Studio Notes - Planning For 2019

For the first full week of 2019, I’ve been sitting still. It’s been boring.

Thanks to a minor operation in the last week of 2018 I’ve had to basically do nothing but rest, cutting my latest project in half. Up until the last minute I had been developing and testing my first banknote (part of the money project), a double sided, three-colour screen print.

For most of December I worked on the design, created my home screen exposure setup, bought equipment, mixed inks and then made a few colour test runs.

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Money. First test of this double sided, 3 colour screen print… about to adjust the first colour and start the full print run. #artandmoney #moneyart #screenprint #screenprinting #serigraphy #printmaking #printmaker #artaboutmoney #artistscurrency #artistcurrency #art #fineart #capitalism #banknote #money

A post shared by Lee Devonish (@lee_devonish) on Dec 23, 2018 at 4:07am PST

Then I had to stop.

Making the best of it

Whilst I’ve been unable to work on my printmaking, I’ve decided to look at the positives: there are still creative, useful things I can do whilst sitting down. I’ve been doing a few different things:

learning how to use GIMP properly
creating half-tone images for a group portrait
redesigning and producing cover images for my blogs
taking stock photos in the studio
watching all of the screenprinting videos on YouTube
brainstorming business ideas I won’t have time for
general plotting

Granted, coming up with new business ideas (screen printing can send you on tangents) is not exactly useful but it helps to keep your brain humming. I’ve got quite a few t-shirt ideas now!

Most of my screen print artwork (well, probably all of it) comes from hand-drawn elements, not computer graphics, but the fact is that some things would be better done using computer programs.

Over the last few days I’ve been able to get my head around GIMP at last – just enough to make it less intimidating and more of a help than a potential hindrance.