The Digital Illusion: A World of Dots

Most of the art reproductions you see online are Giclée prints. It's a fancy name, but a Giclée is, to put it bluntly, a very, very good inkjet print. A highly sophisticated machine sprays microscopic dots of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink (CMYK) onto paper. Your eye blends these tiny dots together to perceive a solid colour.

It's clever tech, for sure. It can create a near-perfect digital reproduction of a painting or a photograph. But that's precisely what it is: a reproduction. The ink soaks into the paper fibres, becoming part of it. The surface is flat. The machine is just translating digital information into a physical object, and it can do it a thousand times without breaking a sweat.

The Screen Print Reality: A Flood of Colour

Now, let's talk about screen printing. This is a whole different kettle of fish.

Here, we’re not simulating colour with dots. We mix a pot of actual, specific ink to get the exact hue we want. It’s a custom-mixed, tangible colour. That ink is then forced through a fine mesh screen—which has been prepared with a stencil of the design—using a rubber blade called a squeegee. It’s a physical act. There’s pressure, a bit of elbow grease, and the satisfying *zip* of the squeegee pulling a solid, opaque layer of ink across the paper.

Each colour in the design requires its own separate screen, its own stencil, and its own pass of the squeegee. A five-colour print means the paper has been on my press five separate times, with each layer carefully aligned (or registered) by hand and eye.

What You're Actually Feeling (and Seeing)

This is where the difference becomes undeniable. Run your hand over a Giclée print, and it'll feel as flat as the paper it's on. Now do the same with one of my screen prints. You can literally feel the layers of ink. Each colour is a distinct, raised deposit sitting on top of the paper's surface. It has a physical presence, a texture.

That solid flood of pre-mixed ink also has a vibrancy that a dot-matrix simply can't match. It’s not trying to fool your eye with a million tiny dots; it’s just presenting a pure, bold colour. Look closely at an Oli Fowler Art print and you might see the tiniest imperfections in the registration—a minuscule overlap or gap between colours. That isn’t a flaw. That’s the proof that a human being, not a machine, made it. It's the ghost in the machine, and it's what gives each print its own subtle character.

So when you buy a screen print, you're not just buying a picture. You're buying the result of a physical, deliberate, and skilled process. You're buying layers of real ink, pulled by hand, one colour at a time. It’s not a copy; it’s one of a small batch of originals. Which, if you ask me, is where the magic is.

Ready to see and feel the difference for yourself? Have a look at the latest work available in the shop.

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