12/10/22 - This Induction session was in the print room going through the process of using the Risograph printer.
To use the printer, you have to book it on bright space. You will have to pay £2 to use it for one hour. Here is a step by step summary to using the risograph printer.
The first step to using the risograph printer is to open the tray and set the paper width and thickness in the paper tray.
Next you need to turn the printer on with the black switch, which is next to the tray where the prints will come out.
Now you need to open up the ink door, press the buttons that point to each component. pressing these buttons will open the ink tray and the master roller tray. The roll of paper for the master copies, will be provided when you pay £2 in the print room.
When you put the ink rollers in the printer, lift using the blue handles. The ink roller only goes in one way, the instructions are printed above where the ink roller clips in.
Now you need to insert the paper into the master reel. You will need to open up the blue hatch and pull paper gently and feed it in the direction of the arrow through the roller.
When an image is scanned into the printer, it is printed from the master through the paper film. Every time a new ink is inserted and a new image is used, the printer will created a new master that will only use those specific inks and images you selected.
Next step is to close the master tray and ink try. Now you can start to scan your images that you want to print. The images need to be face down and line up with the centre point that is on the paper tray side. You also need to place it underneath the plastic grid sheet.
The screen on the printer, contains a few different buttons and options. The main buttons are the home button, Master make, line for flat colours, dot process and image. There also options to change the contrast to suit the image you are printing. There is also a size option, so that you can scale the image to the area size you are going to print. Now you will be ready to make the master. You do this by pressing the large blue button next to the screen.
Now that you have pressed the print master button, wait for the noise of the drum moving around. when it stops, you should be able to start printing. However, if the master depose is full, an error will come up on the screen. To fix this, you need to open the tray on the side and empty it.
After the master has been created, you will be able to start printing. You can select the amount of copies you want using the screen. Press the blue button to print.
To print another colour, you need to place your prints back in the paper tray. Get the box that the ink drum was in, use the previous steps to remove the drum and carefully place it back in the box. Swap with another colour and create a new master. When the new master has been created, you will be able to put the prints through again to print other coloured layers. You can create many layers on risk prints, using the different colours of inks.
I enjoyed this induction session because it refreshed my memory on how to use the rise printer. In the future I'm going to use the risograph to create posters and zines. I think that this process is really good for printing large quantities because it is really fast and cheap to use at university. However the only thing I didn't enjoy about this induction was, it felt like it was dragging on, explaining how to use it. I think that it is difficult to explain how to use equipment, but it will get easier to use it, the more it is used.
Also risograph printers can be used to print zines, posters, comics and other print based items that use layers of overlapping colours. Risographs print objects in layers of single colours, that creates interesting and abstract mixtures of colours and textures.
Artist research
Vincent Patterson-
Vincent Patterson is a British designer who specialises in Risograph Printing.
Reference 1.
I think that Vincent Patterson's work is unique and he focus's on form and colour. I think that the use of halftone, creates unique texture that makes the prints have a unique aesthetic to them. The shapes that have formed in the background, have the form of blood splatters. Personally, I really like his work because of the use of colour and texture that has been layered to create realistic creations of objects.
duplikatpress
Duplikatpress are a London based studio and shop who specialise in Risograph printing. They print their own stuff and fro other designers. This is an example of a piece they printed for a uk illustrator Mellisa Castrillon. Mellisa Castrillion is an English Columbian designer who specialises in Illustration and publishing. She is also an Author and Illustrates her own books.
Reference 2.
I think that this piece by Mellisa Castrillion is really interesting, due to how the risograph has picked up all of the fine pencil lines from the original drawings. These lines create a hand drawn aesthetic to the print. This is a reason, why I think risk printing is technique that should be utilised more often because each print is unique and it translates all of the features from the original drawings and all of the small imperfections. The layers of the colours and texture from the drawings, create a balance in the print, that make it feel like it has been hand painted. It also reminds me of paintings on traditional tiles, from the imagery, textures and colours that have been used.
References
Patterson, V (2020). Risograph Skull [Jpeg]. Instagram . https://www.instagram.com/p/CEryJ4eh5kS/
Castrillon, M (2022). Tiger [Jpeg]. Instagram . https://www.instagram.com/p/CeD8mhYjOrV/?hl=en
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