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Unit Silkscreen Printing

Four simple, five-petaled flowers are printed against a vibrant green background of grass. The flowers on the left side of the image are purple on the top and blue on the bottom, and on the right they are hot pink on the top and red on the bottom.

Andy Warhol, Flowers, 1964
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
1998.1.25

Learn about photographic silkscreen printing process from beginning to end. In this unit, students manipulate digital images, burn silkscreens and create multi-layer prints using the same techniques Warhol employed.

Lessons

Lesson 1: Introduction to Photographic Silkscreen Printing and Color Theory

In this screen print, ten small, round fruits are scattered across the screen. They are bright orange, and their shadows are painted deep red, fuscia, and green. The background contains a pair of large yellow squares slightly to the left of center, and otherwise it is white.

Andy Warhol, Space Fruit: Still Lifes (Peaches), 1979
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution Dia Center for the Arts
2002.4.19.5

Lesson 2: Gathering and Manipulating Source Images

This is an image of a female student sitting in front of a computer. The computer screen shows a black and white photograph of a middle aged African American woman. The digital photo editing software Adobe Photoshop is open and shows multiple options for editing on the screen.

Photo by Sean Carroll

Lesson 3: Preparing and Exposing Photographic Silkscreens

This is an image of a film positive on top of a light table. The light table had four fluorescent lights underneath a glass top. There is a black clock timer in the background.

Photo by Sean Carroll

Lesson 4: Underpainting and Photographic Silkscreen Printing

This artwork is a silkscreen print on canvas. It depicts an image of four flowers (one pink [aurora pink], and three red [rocket red]) with black screen print overlay. The pink flower is located at upper left, and three red flowers are positioned at upper right, lower right and left. The black silkscreened overlay creates the impression of stems and leaves in the background.

Andy Warhol, Flowers, 1964-65. The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Lesson 5: Planning a Multilayer Silkscreen Print

This image shows students' hands arranging various multi colored pieces of paper into a composition.

Lesson 6: Cutting Stencils for a Multilayer Print

This silkscreen print depicts a middle aged African American woman standing in front of a brick fireplace. The woman is centered in the foreground. Her black hair is pulled up in a bun on the top of her head, her expression is neutral and she is wearing a long sleeved silky blouse that is buttoned at the neck. She is printed in black and white while the fireplace behind her is printed in light purple and dark purple. On top of the fireplace sits an abstract painting printed in whites, greys and yellow ochre. The walls are a medium grey.

Alisha Wormsley, Unititled, 2017
Silkscreen print on paper

Lesson 7: Silkscreen Printing with Stencils

A male with short hair and wearing glasses stands facing away from the camera. He is looking at a multi-colored silkscreened image. With one hand he is propping up an orange silkscreen. His other hand is on the table upon which the silkscreen and silkscreened image also rest.

Photo by Sean Carroll