London is the Reason

Hello, so I mentioned in the last post that i'd be putting up my poster that I've completed for Gallows. Not only am I going to do that but i'm going to show you how I printed it aswell.

It all started when Chris '3D Glasses' White (a sexy chap from Landan tan) asked me to be involved in the Gallows tour poster series volume 2, to which I was more than happy to agree to. After contributing to last year's series I quite fancied following on a theme within my posters, so I had a rough idea of how my poster was going to end up.

I wanted the poster to be based around a silhouetted character, much like my previous effort for the Manchester Academy 2 date. So I popped over to their MySpace in order to gain some inspiration for the visual. This first sketch was done before I'd investigated album articles and stories and was based around the idea of a wolf stalking the streets of a London that has reverted back to looking old and dilapidated. The album is a pissed off bookmark in Britain's current crisis with regards to politics, the economy and society and so I wanted something that better conveyed what the album is screaming about. With constant references to death throughout the album 'We are ready to die' it seemed more fitting to exchange the wolf character for the grim reaper. This added a more sinister angle to the poster, as it shows death prowling the streets of London, ready to collect his debt.

With the album being called 'Grey Britain' it would have been an obvious choice to use that as a colour and theme guideline. To make the poster appear more striking I decided to add a sunset, which would help set the scene and create a more menacing atmosphere. After adding a blackletter font for the show details I was pretty happy with the outcome and ready to print them up. So I printed the acetates and took all my materials and equipment to the West Yorkshire Print Workshop, where the poster was to be screen printed.

With the screens prepared, I had to go about printing a 'split fountain'. This process involves printing 2 colours on one screen but through spreading the paint in the way illustrated below, I was able to achieve a smooth blend and create a skyline that resembled a sunset.

In order to achieve a successful 'split' the paint needs to be pulled through the screen numerous times, allowing it to mix and blend.

Once i'd experimented enough and was happy with the blend I began printing onto the Snowden white 300gsm paper, which I would build up the individual layers and thus creating my poster.
Here they are on the drying rack.

Then I printed the second layer... the blackening. This worked well as the black boldly stood out from the blended layer before, creating a striking contrast between the 2 layers and creating the perfect scene in which I wanted to depict.
After cropping all the posters down I was ready to sign and number.

Now they are sitting in my room, waiting to be unveiled at the gig at Rock City on May 12th and needless to say, I can't wait for the carnage!
So thanks for reading, I hope that offered a nice little insight into how I go from designing a poster to printing.