Images_Digital_Edition_April_2020

www.images-magazine.com APRIL 2020 images 33 KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES Michelle Moxley of M&R Companies explains how she produced a series of prints with different special effects to illustrate the creative potential and specific advantages of using the hybrid digital/screen printing process Anatomy of a print www.instagram.com/notoriousrandd www.mrprint.com The particular challenge [of this design] with screen print is the number of colours required to create the print combined with the special effects, as well as the number of variations we wanted to produce in one set-up. By using seven different special effects combined with four different digital files, we were able to make 28 variations on the designs in a single set-up [using the hybrid process]. The Geo Galileus gel screen was printed first. This was a halftone image and was printed black on black fabric. It helps to create extra depth and contributes to the very soft hand-feel after it has been pressed in-line with the M&R Hothead [M&R’s fabric compression system]. The white was printed after the gel with a bit less information; supporting all the white, quarter and mid-tones in the image, the gel under it extended into the three-quarter tones. Next, clear was applied as a solid for the ‘tie coat’. Trying to create this print using only DTG would be challenging too because of our use of special effects, as well as the delicate feather pattern, which could cause wicking and underbase peeking [with DTG] due to pretreat application methods. The separation for the underbase is a typical screen print underbase with halftones. This was achieved by working with the Lightness and Grayscale channels from the original high-res files in Photoshop, and reinforcing the magenta as needed. Last up is a special effect screen, this is also a solid vector print. The final print comprises four screens and the hybrid print. The design was printed on a 100% cotton Gildan Softstyle 64000 black T-shirt using an M&R 18-colour, 22-station Stryker oval and an M&R Digital Squeegee 4000. It could be run on a 12-colour 3-series machine with hybrid as well. The seven different special effect inks were: Virus Eco Superstar Gold, Virus Aquapearl Lime, Virus Aquapearl Sapphire, Virus Blue Diamond, Virus Lumina Blue, Virus Eco Superstar Silver, and Golden Diamond. The images from left to right, top to bottom, are: Eco Superstar Gold Top Coat, digital image #3; Clear Top Coat, digital image #2; Aquapearl Lime, digital image #4; and Aquapearl Sapphire, digital image #1. A s innovation director of M&R Companies, Michelle Moxley is known for her experimental and inspirational prints. Lately, she’s been developing stunning hybrid screen/digital prints using the M&R Digital Squeegee 4000 combined with an M&R Stryker oval automatic screen printing press. For this piece, where a woman’s face is combined with a feather, she set herself the task of creating prints that would present major challenges if attempted by either screen print or DTG alone. The Digital Squeegee applied the CMYK next, which is separated to contain ‘clean colours’ – or what is essentially a more intense version of actual four-colour-process (4CP), leaving the value to be supported by the underbase. This means using the underbase halftones with cyan, magenta, yellow and sometimes black on the top, to colourise the print underneath. I like to call this 3-D 4CP. The order of the rotation was: 1. Virus Geo Galileus gel (10% black pigment), 300 mesh, 55lpi halftone; 2. Flash; 3. M&R Hothead fabric compression system; 4. Virus Digi White, 160 mesh, 55lpi halftone; 5. Flash; 6. Open; 7. Virus Digi Pro clear, 196 mesh, vector 20% EOM; 8. Open; 9. Digital hybrid – four different image variations; 10. Open; 11. Flash; 12. Special effect, 180/48 mesh vector.