Crafting New Zealand Wildlife Art: The Art of Colour Separation

Art for reproduction. Shaun Waugh at the drawing board uses a 0.35mm Rotring technical pen to illustrate the Jewelled Gecko (Naultinus Gemmeus) in a pointillist illustration style onto a dimensionally stable sheet of translucent mylar substrate. The original illustration is rendered in landscape orientation at an enlarged size, 600 x 450mm.

December 27, 2024 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

The Art of Art for Reproduction: Rediscovering the Charm of Hand-Separated Rendering for Screen Printing

In the modern world of digital design, where every line can be perfected with a click, there’s something uniquely captivating about the traditional methods of graphic design. Today, I want to take you back to the early ‘80s, to the Graphic Design School at Auckland Technical Institute, where I spent over four years mastering an art form that’s as meticulous as it is magical—hand-separating colours for screen printing. Rendering shading, texture, and detail to achieve a realistic depiction of New Zealand native animals and plants.

Keen Eyes, Steady Hands, Delayed Gratification

The process began with the most basic element of any print—the reference photographs. My task was to dissect this image, identifying every hue, tone, shadow, and light. This wasn’t just about seeing; it was about a feeling for the image. About understanding how each colour and how its shadows and its source of light interacted and contributed to the whole. Each colour was isolated, and gradations between one colour and another, between light and dark, shaded. This created a palette that would transform into art through the hand-pulled screen print.

A man wearing a black Surface Active jewelled gecko t-shirt beside New Brighton Pier. The gecko print is a vivid, hand-separated digital illustration of a Jewelled Gecko originally created for screenprinting. — Hand-separated artwork from traditional serigraphy translates exceptionally well into modern DTF and DTG printing methods. Because the precision of the printing means that the vibrant colours and dynamic light and shade become high definition. The resulting print often surpassing the vibrancy of the reference photographs.

Layering the Art

The technique involved using translucent mylar architectural drafting film, which allowed for the creation of each stencil layer on a lightbox. Picture this: you’re in a dimly lit room, the glow of the lightbox casting just enough light to see through the film. Here, you start to build your image one colour at a time, akin to painting with light. It’s a slow, thoughtful process of translation from one medium to another, where each stroke adds depth and dimension to what was once just a flat photo.

Left photo: Shaun applies spray adhesive to the the ten smooth vinyl topped aluminium screenprinting pallets wearing a respirator mask. Right photo: Deborah loads the pallets with blank white teeshirts in preparation for printing. Chrissie is loading the 8 screenprinting stencil frames with their respective inks.

Starting at print station one, Deborah hand screenprints the first colour, light green onto the front of the white, 100% cotton New Zealand made teeshirt.

hrissie follows Deborah printing the first colour down the row of 10 printing stations with ‘Flash Gordon’, our custom designed ink ‘flash-cure’ unit on wheels.

Synchronised with Deborah printing the second colour, dark green, Chrissie prints the third colour orange. Because the area of these prints is small the dark green colour does not present the problem of adhering to bottom of the following orange stencil.

Chrissie prints the third colour, orange.

Jewelled Gecko 8 colour print - Chrissie hand screenprinting the 8th colour

Chrissie proofs each black design while the ink is still wet and manually touches up the black to ensure it is solidly covering where it is supposed to cover.

Final heat cure of the print on the pallet, stripping the finished Tees off and reloading the next run of 10. This process start to finish took two people labouring hard-out for 45 minutes

Jewelled Gecko Giclée on white background, A1 size. Illustration, New Zealand wildlife art.

Registration Finesse

Achieving perfect alignment was crucial, akin to the precision needed in old-school cel animation. With mechanical punched registration, I ensured that each of the eight stencils I created for this specific design would align flawlessly in the darkroom, on the stencil, and ultimately when screenprinting onto the shirt. This meant tracing, drawing, and painting on each stencil, always checking back against the original stippled pen and ink drawing on translucent mylar for alignment. Every layer had to be in harmony, the fit and finish exact, or the slightest error would cause the final print to lose its coherence.

Rubylith’s Reign

For blocking out areas where ink wasn’t needed, Rubylith was indispensable. This red, translucent film acted like a shield under the process camera’s lights, allowing for quick, clean creation of solid colour areas on stencils. In photo-stencil making terms it was like blocking light to decide where to let the printing colours shine through.

A Printer’s Palette

The complexity of the final print dictated the number of stencils—for this Jewelled Gecko design, nine separations were used, one screen even split between two colours for a more nuanced look. This wasn’t just about achieving colour; it was about creating a “screen gem” by respecting the source photography and its subject and adapting it into the new visual form of wildlife art on a t-shirt, while maintaining accuracy.

From Mechanical Then to Digitial In, Digital Out, Now

Fast forward to today, the shirt I describe is now modeled by a bearded man beside New Brighton Pier While I’ve embraced modern DTF printing technology to reproduce this design at my home studio in New Brighton, the nostalgia and skill of this old-school technique remain a significant part of my practice.

This journey from traditional to digital not only honours the craft’s heritage but also highlights how the essence of good design transcends technology. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the most beautiful art comes from the most labor-intensive methods, where patience and precision create a legacy in every print.