New SHAG print

Check shagmart for latest print "The Rain Lamp". It is beautiful! And a good price. Not an ad just know I'd want to know.

I'm terrible at figuring out how many colors a particular Shag print has in it. This one says 15, but it doesn't look too much more colorful to me than Sepik Explorer which only has 5.

This might help you out Suburban Hipster:

Silkscreen or silk-screen - A stencil process of printmaking in which an image is imposed on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface. Each color on the print has its own screen and is printed as a separate step or pass through the press. Colors are hand picked and mixed to the artists specifications. These prints are printed in editions and are signed and numbered by the artist.

Also called serigraphy and screen-printing. Andy Warhol and Robert Raushenberg used silkscreens as a means of applying paint to canvases. Also, a print made by this method, is sometimes called a serigraph.

Thanks, but that didn't really help me to be able to discern the 15 colors in the new print. I think maybe corrective lens are what I need.

It means that it may take several colors placed closely to one another (that you may not be able to discern with your eye) in order to get a certain color on the print. Color gradients especially use this technique.

Ah. Okay now I understand what tikichic was telling me. Thank you both.

Basically, some of the colors on prints aren't as easy to see by the naked eye. Many are "blended" together and are subtle differences in color. You won't see stark changes such as 15 colors all uniquely seen. Shag doesn't use black in his prints. He blends to make a dark purple or blue.
So, don't get out your corrective lenses. It just takes a trained eye to see them! :wink:

I am going to show ignorance but does the number of colors make a difference in the worth of print and/or colletive value? I also thought I noticed that some prints might have different colors even though they might be the same content. When they are listed it seems like the number of colors are included and I was wondering if I was missing something. (I am one of those that buy based upon whether I like it). Thank you for educating the knowledgably-challenged.

You should buy based upon what you like! Typically you do see a marked price difference between a "litho" print and a silkscreen print because of the painstaking task it takes to make a silkscreen.

A Litho poster—short for lithography—is printed on a press using a four-color process. The paper stock is thinner and the posters are not signed or numbered because there is no “edition.” Typically these are what are used to make show posters or bill boards when many pieces of the same image need to be made.

Typically, silkscreens use many colors and it's time consuming to make compared to lithos which is why you see a price difference when the prints are new. Shag's early works were mostly all lithos such as the 3 Musicians. It's nice of Shag to actually give us the information of how many colors he's used. Not many artists, at least that I know of, reveal that information.

If you have a collection of posters, check them out to see which are lithos or silkscreens if you're unsure. Lithos will have a flat, glossy look when held sideways. Silkscreens will be a little bit more dull but you can usually see the color blocks of how it was made. It's real cool!

On 2003-06-11 14:00, tikichic wrote:

The paper stock is thinner and the posters are not signed or numbered because there is no ?edition.?

Not necessarily so. I am aware of many signed/numbered limited edition prints that are lithographs because the artwork could be rendered properly in the silkscreen process. It does seem that more artists are moving to giclees (a fancy word for a fancy inkjet output) for prints that can't be done as silkscreens, however.

-Mug

Oooppssss.....I stand corrected! I was thinking of one particular artist (Coop) when I wrote that. Yes, some do sign their lithos such as Kozik.

My definition is still correct. It's just a different process to make then silkscreens and cheaper. :wink: