Скачать или смотреть Murray Robertson Collaborative Printmaking

Alasdair Gray’s screenprint, ‘Lanark - Title Page 2014’, illustrates what can be achieved in collaboration between artist and printer in the digital medium of printmaking.

Originally conceived to accompany the publication of Alasdair’s landmark novel of 1981 a series of pen and ink drawings were originally used to produce an edition of black and white lithographs published by GPS.

Alasdair felt that the original series of works could be revisited, edited, refreshed and presented as full colour screenprints via the application of digital technology within a solo show that he was due to have at GPS in 2014.

The original pen and ink works were scanned and their somewhat eroded condition addressed by hours of restorative digital work. These cleaned and restored works were then printed out and Alasdair selectively redrew or cut and pasted new elements and updated text onto the prints. The new additions were then scanned and added to the digital files.

Alasdair then sat with myself for repeated sessions guiding me in refining the edited elements and creating the colour separations. Each work required around nine or ten hand drawn colour stencils generated via a digital drawing tablet. The work progressed until all the digital files could be assembled, a colour proof created (for the reference of the screenprinter) and each individual colour printed as an acetate stencil for the final printing of the edition.

Murray Robertson

In this short film, created by James Gibson as part of our 50th Anniversary celebrations, Murray tells us more about the collaborative process. The film explores the relationship between artist and collaborative printer, which is so critical in the development and making of studio publications.