Avett Brothers Poster Process

Thought I would share some images and words here about the process on my recent Avett Brothers gig poster for their show at the Gorge in WA.

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Well, lets start at the beginning (or somewhere near it)…

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From there I started carving and printing. With each reduction of the block I printed one print with just that block so it could be scanned later to setup digitally for the future screenprint. (I could not print 300 of these for the show by hand I actually printed 17 of the image and 20 of the text.)

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I carved 4 different reductions of this main block and also printed 2 different colors on the first reduction for each print. I tried different colors and color combinations on each individual print as well.

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And here is the last reduction printed and drying of the image and then the 20 versions of the text (I am randomly including these prints of the text with print orders).

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So from here, as mentioned before I scanned in the designs, and then re-assembled them in Photoshop. I also scanned the pencil drawing of the decorative pattern. Here are the layers in order as they would be printed.

From here I sent this file of to the master printers at Lady Lazarus in Houston, TX; along with a crazy idea… I decided to make a variety of colors like the way I printed my woodcuts I would ask Isaac and the folks at Lady Lazarus to print 2 different colors for each of the 4 different color screens (and then only one of the final black screen). I selected colors directly from prints I had made from the woodblock. So by combining these colors you would end up with 16 different color combinations (Isaac and I actually each tested every variation to make sure it would work with the image.) This way for the edition of 300 prints only 18-19 of each colorway would exist. Isaac went along with my crazy idea, and they printed these up and shipped them out to me. Finally, I signed and numbered each print, and sent off 225 of them to the Avetts’ to be sold at their show, and the rest are here with me to sell. Hope you enjoy!

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