My return to class has been busy. I had 14 different version of my pomegranate drawn, and I had photographed them, although I was worried that they would have a yellow cast, as I had used electric light when taking the photos. When I got to class, I discovered we had a scanner attached to a Mac, so I scanned them into Photoshop instead. Then today Lisa and I printed them onto white cotton drill fabric.
This proved to be an interesting exercise. I discovered that when submitting multiple images, it is my responsibility to put them all together on one document, with the spacing that I want, then request the one document to be printed. I had saved 4 versions of each image, sized at 12, 18, 25 and 50 cm, so I could see what changes happened when scaling up. It is the density of colour, rather than the area that affects the ink costs - the pencil drawings used very similar amounts of ink, irrespective of size, which was quite surprising. The densely coloured images cost about twice as much as the monochrome. Image adjustments need to be made in PS, particularly getting plain background right, and for this to be right, the scanner lid needs to close properly - ie only copy A3 on an A3 scanner - not A2!.
Problems encountered with the printer were mainly about loading and re-rolling the fabric. I was working on 150cm white cotton drill. This is a heavy fabric, and the cardboard inner roll was not strong enough to support the full weight of the fabric. So the roll had buckled slightly. This led to slight puckers in the middle of the width, where the roll had drooped. This can lead to spotting of ink from the printing head, where the pucker is higher than the rest of the fabric. Also getting the printed fabric to roll back onto the finishing roll is difficult as it is hard to maintain the tension required. All techniques that Lisa and I need to acquire. Just getting 2.5m of samples printed took all day.
Friday, I go back to class to steam my fabric and make up into a sample book.
But tomorrow is a rest day. Matt and I are going to the Pre-Raphaelites exhibition at Tate Britain. Roll on tomorrow.
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