April's Risograph Subscription print! (Patreon)

Hi everyone! Here's the print I'm sending out for April's Risograph Subscription. I still have to print a small extra piece to add to the packages but I'm expecting to have it finished Monday so packages will go out asap after it's printed. This is the 3rd print in my Maker's series, which I'm totally done with! They're all hanging up now in my favorite coffee shop in Bedstuy, Little Roy, and are framed too- not something I usually get to enjoy! I'll post more about that little showing later (plus the other two prints) but for now here are some details about this print.

This is a four color print in blue, green, pink and yellow. I wasted about 10 masters (the screens being burnt inside the machine) tweaking the colors after the first printing and it probably took me close to 6 hours of tweaking and then final printing. I like to print on the slowest print speed to make sure the colors are as dense and vibrant as I can possibly get, plus I waited an hour for the blue and green to dry a bit before feeding it back through the machine for the pink and yellow. I like to print the yellow last because the properties of the ink sometimes don't mix well with the darker colors so if I print yellow and then blue or pink there can be a waxy film where the yellow rejects the color on top of it. If I wasn't so obsessed with how much I hate the waxy film I might be able to save myself a lot of trouble with the print rollers picking up ink...but instead I give myself a margin at the bottom of the print where I have nothing for the rollers to grab and therefore distribute across my print. The margin is a new 'trick' I'm trying to keep my prints roller mark free! 

I decided to work on a baker because I reaaalllyy wanted to draw some bread after watching Brad and Claire from Bon Appetit make sourdough bread, and because I don't really have the space (or time) to make bread like that in my own home. So drawing it is the next best thing, right?!

The Latin here translates to 'The Fire That Burns Within' and I couldn't have written it without my friend Erin Lux's mom's coworker/friend Bill's help haha. Thanks again Bill!! (and Erin!!!!) ((AND ERIN'S MOM!!))

I had a pretty hard time coloring this one probably because I got veeerryyyy lazy with my layers, but in the process I figured out a new way to color that might be my new favorite. My coloring is getting pretty complicated so I start by flatting out each large shape that I'd want to select later. You know what, I'll just make a new post about this process right now (right after this post) so it's easier to find later if you like the set up! Here are some screenshots of the sketch and final drawing, plus I'm attaching a PDF of the color separations in both color and black and white. One thing to keep in mind about the color separations is that I'm tweaking colors while printing so the original color isn't always what I end up with. This image had some pretty radically different colors before I printed so it goes to show I still don't 100% know how my colors will look when I'm sending it to the machine. If you're doing a complicated piece with a printer definitely ask to see proofs and they should be open to helping you change values to make it look exactly how your final color file looks. 

I like to draw the sketch in blue line first because I believe using a lighter value makes my sketches looser and less like a final in ink. Plus then when I go to ink later I can very clearly see my sketch lines under the final black and I can choose more confidently which lines to follow through with. After I draw it in black I color the line to what I intend to print it as so I can see how it'll look next to all the other colors. I've been on a big blue line kick lately! 

I like to put a white layer on top of all the other layers to add little highlights that effect every color. Here's an example of that in the oranges, her hair, the jars and the pot!

Very excited to share the other two pieces with you and can't wait for you to receive this one in the mail! 

Thanks!
Natalie