Screen Printing

• Screen printing uses a fine mesh material that ink is passed through to place ink on a material such as paper or a fabric. Inks can be printed onto the paper or fabric in slightly different colors to produce tonal differences. The meshed screen and paper are secured in a frame to ensure they do not move during the printing process. Ink is inserted into the frame at the lower edge and applied to the screen using a squeegee to force the ink through each open hole in the mesh.
  
  

Sealing

• The artistic screen printing techniques for creating a pattern include the sealing of areas that are not to be colored with ink. Each time a colored ink is applied to a screen a new meshed screen must be used. Inks are mixed to create different colors, with six inks capable of producing around 63 colors Artelino reports. Areas of the screen that are not to colored with a certain ink can be sealed manually or by a chemical process. A manual process of sealing a screen is to attach stencils of paper or foil to the screen to block off areas from the ink.
  
  

Ink

• Early screen printing techniques for pop art used oil-based ink. In modern techniques water-based inks that are less toxic than their oil-based counterparts are more commonly used. The original technique of silkscreen printing required the meshed screen to be manufactured from silk but screen printing screens are currently manufactured from cheaper synthetic materials such as nylon and polyester Artelino reports.
  
  

Halftone

• Patterns are created in screen printing by using halftones to simulate alterations in color without using different inks or changing screens. The halftone technique varies the distance between the dots of color that are forced through the mesh for three main purposes in screen printing. First, to create shades of a color or to tint the color larger spaces are left between the dots of color to lighten the shade without changing inks. The second use of halftones is to grade a color from dark to light by increasing the distance between the dots of color over the distance of the screen print. Finally, by positioning blocks of color and overlapping halftone colors the illusion of different colors can be created within a patterned screen print, Graphic FX reports.