This was my first screen print and while it’s not perfect, I still love it.

The Pepper Oni is a layered screen print measuring around 11” by 10” of a demonic pizza slice that was made with a CMYK inspired palette. I used straight yellow but the magenta was actually a mix of hot and fluorescent pinks. The cyan was a mix of cyan and fluorescent blue. I did this to give the print brighter colors. The flats were done with cut paper stencils and designed so that when the layers overlapped it would create new colors. The black line art was done with screen filler and drawing fluid. Then the white details were done using a cut paper stencil and a paintbrush with white acrylic ink. The composition is fairly symmetrical and centered with the slice floating in space. This is to reference common compositional elements in my work along with the pizza’s horns. I drew the steam in the style of the smoke and clouds you would see in Japanese wood block prints and tattoos.

The concept was self expression through food. I started with writing down foods I like and things that would describe me then finding the overlap. I eat a lot of pizza and am mainly inspired by Japanese art, so the idea of a pizza demon seemed fitting. The color palette also describes me because in my digital work I like to use limited colors and layering with risograph inspired brushes. The background is split into the purple and black because those are two of my favorite colors. I then decided to do the steam in a gradient of pink and blue to represent my bisexuality. The stars in the background provide visual elements to break up the space as well as represent my love of witchy things, like astrology.

While I enjoyed this process in the future I will probably use the cut stencils for flats but will use block printing for the line art. I enjoyed using the drawing fluid and liked that I could faithfully recreate my line art it isn’t practical for my home studio and I enjoy block printing. Also with the line art in a Lino block I can recreate the print in a variety of colors.