Jewelled gecko serigraph

New Zealand native Jewelled Gecko—Naultinus Gemmeus: From wildlife illustration for hand-screenprinting to a limited edition large format Giclée…

Surface Active was an auto-printmaking, craft and design partnership established in 1986 by Chrissie Terpstra and Shaun Waugh. Between 1986–2002 the couple were committed to producing original & indigenous wildlife art designs of the highest design and screenprinting standards, providing a more interesting and beautiful product than your average tee—wearable art that celebrates the unique assets of New Zealand.

“How do we do it? Hours spent at the drawing board, artfully rendering each separate colour to give vibrancy and detail (Shaun). Crafty low-tech, hand-pulled screenprinting techniques allow us to create finely detailed designs, brought to life on the garment (Chrissie)—wild art to wear.

It was a great job and we get to do it!” Chrissie wrote in the intro to the Surface Active 1995 mail order catalogue.

Jewelled Gecko (Naultinus Gemmeus) original fine art print by Surface Active

Over recent years high resolution scans and meticulously re-creations of the original, master multicolour screenprint wildlife artworks are being re-created as large size, high resolution digital fine art prints. The Jewelled Gecko is the first of these designs to be completed.

The Jewelled Gecko Giclée or wide-format inkjet print is an Archival Digital Pigment Print on Museum Grade Fine Art Paper, to be published in a signed, limited edition of 50.

This portfolio of wildlife art Giclée is a work in progress, please visit again…

Credits

Documentary Photos: Thanks to a young woman, student of Fine Arts at Ilam, University of Canterbury
Crafty screenprinters: Deborah McDonald, Chrissie Terpstra
Gecko Illustration reference photos: Rod Morris
Illustrator: Shaun Waugh
Design and Art Direction: Chrissie Terpstra/Shaun Waugh

The illustration method

The artwork was created by spending hours at the drawing board illustrating, using;
• greatly enlarged, fully detailed photographic reference purchased from the renowned New Zealand wildlife photographer Rod Morris,
• drawing a pointillist illustration using 0.35mm Rotring® technical pen over the photo as the “keyline” layer for the 8 colour separations,
• drawing on the medium of either meticulously cleaned and prepared transclucent mylar architectural drafting film, or
• several grades of charcoal pencil (soft to hard) onto “coquille board”.