The 12 in '22

The past few years I feel like I've been balancing commissions with maintaining the Cincinnati Heritage Collection. I have been experimenting here and there with styles and developing new collections.

I've settled on a new collection that feels less graphic arts and advertising based and more observational art prints of scenes. This new collection may still be based in Cincinnati, but it feels a bit more liberating and I enjoy capturing reference imagery and using printmaking to capture reality in a stylized manner.

The prompt of 12 in '22 is inspired by my 52 in 2011 —a New Year's resolution that really started this current chapter of my career. In 2011 I felt very stagnant creatively, so I set the goal of creating 1 piece of artwork or creativity per week to re-inspire myself. With this new prompt of 12 in '22 I want to create 1 strong piece per month, and focus on quality of execution during the development of this new collection of work.

Last year I had the pleasure to develop a new piece experimenting in this new style to the Tiger Lily Press Calendar. I went to the Cincinnati Riverfront in the evening and photographed reference for a great cropping of 3 landmarks from our skyline that would fit into a 6" x 8" crop. I spent about 17-18 hours illustrating the scene, and about 16 hours printing 150 of the 3-color prints (what a long day!).

I'm planning to adapt this series to other mediums as well; for instance an idea for a woodblock of the riverfront at night (see below) and also to continue my work in Polyester Lithography as well.

Fat Tire Beer Poster

When: June 23, 2016 @ 6pm.

Artist: James Billiter. One of Cincinnati’s busiest artists right now, with shows all over town and a steady stream of art coming out. Billiter has done posters for bands Wussy, The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs, Jake Speed and the Freddies, Wild Leaves and more.

Event: Poster Release + Tappings of New Belgium/Rhinegeist Fat Tire Collaboration, Barrel Aged Mushushu and the super rare New Belgium Nitro Coffee Sour — Oscar Worthy Coffee.

New Belgium / Rhinegeist Fat Tire Collaboration: Rhinegeist has transformed Fat Tire into a Belgian XPA, combining a fruity Belgian yeast strain with bready-sweet European and Colorado malts for a beer to please hopheads and wine drinkers alike.

Rhinegeist Mushushu is a blend of four black beers aged in bourbon barrels for more than six months, this melange strikes a dynamic balance of wood character with the addition of coffee, vanilla and cocoa nibs. Panther Porter – 50% Bertha Milk Stout – 30% Ink Imperial Stout – 10% Panda Oatmeal Stout – 10%. ABV: 8.5%

New Belgium’s Oscar Worthy Coffee: Oscar Worthy Coffee. Three words, that when uttered, cause an almost Pavlovian drool response among New Belgium co-workers. Like our dry-hopped sour Le Terroir, Oscar Worthy Coffee is a beer unlike any other: It’s our sour Oscar “dry-beaned” with coffee in collaboration with Fort Collins friends The Bean Cycle. The result is an ultra-smooth sour beer that bursts with sour-and-espresso aromas, and it tastes like magic. ABV 6.7%

New Solo Show at frameshop in OTR

Walls of Cincinnati: New Works in Watercolor Monoprints and Serigraphs by Billiter Studio

CINCINNATI, OH - 

"Walls of Cincinnati," a show of new monoprints and serigraphs by Billiter Studio, 
opens May 27th from 6-10pm at frameshop, 1317 Main Street.

On Final Friday the walls of frameshop will be adorned with the beautiful façades of our Queen City. “The Walls of Cincinnati: Monoprints and Serigraphs” by James Billiter Studio features articulate, illustrated renderings of Cincinnati’s landmarks. These landmark art prints are a combination of monoprint originals featuring watercolor dyes as well as affordable handprinted, limited-edition screen prints. Frameshop will be complimenting these elaborate art prints with exquisite and unique framing using a variety of heritage materials. Aside from the framed originals, a variety of frame-ready screenprints will be available, ranging in prices from $10 to $50.

For more information visit the event page https://www.facebook.com/events/279904965679057/

Four Color Screenprinting Techniques

This is Aaron Kent's, the owner of Cincinnati's DIY Printing, approach to four color printing:
Yellow first, straight from Magenta, adding 20% transparent extender base Cyan, adding 30% trans 80% trans, with black
Prefers a halftone of 35 frequency for 230 mesh screen

I have been going at it this way, I add 50% transparent extender base to magenta and cyan. I heard that if your image is blue or green in overall tonality, print cyan third — if it's warmer or redder, print magenta third. I tried to print yellow first once — but it was hard to register second color through the yellow mesh.

I've been also preferring 30-35 dpi, I think I printed a smaller 8x10 print at 50dpi. I think a 50dpi on a 18x24 print would be very inconsistent.

Angles of colors:
Cyan 80 degrees
Yellow 105 degrees
Magenta 20 degrees
Black 50 degrees

I don't start at 45 degrees because it creates angles the eye can pickup.