Screenprint, serigraph and silkscreen are interchangeable terms naming forms of printmaking using a fine screen made from silk, acrylic or other fiber through which ink is squeezed. The screen acts as a stencil. Each layer of color is residing on top of the paper and is usually opaque. Sometimes the grid from the screen is visible on the top surface of the ink.
On the left is a screenprint by Woody Crumbo. On the right is an acrylic painting by Alan Sweeney.
- Ink pushed through the equivalent of a fabric grid does not have crisp edges when the lines curve. Consequently curving lines have raggedly edges.
- Colors are positioned one at a time with screenprinting, one atop another, making the different layers terribly obvious.
- Painted lines have relative smooth outer edges.
- Registration (the alignment of colors within outlines) is usually imperfect with screenprints, lending an overall stiff appearance to the elements in the composition.
- To see the grid’s texture on the surface of a screenprint’s ink, most will need magnification.
Corinne Cain of www.SavvyCollector.com
