Risograph Printing

Two Times Elliott run a Risograph printing social night once a month in West (ish) London.  I've followed them for a while on Twitter and Instagram and decided enough was enough - time to have a go myself!

  

With the Manchester Artist Book Fair looming over me and no new books to speak of it seemed logical to illustrate a small book to print using the 'Risograph' technique.  Now, I really didn't know much, but I had seen posts and flyers by Two Times Elliot so I had a general idea, and picked up that it may be similar to screen printing.  With that in mind I designed an A6 book that could be created from an A3 page (which is the size printed via 'Risograph') with simple folds and a single cut.

I used Lisbon as my inspiration as after spending 5 days there in August, I really loved the city and it's colourful buildings.  I opted for 4 single page illustrations and one double page spread as well as a front and back page - all of which could be cut up individually incase the fold and cut technique didn't work out!

It just happened that I had friends visiting from California, so I persuaded them to come along with me for company and for something different to do :-D The Great Western Studios was easy enough to find, and somewhat challenging to navigate within, but over all a great place - I'm only sorry that we were there so late so no one else was around!  I selected 2 paper stocks (as I couldn't make up my mind) and went with a contrasting purple ink that was a lovely dark shade.

I'm so impressed with how quick and easy the whole process was, and the results were great!  Personally my favourite is the 'gold flecked' paper, but I had many compliments on the more textured grainy stock as well.

I'm pretty sure that I'll be back next month - MUST do a new design now :-D

25for25 is just what it says on the tin - 25 prints for £25 (+VAT) - you can book via eventbrite, and bring a friend if you're too chicken to go by yourself as I was!  Everyone was friendly and helpful and didn't mind all of my emails making sure I had 'got it right'.

Excellent, thanks guys!

p.s. Look out for the finished book at the Manchester Artists Book Fair!

Twickenham

Inspired by my 'London Town' map I illustrated for 'They Draw and Travel' at the beginning of the year, I had a couple approach me with a commission to illustrate Twickenham for them.  This is the town where their son and daughter-in-law met I do believe!  The brief was to include both flats and pretty much all the quirky little bits in-between, that they love about the area.

First up, a day trip to Twickenham :-) I took my lovely boyfriend and we had a great day out.  I'd been supplied with a little tour almost, so that I wouldn't miss seeing particular bits, buildings and streets.  With this to hand we had plenty of stops for coffee, snacks, food, viewing points, etc.  I can't say I'd actually been before, so it was nice exploring the area, and part of the commission was for me to include those little bits that might otherwise be forgotten (but would be missed if not included)!

I then came home with initial sketches, photographs, cards and memories and started work on the rough draft.  Showing a rough draft often doesn't get us anywhere.  Luckily, my clients have a lot of faith in me and know that as long as I'm happy with how it's going, they know that they'll love it when it's coming together a bit more with colour and detail.

Once I have the initial sketch down on the paper (big, clean, white, lovely sheet) I find it a lot easier to get going, with more detail, then to add colour and finally to add finishing detail to bring out certain points for the viewer.

TA DA!

Drum roll please...!

HURRAH!

Thank you all for your entries, your RT's (re-tweets) on Twitter, the shout outs, passing it on, spreading the word...etc etc etc.  I really appreciate it.  My little online shop has been a bit 'bish bash bosh' since I first opened it, and to be honest I've found it hard to get people to let me know what they think.

Therefore, I have loved reading your valid points you've shared with me and look forward to putting it all into action.  Thankfully a lot of the points boil down to the same thing,.  Otherwise I would have 15+ different areas to work on within one little shop and that may of broken me (I would of got there eventually of course!) but two main issues, is what I've summed up and that's great.

I am proud to announce the winners - woohoo!

The grand winner is Jodi of Art by Wiley.

My lovely runner up's are Juliet of 'The Crafty Green Poet', Audra of 'Audra James' and Jasmin of 'A Couple of Photos'.

I'll be working closely with Jodi to complete the illustration she wants and the runners up will be sent goodie bags in the post this week.  One of which will contain a lovely necklace by Naida Crystal.

I was going to share with you all what I put in the goody bags but got so excited with my new packaging that I completely forgot to take photos - drat!