Silk-screening a la Andy - Brief Article

Arts & Activities, Nov, 2000 by Len Mathes

Andy Warhol has always intrigued me with his bold portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and other celebrities--especially those in which he laid flat colors under a black silk-screened image. Being a teacher who enjoys having my students create self-portraits, Warhol's process seemed like a natural project for my advanced junior/senior art students.

Usually I provide the impetus for any new projects attempted in my class, but this time the spark came from a student who had watched a television program about the life and work of Warhol, and asked if he could create some "Warhol-esque" work himself.

I thought, "Why not?" and decided to make it a class project. It turned out that what I had hoped would be a worthwhile assignment blossomed into a challenging and enlightening experience for everyone involved.

To expose the students to Warhol's art, we talked about his basic philosophy. I showed slides of Warhol's art and we discussed each of his paintings individually--concentrating on style and technique. Some portraits used flat colors for hair and face, as can be seen in Marilyn Monroe, while others were more painterly in the background treatment, such as in Mao and Julia Warhol. Students freely expressed which style they preferred--sometimes liking both equally.

Thus began the production aspect of our adventure. I purposefully posed each student and took a black-and-white photograph of them with a digital camera (an existing photograph they had of themselves could also be used but had to be scanned). Students then altered their photos on the computer using Adobe[R] Photoshop[R], removing all gray tones and color. For the silk-screen process to work well, the final portrait needed to be black and white with few middle tones. Portraits were kept under 8" x 10" in size, primarily for cost factors.

After printing out their computer-altered portraits, students were given tracing paper to outline basic shapes including hair, faces and clothing. Pencil was then scribbled all over the back of their tracings to make "carbons."

Each student was given a sheet of oversized watercolor paper. I had prepared a template for two portraits, which they traced onto their paper. The students then placed the tracings onto their paper and positioned them as they wanted their silk-screen portraits to appear.

Originally I had planned to have the students silk-screen the flat areas behind their portraits, but abandoned this idea after I figured out how many screens would be needed to accommodate a class of 18 students. Instead, they painted in their portrait areas using acrylic paints--some used fluorescent tempera.

As discussed earlier, some students chose to paint flat areas, while others "went crazy" with wonderful painterly areas. Paint was carefully applied with brushes, but I encouraged them to use their fingers as often as possible. One student even did a "van Gogh" background that worked great. Each student was required to use two different approaches in painting their background.

To make our silk-screens, I decided it would be best to use a simple thermal-screen process. I purchased a roll of mesh, a 7 3/4" x 10 1/2" frame for each student, a few squeegees and an assortment of inks. Using a thermal imager that was rescued from an elementary school in our district, we created our screens and began our adventure.

We made many discoveries along the way, one of which was: Watch out, it can be messy! We also found that not all backgrounds are successful. We discovered that dark backgrounds seemed to overpower and block out the portraits. Everyone learned from each other as the portraits were finalized. We often discussed which portraits were turning out more successfully than others.

Many students changed in mid-stream and painted over areas they felt were too dark. Quite a few students made more backgrounds than the required two. Sometimes when a student silk-screened his or her portrait, the color was just wrong. It looked awful. So, they would let it dry and then screened another color on top (or slightly off-register). Wow! It was terrific! Then came an avalanche of enthusiastic queries: "Can I do this?" "What about doing that?" "And what about.... "

The final phase of this project was two-fold--and a group effort. I purchased a single piece of prepared 4' x 6' canvas and marked out 18 areas--one for each student in the class. Each then selected his or her best sample and replicated it onto the canvas in their chosen area. I prefaced this portion of the project by informing them that this was a piece of collaborative art that would be permanently displayed in our school. In other words, the onus was on them to attain the finest results possible.

The final project would put Warhol to shame. The school now has a piece of art to proudly display for many years. With the success of the collaborative portrait canvas, I took the students' accomplishments one step further and created an 18-month calendar (one month for each student), which displayed each portrait on a horizontal 8 1/2" x 11" format. The printing was donated by a local printer, who produced copies with a color laser printer. These were then collated and assembled on campus. The pride shown by each student when they saw their artwork "published" in that format was well worth the time and effort required.