Ween Poster Process - GIGART

[GIGART]

I have posted this on the Ween site and Facebook, but thought why not post it one more time here. Just in case you didn't see it. Might be of interest to some...

I am a huge Ween fan and always like to incorporate imagery from their songs into the posters I do for them. Fist thing I do is listen to the songs and go through their lyrics to find ideas and images that I think would be fun and make a good poster.
I take all the ideas and make sketches until I am happy with the layout of the poster.



Next I draw a more detailed sketch, scan it and tweak it a bit on the computer, and print it out much bigger. I take a 19x24 inch sheet of white bristol board, put the sketch underneath it and bring it to my light table. From there I start inking my drawing tracing my sketch through the board.



At first I just do a rough drawing of the entire poster. I will be going back into it to add details.



Here are a few more photos as the poster starts to appear...

Have you ever seen a man with 8 fingers on his hand?





Getting a bit of help.



Starting to come together a bit. Again just drawing the full image first and then will go back and add thicker line work, details and more.





Once I have the full image drawn in, I got back and start inking the details.



Adding thickness and making this poster come alive.

[GIGART]

Is that a wandering eye?



The Boognish Abides.

[GIGART]

Almost done and ready to scan the line work into the computer.



Main inking is done.

[GIGART]

Next I scan the line work into the computer, so I can start adding color and more details.
Unfortunately I have a small scanner and have to scan the image into the computer in pieces and then put it back together in photoshop.



Once I have the full image scanned and put together in photoshop, I now go in and draw smaller details that I want to add. I usually do these separate, so that I can draw them bigger than needed to get the details I want and then can scale it down to fit on the poster.
This is an example where I had the prescription bottle with pills drawn, but wanted to make the label legible...So I draw the details...



And then add it to the piece.

[GIGART]

Next I start working with colors. Find what looks good, and start building the poster up on the computer.







Once I am finished with the color and details and have the poster the way I want it to look, the next step is to get the files ready for my silk screen printer.
I unfortunately do not screen my own posters. So this process thread is more about my end of the process. But my printer did take a few photos for me...coming up soon.

[GIGART]

These posters will be silk screened. Each color will have to be separated and saved as it's own file. They will be used to print films and then burned onto their own screens.
This poster is a 5 color print. I only got photos of the first 4 colors as I separated them.

Yellow:



Light Greenish Yellow:



Green:



Blue:



These files that I just saved will be sent over the interwebs to my printer in Seattle. D&L Screenprinting has printed all my posters since my first silk screen, which just happened to be for Ween in 2003. I even screened on the bottom of the poster, "The very first silk screened poster by Gregg Gordon / GIGART"...I know who cares, right?

Ok, so now they are out of my hands until I get them in the mail.
I hope everything will be alright, baby.

[GIGART]

So once I sent my files to my printer. He printed the films and burns them onto 5 separate screens since this will be a 5 color poster.



Each screen is placed one at a time on a press.



For each screen, there is a color that goes with it. The inks are mixed to the appropriate color and then pulled across the screen on the press, putting the ink to paper.



The first color is printed on all the sheets of the run. Then put on drying racks to dry. Once dry a new screen is put on the press for the second color. Each sheet is then taken and printed on and then put to dry again on the rack. This happens for each color until the poster is complete. But you all know that on this site...



The exciting part on my end is to get the big package in the mail, open it up and see the final result!

[phoondaddy]

Awesome work. Love the colors too. It's really cool that so many people are doing process threads.

...........but your computer looks soooooo uncomfortable.

Looking forward to catching these guys on this tour.

[l.stalions]

Great job, Gregg. Really enjoy your process threads. - Blondie

[JustinHelton]

As a fan of Ween, your awesome work, and a fellow poster artist...I gotta say...this is one of the best process threads I've seen yet! Great work man...always loved your posters for them!