September's Riso Print! (Patreon)

Here's the new print for the Risograph Print Subscription! I'll put them in the mail tomorrow and so they should get to you next week. 

I made this print with three colors: blue, fluorescent pink and yellow and my file is COMPLETELY insane so I'll post the PSD so you can see how dirty and bad it is and to feel better about your organization skills haha. Some of the painting is incredibly messy, but it just shows that most anything you make will look incredible when Risographed. It's total magic my friends, and if you have the opportunity to print something on the Riso I would take it!! Having a nice print of a nasty photoshop file is utter bliss. 

Here are some bits of Riso knowledge I jotted down while printing--

1. If you're printing with thin needle-like line work like I am make sure to duplicate the line layer before sending it to print. A thick/doubled line might look bad in PSD but will stand out for the better after printing. 

2. Make sure your dark color (mine being blue) greyscale values are all higher than 20% or prepare yourself for the value dots (if you're using the 'grain' setting when printing). Here's an example of what my blue looks like at 14% grey (on the third cloud below the yellow bird), which looked like a very nice purple in photoshop but looks distracting here...sometimes the dots look good/are fine, but for this piece I was worried they'd stand out and be distracting in an already insane image. 

3. Leave time to tweak. I always feel so confident about the amount of time I have to print but I always end up tweaking small pieces that take wayyy too much time while I'm printing. In an ideal world I would be totally confident and prepared by the time I start printing but sometimes I worry about the value structure of my image and tweak until it looks awful and then end up printing the original file anyway lol (this is what happened to me today in the Risolab uhhg).

4. Always keep a history in layer copies. If you want to change something small in your piece after seeing it printed make a copy of your entire file and tweak it in the copy. Then you have a history of all the edits you've made alongside the edits you've printed and you can hop back and forth if you liked a previous version better. 

4. This all being said, if you are spending a lot on a Risographed print from a printer (and have some time to spare) ask for a proof to be sent to you before sending the whole file for a final print. Riso makes PSD colors look pretty different and unexpected color combinations can sometimes put a damper on the process if you're used to digital printing. Just remember that the value structure is really the most important in the end and the colors will work themselves out from there. Using some color theory is crucial for Riso as it's kind of a reductive process of 'wait no that's too much blue...how much yellow should I add?...more PINK!!!' and that's totally fine but I know most people don't have access to a machine/studio so the first shot's the only one. In that case, if it doesn't look like how you imagined, don't fret. If the values looked great in black and white then your image will look great no matter what, because Riso always makes beautiful, surprising color combinations and that's just part of the magic of the medium. Working on a Riso was definitely a lesson in letting go of my perfectionist tendancies, and remembering there's always a next time to try out something new. 

Here are more pictures of this Riso juice!!!

Riso Subscribers keep a look out for it next week!!! Thanks for reading! xoxo