James Billiter Studio Blog

Posts tagged Screenprinting
Warhol

As a senior in High School I became more aware of a larger body of work that Warhol produced, from the early commercial work as well as the films. It’s safe to say there was an influence there and directed me towards a career in the graphic arts.


Recently I watched “The Warhol Diaries” on Netflix and thoroughly enjoyed viewing the progression of his career a little more in-depth with some insight from his personal point-of-view.


I want to note Warhol did publish many of his screenprints on his own, but also worked with a number of printmakers during his career. Working with Alexander Heinrici from 1974-1976 and then with Rupert Jasen Smith from 1977 until Warhol’s death in 1987.

This is an interesting video from Tate Britain following one artists method to reproduce Warhol’s work.

The 12 in '22

The past few years I feel like I've been balancing commissions with maintaining the Cincinnati Heritage Collection. I have been experimenting here and there with styles and developing new collections.

I've settled on a new collection that feels less graphic arts and advertising based and more observational art prints of scenes. This new collection may still be based in Cincinnati, but it feels a bit more liberating and I enjoy capturing reference imagery and using printmaking to capture reality in a stylized manner.

The prompt of 12 in '22 is inspired

by my 52 in 2011

—a

New Year's resolution

that really started this current chapter of my career. In 2011 I felt very stagnant creatively, so I set the goal of creating 1 piece of artwork or creativity per week to re-inspire myself. With this new prompt of 12 in '22 I want to create 1 strong piece per month, and focus on quality of execution during the development of this new collection of work.

Last year I had the pleasure to develop a new piece experimenting in this new style to the Tiger Lily Press Calendar. I went to the Cincinnati Riverfront in the evening and photographed reference for a great cropping of 3 landmarks from our skyline that would fit into a 6" x 8" crop. I spent about 17-18 hours illustrating the scene, and about 16 hours printing 150 of the 3-color prints (what a long day!).

I'm planning to adapt this series to other mediums as well; for instance an idea for a woodblock of the riverfront at night (see below) and also to continue my work in Polyester Lithography as well.

Fat Tire Beer Poster

When: June 23, 2016 @ 6pm.
Artist: James Billiter. One of Cincinnati’s busiest artists right now, with shows all over town and a steady stream of art coming out. Billiter has done posters for bands Wussy, The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs, Jake Speed and the Freddies, Wild Leaves and more.
Event: Poster Release + Tappings of New Belgium/Rhinegeist Fat Tire Collaboration, Barrel Aged Mushushu and the super rare New Belgium Nitro Coffee Sour — Oscar Worthy Coffee.
New Belgium / Rhinegeist Fat Tire Collaboration: Rhinegeist has transformed Fat Tire into a Belgian XPA, combining a fruity Belgian yeast strain with bready-sweet European and Colorado malts for a beer to please hopheads and wine drinkers alike.
Rhinegeist Mushushu is a blend of four black beers aged in bourbon barrels for more than six months, this melange strikes a dynamic balance of wood character with the addition of coffee, vanilla and cocoa nibs. Panther Porter – 50% Bertha Milk Stout – 30% Ink Imperial Stout – 10% Panda Oatmeal Stout – 10%. ABV: 8.5%
New Belgium’s Oscar Worthy Coffee: Oscar Worthy Coffee. Three words, that when uttered, cause an almost Pavlovian drool response among New Belgium co-workers. Like our dry-hopped sour Le Terroir, Oscar Worthy Coffee is a beer unlike any other: It’s our sour Oscar “dry-beaned” with coffee in collaboration with Fort Collins friends The Bean Cycle. The result is an ultra-smooth sour beer that bursts with sour-and-espresso aromas, and it tastes like magic. ABV 6.7%

New Solo Show at frameshop in OTR



Walls of Cincinnati: New Works in Watercolor Monoprints and Serigraphs by Billiter Studio
CINCINNATI, OH - 

"Walls of Cincinnati," a show of new monoprints and serigraphs by Billiter Studio, 
opens May 27th from 6-10pm at frameshop, 1317 Main Street.

On Final Friday the walls of frameshop will be adorned with the beautiful façades of our Queen City. “The Walls of Cincinnati: Monoprints and Serigraphs” by James Billiter Studio features articulate, illustrated renderings of Cincinnati’s landmarks. These landmark art prints are a combination of monoprint originals featuring watercolor dyes as well as affordable handprinted, limited-edition screen prints. Frameshop will be complimenting these elaborate art prints with exquisite and unique framing using a variety of heritage materials. Aside from the framed originals, a variety of frame-ready screenprints will be available, ranging in prices from $10 to $50.


For more information visit the event page https://www.facebook.com/events/279904965679057/
Four Color Screenprinting Techniques
This is Aaron Kent's, the owner of Cincinnati's DIY Printing, approach to four color printing:
Yellow first, straight from Magenta, adding 20% transparent extender base Cyan, adding 30% trans 80% trans, with black
Prefers a halftone of 35 frequency for 230 mesh screen

I have been going at it this way, I add 50% transparent extender base to magenta and cyan. I heard that if your image is blue or green in overall tonality, print cyan third — if it's warmer or redder, print magenta third. I tried to print yellow first once — but it was hard to register second color through the yellow mesh.

I've been also preferring 30-35 dpi, I think I printed a smaller 8x10 print at 50dpi. I think a 50dpi on a 18x24 print would be very inconsistent.

Angles of colors:
Cyan 80 degrees
Yellow 105 degrees
Magenta 20 degrees
Black 50 degrees

I don't start at 45 degrees because it creates angles the eye can pickup.