Screenprinting/Silkscreen
A crop of Ed Emberley's art from Ed Emberley's ABC. Click through to enlarge
Screen printing prints ink through a mesh screen stencil.
Silkscreen/Screen Printing is a stencil method of printmaking in which a design is imposed on a screen of fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance. Ink is forced into the mesh openings by the fill blade or squeegee and by wetting the substrate, transferred onto the printing surface during the squeegee stroke. As the screen rebounds away from the substrate the ink remains on the substrate. It is also known as silkscreen, serigraphy, and serigraph printing. One color is printed at a time, so several screens can be used to produce a multicoloured image or design.
Ed Emberley: Ed Emberley’s ABC
This book showcases each letter of the alphabet in a double page spread containing four illustrated panels for each letter. In this silkscreen panel young readers are introduced to B: Bear, along with bird, butterfly, blueberries, basket.
One color was printed at a time, so several screens were needed to produce these multicolored images and designs. The colors were rich, vibrant, crisp and clean.
This medium is rarely used in children’s book illustration today.