How it's made
The raised dots on Something forbidden are a first for the team at Make-Ready, pushing a cutting edge UV flatbed printer to its limit with layer upon layer – 37 in total – of cured ink and varnish printed on top of a complex silkscreen.
These prints are the first time we've printed texture in UV-cured ink on top of a silkscreen print. To create the texture we referenced Paul's brushwork and the dots he paints by hand – ensuring every dot on the print was unique by drawing them individually in Photoshop. Although it took a lot more time, we used this approach to make the texture more interesting and dynamic. Then, the dots are built up using 36 layers of white ink and varnish, followed by a single layer of colour, then several more layers of varnish to achieve a high gloss finish.
Anastasia, Digital Print Technician
An array of hand-painted white dots on an original painting by Paul Insect – a signature motif in his masked portraits which draw inspiration from Pop Art and pointilism
A digital file in three dimensions, replicating Paul's painted dots and allowing them to be printed as layers of UV-cured ink and varnish
