Risography

When I saw Rope Press were running summer school workshops as an introduction to risograph printing, I leapt at the chance to get down there in order to try the process and find out how to get the most out of it. Arriving at the studio building I was met by the friendly Reece and shown up to the unit, which was every contemporary image makers dream. Rope Press are both an artist-led printing press and publishing house, so there was some srsly tasty books lining the walls, along with lots of example prints they have produced, through both orders and workshops.

The session I attended was about how to set up two colour designs for printing - a technique I am keen to use to reproduce my work - so I was keen to see what kind of results can be achieved with riso and how to approach preparing images for a strong clear print. Over lively conversation, biscuits, beers and 80s classics, the group experimented with different collage elements to run through the printer twice, one on top of the other. Above are my two layers, aiming to collide the shapes and textures but still create a cohesive images using bright orange and a darker teal over the top for detail. Here was the result, a rather martian-like lady with music in her mind.

It was great fun to play around with existing imagery to build up a design, but I look forward to trying out this process with my drawings now I'm no longer a risograph stranger. Thanks to RP for showing me the ropes! Chortle.