Contextualised Practice: Riso Printing Induction

After researching different printing techniques I decided that I wanted to use Riso printing for my Norse mythology illustrations. As I had never used the Riso printer before I had to book in for an induction. Before the induction I did some research to learn a bit about Riso printing so I would have some basic knowledge going into the induction. Some interesting things I learnt can be seen below:

Notes from induction: including information on costs, creating a master, printing size, paper weight, colour profiles, texture and registration:

Printing texture: Riso printing can achieve 2 different textures, halftone/gain touch (left) or screen covered (right). The specific settings of these can be adjusted to achieve different looks. In my printing I’d like to experiment with both textures. Below is a comparison of the 2 types:

Colour Profiles: Riso prints each colour layer separately. To do this you need to convert the image into a series of different colour profiles. To get a full colour prints you need to layer up the different colours. The image below shows a blue, red and yellow print which combined make a full colour print:

Colour charts: the university has a limited selection of colours to use for Riso printing. The options are black, red, blue and yellow. I will experiment with using different combinations of these colours for my printing. Below are all the different colours that you can achieve by using combinations of the 4 available colours:

Riso for project: I will be using Riso printing for my project as it has a nice, vintage aesthetic also it’s a versatile and cost effective printing technique. Riso printing allows for a precise control over colours so I will be able to layer colours to achieve my desired palette. I will combine the printing with pen hatching/shading. The next step is to make refined sketches on appear and then digitally add colour. By doing it digitally it allows me to separate the colours onto different layers, making it easier to create the colour profiles needed for Riso printing.