Bedtime Story Print - I can't see friends so I drew some instead. (Patreon)

July's Riso Subscription Print is finished!

Hi folks, I'm still behind and I'm very sorry for the long delay. Here's the print for my July Riso subscription package that I'll be sending out this weekend! Next stop is August's print, which I already have drawn, just need to color it.

I'm getting much more comfortable with my Riso now! I just made a Riso chart with all the colors I bought for this machine so I have a better idea of how they'll print and what quirks I need to watch out for. Like pink doesn't map quite right so I have to double the layer, and the resolution of this machine is a little lower than the ones I'm used to so I have to make sure my line art is duplicated or tripled so I have nice clean/unbroken line art. Right now the most annoying part of this machine is that I constantly have to scrape cat hair from the drum while printing!! This machine SUCKS UP the hair like a vacuum, I swear. I've been hyper vigilant about finding the hair but I'm considering just shaving my cat!!! Just kidding, of course.

Every year I feel a strong need to make a print with several little demons and creatures hanging out together and feeling safe. This year I felt it especially strongly because I've been missing all of my friends both here in LA and back in my old home in New York. A year without old friends- not being able to visit them- and a year without being able to make new friends here too has been especially tough. I wish we could cope with this difficult time with friends at a bar over drinks or scream it out at karaoke. Maybe next year. For now, I'll draw a nice, intimate friend time to remind me that being close to loved ones is not something to take for granted.

Above in the photo set are color separations in greyscale and color, the final color file and the final print with details! I think it's always interesting to see the ways in which the final Riso piece is different from the color final. I make the color final image by mocking up what my colors will look like together using various opacity layers set to multiply in color groups of their own. This is tough to say out loud without it sounding like A LOT but here is the general file set up (also this is something I talk more in depth about in other prints!): 

<Ink Color Group (ex. Pink, Blue or Yellow)> 

-layer set to multiply at 25% opacity

-layer set to multiply at 50% opacity

-layer set to multiply at 75% opacity

-layer set to multiply at 100% opacity

-layer set to multiply at 35% opacity (random layer I needed for an in between opacity)

-layer set to multiply at 75% opacity (a gradient I need on it's own layer so I have the option to change the opacity later, even though it's also 75% opacity) 

This is how I set up my layers to print, and I find the color HEX numbers on the Stencil.wiki site: http://stencil.wiki/colors

They aren't perfect, but pretty close! That fluorescent pink will never be able to be recreated digitally in the same way it's seen in real life. I pick these colors from my saved photoshop 'library' and paint bucket fill them with the right color using a magic wand selected shape. The shapes are from a layer that I've made of a mock up with just RGB color picking colors. That way I'm grabbing the perfect shapes and just have to worry about filling them and choosing my best guess opacities of each color to make the painting. I'm basically painting backwards but always have my mock-up to reference if I need. 

I'm going to make a video on this soon!! I couldn't on this piece but I'm determined to make a lightning speed video with commentary about it soon. 

Talking Riso shop: things I had to watch for this time: Registration!! I've been hovering over my prints while they print- with an interval set to 4 so I have time to adjust both the paper feeder registration knob AND the internal drum adjustment button. This has been my bane of working with a single drum machine. I wish I could have gotten a two-drum machine but it wouldn't fit up the stairs UHG! This just means I have to be extra patient and extra vigilant about catching small adjustments in the machine. 

Another new thing for single color dum machines is the more you pull the paper through the machine/rollers, the more ink is distributed across the image. I print all my prints on the darkest density on the slowest setting (at 4 interval) so there is as much ink as possible being pushed out onto the paper. Printing with the highest 'density' means that the rollers grab the paper much tighter and therefore pick up the ink on the already printed colors much more easily. I've been trying to mitigate this by printing one color every 24-48 hours. I'm printing the final yellow on Saturday (leaving several days between the last color, pink!) so I hope there won't be as many ink roller marks but it's always a possibility! I've also been cleaning the rollers every 20 or so prints, leaving the rollers to dry and then continuing to print...but I'm still having issues. I wish I could print the yellow first to minimize the roller marks but printing the darker line colors first has been the easiest way to make sure registration is on point and that I have the darkest possible inks. The registration won't ever be absolutely perfect, but I can make sure the most important parts (main character's face, most important elements) are registered well only if I print the line art first, which is blue. 

Also! In this package I'm adding an alternative color Bug Queen printed with federal blue and fluorescent orange ink, rather than the original green and yellow that I sent out this time last year. I'm really excited about it and hope you enjoy the spooky/halloween vibes I feel this one gives off. Next print will definitely feature these colors!

Thanks so much again and let me know if you have any questions!
-Natalie