Christopher Pratt has often worked in silkscreen printing. He chose silkscreen printing as a graphic medium because it was something he could do in a rural studio without a darkroom or machinery; a "cottage industry," as he has described it.

Perhaps the best way to learn about his silkscreen process is from the following quote, excerpted from the introduction Pratt wrote for the book, The Prints of Christopher Pratt 1958-1991:

"I have used that very elementary equipment and process to the present time, and nothing else. My prints always proceed from drawings that are little more than diagrams. Usually, these are the end product of many studies - sketches, drawings, occasionally collages - but there is really no 'original'; the prints do not copy or reproduce pre-existing oil paintings or watercolours. This 'diagram' serves as a basic plan for the image, in line. The sense of light, the colour and tonal structure emerge in the actual printing. Making a stencil, I work directly on the silk, using watercolour brushes or a ruling pen to apply glue or lacquer as a block-out, so my stencils are all 'negatives'; that is, I fill in those parts of the screen, lines, shapes and dots, where I want no ink to pass through. I only use one actual screen frame, so each successive stencil irrevocably destroys or defaces its predecessor. After printing a stencil, there is no going back: like navigating a ship, you always have to proceed from where you are, even if it isn't where you thought you were, or even where you hoped to be."

"Normally, a finished print entails a sequence of 10 to 16 screens. I start printing on 100 or 115 boards - the capacity of my drying rack, and the limit of my squeegee-pulling energy. Each time I print a new stencil, I use one or two boards for colour trials, and I lose one or two more in accidents. The edition depends on how many of the 100-plus survive: sometimes two thirds, but often less than half. In recent years, I have set aside six or eight copies of each print for studio and family use; editions have ranged from 35 to 70 - averaging 50."

Stencils can be made in a variety of ways, including photo transfer onto light sensitive films, cut films, collage block-out or, most directly, by painting a block-out, such as lacquer or glue, directly onto the screen. The latter is the technique Pratt has used exclusively.