Tree Paper Residency 2

​Wednesday

​I managed to colour (pencil shade) a couple of pages last night, but with about 50 left I realised it was time to buckle down and get to work.

​I didn’t.

Instead I spent the day working on another print! It’s a lot of fun once you get your head around it, and after two days of experimentation I was ready to tackle something more dynamic.

​The last page of the book is a trippy full page illustration, pretty abstract. Using very light shading I built up the three primary colour layers, experimenting with pattern and abstract motifs, as well as balancing colour across the whole piece. I have to say I’m very pleased with the final result. The only issue I have is it’s a bit too light…this gives a really neat translucent effect to the winding tubes, but for the final page of the book it needs a bit more impact.

​After experimenting with these three prints I felt I understood which opacity was needed to print certain colours and tones, and this was the final step before I felt confident enough to tackle the big stack of colouring.

​Thursday

Today was a dance between the risograph machine and the desk, working on penciling the colours while printing off the first layers of most of the book’s pages. These would have to dry before the next layers and reverse sides could be printed, which gave a bit of time for colouring. It was the first real work day.