We’re focused on quality, and we’ve slowed things right down.
James takes weeks (sometimes months) to screen print our limited edition artwork, with the inks mixed by hand, colour-by-colour, layer-by-layer. Everything is considered. It’s a true labour of love. It’s what slow design looks like.
Before design work begins, we do a large amount of research to understand the anatomy, behaviour, habitat, iconic body language and defining characteristics of each species.
When I look at wildlife, I see exciting shapes, colour arrangements and endless possibilities for creating interesting compositions.
My aim is to capture the defining characteristics of each animal in simplified straights and curves; to make up a final design of satisfying geometry and colour combinations.
After the animal is complete, I illustrate the skeleton using anatomical diagrams, books and online resources for reference. This intricate layer represents the true anatomy of the animal, whilst contrasting the bold, geometric animal beneath.
We develop our colour palette layer-by-layer to make up the final print. We strive to find the perfect background colour that ties in with both the animal’s habitat and the other prints in the series.
I’ve always had a very meticulous and detailed approach to my printmaking. The exciting process is messy yet clean, frustrating yet rewarding.
In order to do Ed’s illustrations justice, I’m striving for the most accurate outcome when creating each and every edition of screen prints.
After the screen has been exposed, it’s onto colour mixing. We only use water-based pigment inks for all of our prints, meaning we don’t use any acrylics or oil based paints in our process.
I use a palette knife to spread the ink across the bottom of the screen, then use the squeegee to both ‘flood’ and ‘pull’ ink through the screen, transferring it through the mesh onto the paper below.
The backgrounds are always printed first, with the layers built up, colour by colour, on top of one another to make up the final print. If anything is out of alignment— even by a few millimetres — the artwork can’t be used. Once the ink has dried and the print process is complete, I trim and hand number each print with its unique edition number.
And then the all-important finishing touch – our Under the Skin logo is embossed into the corner, our stamp of approval to mark the craftsmanship and quality that has gone into each print.
There is something satisfying about the process going from hand-drawn to digital illustration to hand-printed. From start to finish, our process is a true labour of love.
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