ImagesMagUK_August_2021

www.images-magazine.com KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES AUGUST 2021 images 31 www.heckpress.co.uk @blackmindseye @hailconan Sarah Fielding of Heck Press, an eco-friendly screen printing studio based in Llanfair Caereinion, Mid Wales, breaks down a screen print created for Liverpudlian band Conan Anatomy of a print The artwork is by Tony Roberts, aka @blackmindseye, for a British doom metal band called Conan. The green halftone screen was 40 lpi. The original image was a single-colour image; I added the green gradient to make it more visually appealing. I separated the image in Photoshop. I added the green gradient, which was bitmapped and halftoned within Photoshop, and printed the transparencies with an Epson Stylus Photo 1500W. Two screens were used: a 62T for the white and a 77T screen for the green. The inks used were from the high-solids, water-based MagnaPrint AquaFlex V2 range from MagnaColours. A triple durometer squeegee was used for the white and a hard squeegee blade was used for the green. I used Saati Phu Red emulsion. The 62T (white ink) was coated 1/1 with the thick side of the coater, while the 77T (green ink) was coated 2/1 with the thin side of the coater. The 62T screen was exposed for 60 seconds, and the 77T screen for 40 seconds on a Vastex E-2000 LED Screen Exposing Unit. It was printed on a six-colour, 4-station M&R Kruzer manual press. The white was applied P/F/P [print-flash-print]. This was then flashed again before the green halftone was applied. B-FLEX heat transfer vinyl is now available in the UK from Papergraphics ! Supplied in 500, 750 & 1000mm widths, by the linear metre or full-length (25m) rolls, please call 0845 1300 772 | paper-graphics.com The tee used was the 100% cotton AS Colour Raglan Tee (5012). I print manually and find that the triple works really well for laying down a good white with the AquaFlex V2. However, when I print halftones the triple can lay down too much ink, and cause a bit of dot gain. I use the hard blade to lay less ink down and keep the integrity of the dots as much as possible.