try it! Can't wait to see part 2, part 3, part 4....
You can also use a paper template, so the version you used is great for multiple pins of the same thing, but if you only want a small number of copies you can create a paper stencil that you then put the screen over and put the ink/paint and squeegee across. We use to be able to get a couple prints out of each stencil, but each one did take an age to cut out
“I’m building the worlds smallest greenhouse” 😂 😂
I'm currently in a screen printing class and I had the same fuzzy line problems. But I'm getting better and you will too! It just takes practice! I do wish I wasn't learning it for school because it's too stressful to do with the little time I have. But good luck in your learning!!
At uni we used to burn the image right on top of a light box using books to weigh it down...or run outside, expose it for like 3 seconds under the sun and run back in, you being extra careful is really cute. Also, we never used "off contact", so the pressure youre putting on it probably has a lot more to do with the bleeding. Good luck PJ! i really enjoyed screen printing and wish i could do more of it
Your videos help me to remember that's it's okay to not be the best at something the first time you try it, mistakes and fudges are all a part of the learning process. Your ability to accept 'failure' in your stride is something I'm working on learning :)
honestly? this is one of your best videos. i feel like this is similar to your old ones, and captures the essence of this channel. the editing & the music was spot on, you acquired a new skill, and it seems you had fun! so yea 10/10 would recommend
awesome to see screen printing at home. i've been blessed to be able to use my colleges serigraphy studio for the past 4 years. without a studio there's a lot to learn! keep it up, love this kind of content!
2:03
Everyone:
Aussies: hahahahahahah snag as in sausages right? like bunnings snags.... geddit? ah mate whatta bloody ripper thats a bloody good one eyy
the reason why the prints didn’t turn out the way you wanted it is because the emulsion was over exposed to water and probably got under the emulsion, causing it to fall off and not create a crisp line. just a tip- take 30 second to 2 minute breaks while you wash the emulsion out so it doesn’t fall off and lets the water dry.
peej THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT
water or water? I like water
id like to disagree, i like water.
water is great but have u ever had water
water you thinking water is the best !
I think I'd prefer water
honestly. water is waaay better than water. no offence
PJ the reason why the edges are not clean is that you need to keep a small distance between the screen and the surface you are printing on, something around 1cm. The screen needs to touch the surface you are printing on, only where you are pushing with the spatula
Prints are so cool honestly! When I was taking art appreciation in college, we did some carved prints for one of our projects and I was insanely proud of how they came out, even though they were super messy. I've never tried screen printing, though, and always thought that'd be super fun!
I haven't even watched half the vid yet, but your vids are always the highlight of my week 🙃❤️ *currently commenting this upside down cause why not*
Studying serigraphy in school rn 🎉 - keep a spray bottle (of water) and rag handy when printing. If anything goes wrong and ink transfers from the paper on to the back of the screen (pretty sure that happened at one point when you flooded the screen while it was still on the paper (which is a no-go)) you can easily spray the back of the screen and wipe it down. Also handy if the ink starts to dry in the screen, clogging parts of the image, and you can simply spray it out. This especially happens in thinner lines of more detailed designs. Lmk if you have any questions I could answer! I’ve been doing this for a year or two so should hopefully be able to help.
I am in my 6th semester of visual arts and I do Screenprinting and in the beggining was disastrous so, I gonna give to you some tips:
- your print on the acetate must look very very dark so, if the ink of your printing doesn't help i recommend to use a permanent marker to cover the light parts on your print also, you can draw directly into the acetate with the marker.
- try to use hinges to hang your screen at the moment of the printing, they will help you a lot if you want to make more prints and if you want to add another ink into your design.
- clean up the screen after a bad printing specially if at the moment of the printing the screen moves and does this like overrun because that makes that your next printing will be messy, we use chemicals as p100, or toluene (in this one u have to be very carefull bc you can get an intoxication) but it will clean up the ink of the screen without damaging the emulsion and it will not cover your design (some chemicals do quit the ink but they're kinda oily so can cover the design and ruin your print so, before you print you have to clean it up with a wiper and let it dry).
- also if you want to perfeccionate your design you can fix it with emulsion and a brush in the moment of the burning your design. There's an artistic tecnique were you do the entire design in this way, starting with the background and then covering up the design with the brush and making the layers of your design and printing in different inks. It looks so cool because the brush gives it a texture at the moment of the print.
- you can dry the emulsion with a dryer or a fan, it will make the process faster.
- Also, another thing with the light is, well, i used and exposure box but, in the process of learning screenpriting we discover that if you put the screen in the glass (above the light) and then, you cover the screen with white paper and put some heavy stuff as books the screen recives all the direct light so the burning is faster and with more detail.
- Try to use a bottle of idk windex or something that uses an
sprinkler to take down the emulsion in details of your design bc sometimes if you use a lot of water or pression the emulsion will fall of the screen, this is when the design has details.
- AAAAAAAAND to clean it up the whole thing, It may sound crazy but have you seen the green sponge that is used to water natural flowers and that appears in videos on instagram of ppl cut it (in spanish is called espuma floral) that THING, srsly that thing is gonna be your best friend, it helps to clean the emulsion without damaging your screen.
Well, these are one of my survival tips with screenprinting, I do love screenpriting but trust me, sometimes it becomes a wrecking train haha and sorryyy if my english is very... broken sometimes, or If I did sound weird trying to explain it but it's because i don't know some words in english but I hope this would help you and i would love to see more prints from you!!! love from mexico:)
“What do you mean why? I’m building the worlds smallest greenhouse”
One of my favourites
Your content makes me so happy. I love watching your process, feel inspired by your creativity, and love the little winks you put in your video editing: the spin and the Formby specifically. I would say never change, but I mean keep learning and changing. (I've gushed. Oh dear.)
Your videos fill me with inspiration, and remind me how much I love art and being creative. Thanks peej
i spent all my xmas money on screen printing supplies out of curiosity like 1 week before this video came out and the materials just arrived in the mail. never has a video been so perfectly timed
Hey been screen printing about ten years! See some people have suggested using off contact or a laser printer, while those thing would help the major problem here looks to be the mesh count of the screen. Most diy kits come with the standard 110 mesh screen typical for T-shirt printing. 110 meaning roughly 110 holes per square inch. For printing on paper and other less porous materials you want a much higher mesh count (around 200-300) to limit the amount of ink that goes through the screen. On shirts the fibers soak up more ink, requiring a larger amount to appear opaque, and in the case of dark shirts even need to be dried and printed in two layers. Try to find a higher mesh screen and I guarantee you’ll have a crisper print.
Hello! I'm a printmaking major in college right now. I don't do a whole lot of screen printing but from what I can tell, there are a couple of things that could have gone wrong: you used too much ink, you've got the wrong type of paper (easy solution, I recommend cotton paper with a fairly high gsm), or your screen's thread count is too low and you might want to invest in a screen with a higher thread count (which can get pretty pricey but is totally worth the investment). Overall I have to say you did a pretty spectacular job pulling your first round of prints! One more tip: remember to keep your arms straight and not bent at the elbows to ensure even pressure is applied to the squeegee at all times. It made a huge difference in my prints when I tried it!
I honestly think it looks really cool with the edges rougher and a little paint splatter. It’s an aesthetic
Next you should print a sweet potato club shirt. I would buy that instantaneously.
PJ has the coolest looking room. Look at those lights lighting up those shelves!
This was really interesting - I didn't expect you to prep your own screen so I had no idea how that process would work at home! I'm not a professional printmaker but you should probably be using purpose screenprinting ink instead of paint (other comments have some great advice too!)
as much as I love Brighton, people are easily fooled about how artistic it appears. PJ having to call a million and one places was so accurate as to what it’s like looking for ANYTHING art-wise in Brighton.
I love watching you try out new art techniques! It shows that there are so many ways to be creative!
You did so wel!!! I think holding the squeegee at a larger angle perpendicular to the screen will also help you get crisper lines, I always aim to only touch the screen with the 'pointiest' bit of the side of the rubber edge. And go quick! Then the ink will be less likey to creep into places you don't want it to go. Very excited to see you do more printing my guy!
I have learned how to screen print just recently too and it is fun to see PJ try it out as well.
Its such an interesting art medium :))
Makes me wanna fix my burning light and get going again :)
the mesh count on your screen could have also come into play with the fuzziness of your prints too, but definitely next time tape some cardboard underneath the corners of the screen and use that to create a bounce between the screen and the surface you're printing on. it'll make a huge difference! screen printing is a really useful skill too, you can print shirts and zines and all kinds of cool things :^)
I love his hoodie jacket thing, it looks amazing. I want it.
PJ!! You should try Block printing. I’ve been into it for a few months now and it’s so much fun. You carve your design into a piece of rubber/linoleum, ink it up, and transfer it to paper. Beautiful and so fun.
4:32 "I regret the spin…" killed me 😂😂😂
"I'm building the world's smallest greenhouse", I don't know why but that just killed me.
I started screen printing about a year ago and it’s crazy how fast you can improve at it and clean up the process. When cleaning off ur emulsion, be as gentle as possible to ensure clean lines. It takes some practice. Don’t let ur emulsion sit on a screen for more than like 3 days.
Also off contact is important !!!
i screen printed a couple of times for a class once, but it was a flat broke public school, so instead of the longass process of burning your image into one single screen, we just cut our design into a piece of acetate (using xacto knives) and put it between the paper and the screen, while taping off the edges on the same side. it worked really well, we got really clean lines and the acetate stuck to the screen so we didn't have to reregister for each print. you could give that method a try if you want!
also, when using this method, we didn't preflood the screen, we just flooded the screen when it was on the paper and we got really clean lines. hope this helps!
That’s so cool! I’m doing screen printing on tote bags as part of my graphics GCSE right now!
Maaan, Pj, you are so inspirational! Every time I watch a video of yours I want to create something new!!
I'm sorry your first screen print wasn't quite where you wanted it to be, but I personally think the edges have a neat style to them. :)
Bravo to you for pushing through! Great Job!
The music reminded me of the music from OFF (and the design with the X eyes does too!)
great video PJ x
I’ve screenprinted with the extremely amateur (not-actual-screen printing) pantyhose, glue, and embroidery hoop method. But your results are much better!
I hope you give those prints you made to your patreons they deserve them for helping you make such fun content. I'm always happy to see a video of yours where you get your creativity out.
I think the lack of crispness in your lines could be due to over washing when washing out your screen or a combination of that and not enough exposure time. It could also be the type of film you are using in your printer or the type of printer you are using. I use a laserjet and usually don't have any issues with it, and I get a deep dark black which is what you want when exposing. I hope some of this advice helps and HAPPY PRINTING!
They did screen printing at my school in our art lessons but I was never allowed to do it (only certain people were apparently) always felt like I've wanted to do it so this video brought me some gratification. I enjoyed watching the process although does seem like you need a lot of supplies and patience... Maybe one day I'll try it out!
the fuzzy edges could be a couple things! check your print out - it could've been there from the beginning because you used laminate paper. try vellum next time! OR you flood the screen twice, when you really only need to do it once. flooding too much can push more ink through the design, causing spillage onto your paper. hope this helps!
i was hella confused at first cuz at my school we learned a completely different way to print. We transfers the image on some contact paper by using carbon paper and then put contact paper on the screen and then do ink. we did this in stead cuz A. it was easier and cheaper, and B. we can re use the screen
Martina Klaus you can reuse the screen with emulsion, just gotta wash it out. Every print shop I’ve worked at reused their screens and use emulsion.
We did screen prining at college but i was kind of terrible at it :p
I studied Screen Printing in college, and we always sprayed our transparencies with toner aid to make the lines darker before burning the image. I've never tried screen printing at home, but it might help!
I think google is listening to me bc I just watched a video about screen printing and added it to a playlist
I do screen printing at my Univercity, it's so relaxing, I was surprised you flooded the screen first, when we do it we just lay the paint at the top of our image when ready to go and drag it down.
No one in my class that I know of floods the screen and my tutor has never told us to? Maybe that's why I spattered? Because when you put it back down on the sheet of paper it may have wobbled a little bit?
You can also screen print on shirts as well. I'm in a graphic arts class and we do a lot of screen printing.
This video is the perfect representation of how much effort PJ puts into his videos. As well as being bloody hilarious 😂