Charles Fazzino's Silkscreen Art and 3D Process
Silk Screen Printing
The majority of Charles Fazzino's fine art prints are made using a hand-stenciling printmaking process commonly referred to as silkscreen serigraphy, or silkscreen printing. It's important to understand how any fine art print is made because each process has its advantages and disadvantages and artists will use different techniques depending
upon the desired effect.
Silkscreen art gained in popularity in the 1960's with the explosion of the pop art movement. Revolutionary artists like Andy Warhol and Robert Raushenberg gravitated toward the silkscreen printing technique because it allowed them to utilize bright, bold, and true colors when reproducing their original paintings. Charles Fazzino began making silkscreen prints of his original works in the late 1980's.
Fazzino's Silk Screen Art Printing Process
Fazzino works closely with his fine art printer to insure the integrity of the process and the accuracy of the resulting silkscreen art. The silk screen printing process occurs in several stages:
Charles Fazzino creates an original line drawing and sends it to the
fine art printer.
1. The fine art printer traces over the original line drawing on a piece of mylar, and then creates a screen to be used for printing. Black ink is pushed through this screen on a hand printing press to create the black line of the drawing on paper.
2. The black line is sent back to Fazzino to color. Depending upon the subject and the artistic feel he's going for, Fazzino will use anything from colored pencils to acrylic paint to indicate his chosen color scheme.
3. The colored black line returns to the printer, where the chromists (color spearators) then translates each color onto a separate screen. A color mixer matches all colors to the artist's drawing.
4. Each screen is placed one at a time onto the press during which time the appropriate color ink is applied and printed through the screen onto each piece of paper.
5. The final image begins to appear as one color is laid down on top of another. The printer carefully orders the colors to achieve certain blends, effects, more colors, and subtleties in the final print.
The resulting process consists of hundreds of pieces of museum board and paper being drawn through a hand printing press as many times as there are colors in the final artwork (an average of 20 for each Fazzino print). It takes 4-6 months to print a Charles Fazzino silkscreen edition of artwork.
Fazzino's Creative 3D Pop Art Process
My ideas come from so many different places. I'm always sketching...on paper, on envelopes, on napkins...whatever is at hand. After I develop a concept in my head, my next step is to do extensive research to ensure that the image I create is accurate and truly captures the feeling of the particular city or theme that is my subject. I visit a lot of the places I paint, but I also study postcards, books, maps, videos, and personal samplings. The actual sketching/drawing begins to develop at this stage when I try to evoke memories of an event or locale with all of the research materials spread out before me.
After making the drawing, I paint it with vibrant colors, concentrating in particular on the mood I am creating. Upon completion of the painting, I send it to a master fine art printer (not to be confused with a color-process printer, who makes reproductions, not art prints). Individual screens are then created by tracing the original image onto pieces of frosted mylar. Each color in the image is hand-rendered onto a separate sheet. This process takes anywhere from four to six weeks. The printer is expert at taking the original work and transforming it into a silkscreen print while maintaining the integrity of the image.
Once the screens are all produced, the first sample prints are created and sent to my studio for personal review. After making any necessary color adjustments, the final edition goes to print. This part of the process takes anywhere from four to eight weeks depending upon the number of colors and number of sheets of paper that must be hand-passed through the silkscreen press. After printing, the edition is sent to my studio. Once the piece is back in my studio, we begin to cut out some of the details-little people, cars, signs, mountains, buildings, streets, and anything else I might choose- with an X-acto knife. These detail pieces are then glued in layers on the base image to craft the 3D effect.
At this point, the piece is air-dried until the adhesives are completely cured. Then the piece is ready for further adornment with rhinestones and other fun and appropriate objects. Each piece in the edition is hand-signed by me and numbered individually.
Since each piece of my art is constructed and embellished differently and by hand, collectors of my work actually receive a unique piece of art even though it's part of a limited edition. Every work should be accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity.
