In 2007 Hume had a solo show at White Cube entitled American Tan. For some years the artist had spent his summers in the United States, working in a studio, which he still maintains, in upstate New York. The exhibition combined a group of paintings and sculptures all inspired by an American icon – the cheerleader. When Booth-Clibborn approached Hume in view of a new project that same year, the artist decided to bring together a selection of motifs from his most recent work to form a portfolio of screenprints. Brad Faine at Coriander Studios was provided with transparencies of a selection of paintings, which were scanned and transferred into illustrator files and sized up to a uniform height, but with varying width. The preparation of the files was a laborious process as some of the lines that were lost in the process of digitization had to be re-drawn completely. The files were then printed as ink-jets in black and white. Hume made extensive alterations and adjustments to these line drawings, the final version of which was used to make the stencils. At the same time he selected and indicated the areas of colour for each print. On some prints an additional layer of glossy varnish was added to highlight specific lines and shapes. Hume’s American Tan paintings were almost exclusively painted on aluminium board, mostly completely overpainted, although in a few works the shiny surface of the support was left exposed. For The Sister Troop, Hume opted for a collage process in which the prints are laid down on a brushed-aluminium card. As a next step after choosing the colours, Hume marked on each proof the areas where the metallic second layer should be made visible. Cutting jigs were made to stamp out these areas in each print. Prior to the stamping, glue was screenprinted on the back of the sheets and each covered with a release paper. This was removed afterwards and each sheet then laminated by hand onto the aluminium card. The Sister Troop is a technical tour de force and Hume’s most intricate print series to date. The ten prints were issued in a portfolio case with the motif of one of the prints, Untitled 4, printed on the cover.