After I had completed my final artwork, I decided it would be a good idea to speak to Mike Flower who had given us our InDesign workshops. I have many notes from the workshops and found them really helpful, however I was worried about how my book would come together as a concertina digitally and in printing and wanted to know the way in which to achieve the best results.
Mike was such a great help. He explained to me how most people make concertinas by printing out artwork on separate sheets of stock and attaching them with glued/taped paper hinges at the end after trimming. If printed out on a continuous reel of paper (which is possible in our digital printing facilitates) the pages are likely to be curved/bent and work against each other in the final outcome due to being rolled up. There is no guarantee that pressing the pages will flatten them so this option was best left alone.
This made a lot of sense to me and I went on to tell him how much artwork I had across how many pages and I instantly realised I had a problem. With folded dummy pages we worked out that because I have 16 pages of artwork (4 of which count as 2 double page spreads) and their positioning, printing out on separate sheets would be extremely difficult with more hinges and separate pages than desirable. To print out on separate sheets you need multiples of 4 (if printing A5 artwork out on an A2 sheet of paper as we had been advised.) This became complicated when I wanted the front cover to appear on the back of the inside front cover creating double sided printing issues and also because my book began and ended with double page spreads. Long and very complicated story short - my amount of artwork and page numbers didn't add up. Mike suggested I either change the ordering of the double page spreads so that the artwork would not be split in half, cut own my artwork or create more to make the numbers work out.
This was something I needed to decide on quickly and at such a late stage I didn't want to be changing the ordering of pages as I liked the way they told the story and had added double page spread artwork in their specific positions for a reason. I didn't want to be losing any artwork considering the amount of time and effort I had put into completing each piece - and the story would definitely lack impact and visual narrative with less artwork. I also didn't have the time to create more artwork despite knowing that I could if the brief deadline wasn't looming so near.
As a result of my discussion with mike, I decided to change the layout of my book to saddle stitch. This seemed like the best option at the time as I wouldn't lose any artwork, I didn't have to add any artwork and my pages could stay in the same order and not affect the flow of the book.
Changing the overall layout of the book to saddle stitch now meant that I had to think about page size. With the concertina book requirements, the brief stated the dimensions of each page for you, but with the saddle stitch book - I had creative freedom. After cutting up lots of paper and spending quite a bit of time measuring, I decided on my page dimension:
135mm x 190mm (portrait)
This dimension is more of a squat size A5 as I found A5 to be a little too harsh and narrow looking. I also decided to keep the pages portrait as this complimented the artwork I had created in prep for the portrait concertina layout previously.
Digital Editing
In order to arrange my images in InDesign and print them out digitally in the form of a book, I first needed to scan all of my wooden images in. I tried photographing the pieces of wood first, but because each exposed bit of wood not covered in paint is varnished, the flash would reflect off of the surface ruining the overall look of the artwork. Photographing the wooden artwork without a flash also didn't work as there was not enough light to clearly see the details in the paintings. In hindsight I could have used a tripod with my DSLR positioned over the artwork on a flat surface with a long exposure setting to successfully photograph the images. This way there would be no need for flash and the artwork would be perfectly visible and of good quality.
Initial scanned images:
It is clear from these scanned images that a considerable amount of editing in photoshop is needed. Because the wood is thick and 3D, my home scanner could not create a white background. Edges of the wood not flush with the laser during scanning are also out of focus. This is something that I doubt can be changed, however I would like each piece of wood to be a floating image on which background. This way the wood is the only frame for the artwork when printed on white stock.
Depite these issues which I hope to be able to figure out, the scan itself was of pretty good quality. It managed to pick up the textures in the wood, the colours of paint used and even the brishstrokes in areas. I think this quality will add value to the artwork once printed and will create a realistic quality for the audience.
Photoshop editing process
I began by opening the scanned image in photoshop
In order to get the background as white as possible, I played around the brightness and contrast levels
I also played around with the exposure levels, making sure to re-adjust the offset and gamma correction accordingly so that no detail in the artwork was lost
After I had made the background as light as it would go, I needed to make it true white to match the stock of the white paper that the book artwork is to be printed on. I found the best way to achieve this was to airbrush the edges to try white with full opacity and work my way inwards taking care not to lose the detail in the wooden edges.
As I worked my way inwards with the airbrush tool, I made sure to lower the opacity so as to have more control over the mark making and keep shadows present protecting the 3D appearance of the wood.
 |
| Final whitened image |
Once the artwork background had been whitened, I was able to resize the image according to my desired page size: 135mm x 190mm, (270 x 190 for double page spreads). I made sure that the resolution remained at 300 dpi at least as advised by Mike in our InDesign workshops. This is the resolution for intended print and this needs to remain the same when moving artwork out of photoshop and into InDesign.
I followed these steps for every piece of artwork and touched a few of them up after whitening and resizing to clear any unwanted specks of paint and scuff marks. To do this I made use of the magic wand tool, the spot-healing brush tool and paintbrush tool.
Final retouched images
InDesign Process
Using the notes used in my InDesign workshop with Mike, I found this part of the finishing process really easy, quick and straight forward. So much so that I was sure I had missed something and checked my files and final InDesign document a dozen times before taking it to print. Its so great when things come together.
Firstly I opened InDesign and clicked: file > new > document
I then made sure I set my new document up accordingly. I needed the document to have 16 pages for the book and for facing pages to be ticked so as to create my double page spreads. I set a preset for the size of page that I wanted (my chosen dimension of 135 mm x 190 mm) and my orientation as portrait. I ignored columns as it doesn't affect me and margins were set to 0 mm as I needed none for the positioning my final artwork. When meeting with Mike he advised me that because each piece of my artwork are to be floating images on the pages within the book, I don't need a bleed or slug area. These were also set to 0 mm
Once I had clicked ok, I was able to see my full document and page order.
In order to add my artwork to the document, I used: file > place
I then selected my artwork for that specific page
the image had now appeared on screen, and making sure the black arrow was selected, I was able to drag the object as a whole intact image (the grey arrow drags the image within its crop box)
I was then able to drag my artwork into place, using the automatic guides to make sure the image was centred
I did this for the remaining of my files until my whole book layout was complete. This is where I overthought things. If these pages printed as spreads exactly like this, then when it comes to binding them down the middle, they will not be in the correct order. This is where I thought I had to order the pages as per this rule: (below). To my delight it turns out that InDesign does this all for you at printing stage, so my document was now complete and ready for printing.
To make sure that all the files link up with my new InDesign document, it is important to make sure that the files and the document remain with each other in the same folder (above). If any of the files were to move from this folder, the InDesign document would no longer register the image and the link would be lost.
Positives
- I really enjoyed this stage of the brief as I had very little hiccups and I feel like my final artwork has benefitted a lot from it.
- I have overcome some obstacles to do with using digital methods. I love analogue and all things traditional, but I have come to realise that using digital methods can actually help the artwork and improve it if used properly.
- I think the overall book has gained a lot from having its layout being changed from concertina to saddle stitch and it is good to know I only have to print, crop and sew my book together instead of having to fiddle for hours with double sided tape to assemble a concertina.
- I was able to put what I had learnt in our InDesign workshops to good use and I was surprised to discover I could remember most of what we had learnt.
Negatives
- Although I think I did everything I could to make the backgrounds in which the artwork is sat on, as white as possible - it was such a long and laborious process and I am worried that some of the wooden edge detail and shadows have been lost / faded as a result of using the airbrush.
- I am also not sure if I like the effect that scanning has on the wooden edges. I didn't think I would mind, but the blurred detail is a lot more prominent than I would have liked. The way around this would have been to use specific photographic long exposure techniques which i would have like to have done if I had had more time to play.
Time to print print print
No comments:
Post a Comment