Screen print experiments

I had a very productive day in the print studio recently, managing to experiment with turning some of my mermaid drawings into screen prints to see if this was still the style I wanted for my book. I was really pleased with how they turned out.

These were the results of experimenting with the first image:

The blue/purple/pinks I quite like, especially when I've mixed the inks so they change colour throughout the image. I did this to mimic the shimmering water and how colours can change and be distorted. I think these work nicely on a plain white paper as they stand out but I'm not sure they would work as well on a textured blue/green background that I intend to roll throughout my book. 
I think the yellow ink works well as it is bold, I used it to contrast with the blues/greens of the background water I will make. As blue and orange are opposite on the colour wheel I think this would work well to make both aspects of the image stand out and be noticed by the audience. 
I enjoyed printing over my 'perfectly normal' letterpress experiment, I think it worked really well. This has given me several ideas on how to incorporate text into my final book, distorting it in the background of an image to carry its same meaning through the book might work well. 
I used cream paper, white paper and brown card in these experiments. I think the brown card is too dark as it only shows up the lighter ink, I like the effect this has but it wouldn't work constantly throughout my concertina. The cream paper looked nice as it had an aged feel which helps suggest the older time period of my story. 

The next image I experimented with: 

My favourite out of this set of images is the yellow/orange figures contrasting with the blue water. Again, I think these will work well on the backgrounds I am planning as well as showing my research into colours underwater. Yellows/reds are lacking underwater, the deeper you go the less they can be seen so I wanted to make it clear whenever my mermaid character was above water that she could be seen with these colours to make this research apparent in my illustrations. 

The next image I experimented with:

I missed the edge of one of these prints, cutting of the fingers of my mermaid character which I wasn't happy with. But the other prints turned out fine. I really like the composition of this piece and want to work more with it as I ran out of time in the studio. I used blues and darker shades, lacking any reds/yellows, to show that this scene was taking place completely underwater. I did a second layer of ink highlighting the bubbles in a slightly lighter shade of blue. I like how the bubbles are more visible on the darker card background so hopefully this concept will look good on my green/blue backgrounds I am in the process of making. 

The next image I experimented with:

This is an image I plan to have at the end of my book so wanted it to be warm to end on a happier note. I used a brown/orange to symbolise this and the show that they are above water so the warm colours are visible. I think the texture has come out really well in this image as well and would contrast nicely with the watery backgrounds through the book. 

The final image I experimented with:

I am particularly happy with these prints, especially the double layered one. I used blues to show my mermaid character still being wet and from the sea and then yellow/browns for the human hands and man made rope. Although I do like the all yellow/orange print as well as it symbolises her being out of water. I will have to do further experimentation with backgrounds to decide which way I want to go with this print.