What is the latest updates on Chairman Mao print?
I was ready to print out the layers from one of the big printers from the printing room but a problem occurred in which I did not see this coming… The problem was that I originally made this image to a smaller scale of A3 scale and most of the edges of the image were already a bit ridged and not smooth.
How was I gonna solve this problem?
The only way I would ever be able to solve this problem would be to re-size the image to A2 size anyway even if it looks ridged. Then I will go over every line of the image in black by using the lasoo tool and once the lines are selected I will use paint bucket in black to try make them smoother.
I had to zoom in on the image at about 100% in order to make sure that there were no more ridged lines along the image. Then I zoomed back out at about 25% which would be the normal image size when it gets printed out to see if the lines look smooth enough.
What will be the next part of the process?
The next thing I must do is make sure that the rest of the images are all smooth enough and then they will all be ready for printing out. Once all of these layers are ready and are smooth looking I will print them all out on the inkjet acetate and then I can prepare them for the Emulsion process.
Hopefully I will get all of the images/layers done by wednesday I will print them out and should be able to get my first two layers on two silkscreens ready for printing.
Feel free to watch a short 4 minutes of me showing and examining the problems within the lining of my image.
What new updates are there?
I have spoken to one of my technicians just Friday afternoon if there were any new updates about the £90 role of Acetate they will order. The technician said to me that he should be able to print me out a meter size inkjet sheet of Acetate for only 3 pounds! and the ink to print on will be another 1-2 pounds so altogether would cost me £5 per printout. I was very impressed by the price he was offering me and was half the price of what my dealer was trying to sell me.
What will I do now?
Well… it would seem quite obvious with what offer I should go for so I will definitely choose the Universities Acetate because its half the price cheaper with what the dealer was offering to me over the phone. I felt that I might have let the dealer down a bit by sending me the free samples of acetate but I have to go where the price is… If the price is better and the product is just as good quality then I will choose to go for the universities acetate instead, being a student with low income.
What will be the next upcoming process?
I will definitely be the first to tryout this new role of inkjet acetate as I been so kean on wanting to get my hands on the stuff for some time! They said I should be able to print out my first large stencil on Monday afternoon or Early Tuesday. Which is very good news for me right now and just cant wait to get started with my first bit of work for this year…
An Acetate experiment update?
It has finally happened today with some interesting results indeed. I arrived in good time today so that the technician can have a go at printing some of my sample acetate to see what happens to it once it has been printed.
And… Ureka!
There were some very interesting results at the end of it all and it was the kind of result that I had expected to see. Compared to the poor result with the university’s acetate, the dealer’s sample actually proved to be a total success in the end with a high standard in print detail. I was very happy with how it looked so smooth without the gaps within the image, not like the other university acetate printout. every detail was printed according to what I had visioned inside my head so it was a very good outcome for me today.
Decision making time!
Now… I have some decision making time to think about… The university has put in an order for a role of the very same acetate that I managed to get from my dealer which has now made me think twice about what to do… I have to make sure that the prices are fair from the university and I have worked out that it should come to £10 or less to make it worth my while.
If I order the 30 sheets of the A2 Acetate they will proximately come to about £3 each ordering from my dealer and then £7 for the inkjet printing at my university so £10 altogether, which is not bad for doing one or two layers on each sheet.
So when the university orders the role of 30 meters of acetate, I am hoping that they will only charge me £10 or less. Otherwise I will just stick to doing what I had planned originally and just order my own acetate instead and pay for the printing at the university.
What is the next part of the process?
What happens now is that I should just sit back and wait for the price list from my university of how much each printout will cost for the acetate and ink. If it does not come to a reasonable cost for me, I will just stick to plan A to what I was originally planning with a do it myself job because as a student, I also look for a fair price and do not want to be ripped off!
Please enjoy this short 6 minute video of my end result!
Did I manage to receive my Acetate sample?
Yes in actual fact I had received about 3 samples of the inkjet acetate to try out to see what happens to them in my experiment. Although the samples are in A4 size it would be a little difficult to determine the quality of printouts on a larger scale print on an A2 size acetate. Anyhow I guess I could still do this experiment to see what actually happens to it and compare the quality of this acetate to the universities acetates and discover what is best to use.
Something seems different between the two acetate examples.
I have noticed something curious on these examples compared to my university example. The university examples of acetate has a more flexibleness feel and glossiness texture to it which would mean that it would be easier for the ink to slide off it, which it did…
The dealer’s acetate has a more matt finished texture with a less flexibleness feel to it and looks slightly milky blue colour but when I hold it to the light, you can see right through it which is good. I will see on monday how the dealer’s acetate prints out and workout what looks the best quality for photo emulsioning. hopefully the new acetate will look better and then I can order the larger scale ones to do larger scale prints with them.
Playing with colour in preparation for printing?
After I have tried my best to align the layers of my image, I wanted to think about what kind of colours that I intend to print with and also what kind of paper too. I was mainly thinking about some colour ideas for now and paper I can think about at a later date. Photoshop also seems to me like a great source to play with colour on an image and I was basically having a lot of fun just playing around with colour to see what I can roughly expect when it comes to printing the image.
How is this process relevant?
I think that this part of the process can be extremely important because when I see the different colours on my image it can give me a rough idea to what I can expect to happen once all the layers are printed. Instead of wasting ink trying to play with different colours in printing, I can think of this process as playing with colour on photoshop instead so that I am not wasting inks and also I can see what to expect before actually printing my image.
I have also played around with adding objects to his face such as sunglasses, a gold tooth or a cigarette to reflect the modern wealth of China culture that it is today but all these are just ideas and are not my final looking images. I am always looking forward to the final result yet to come and photoshop gives me a rough idea on how my images may look and is the best way to see a future image, especially if you are a silkscreen printer.
When roughly will I be able to start printing?
Until my Acetate sample comes I cannot do anything else but maybe a little more research into artists and maybe I will do more experimenting if needed. I hope to start my printing process by at least the end of next week because of waiting for my sample acetate and if that works out then I will have to wait nearly another week for the actual A2 acetate sheets to arrive. Once all of this is sorted out, I can then begin my printing process of my Chairman Mao.
