Final Linocut Prints - Digitally Edited: Process

During my final progress review with Ben, he suggested that I print my linocut plates in black only, scan the prints in and digitally edit colour into the print before printing out at a high quality in the digital print resource.

Originally I was a little sceptical about this advice. I have just invested months of cutting hours into my prints, and have now spent days pouring effort into the printing process to create high quality analogue final outcomes - just to then scan these in and only have digital copies of them instead!? I was a little bit taken aback, however after being unable to complete cutting my 3rd linocut plate, i changed my mind about Ben's advice and thought that a digital set of my 2 designs to be submitted alongside my analogue final pints, may be a nice idea. This also shows an application of a combination of different creative techniques, both linocut printing and digital editing which is quite nice.

My digital editing could only begin once I had printed my linocut designs in the resource at Vernon Street. Once my prints were dry, I took them to the Blenheim digital print resource and scanned them in using the A2 scanner. The scanners available (the only A2 scanners across both LCA campuses that i am aware of) did not have the option to change the scan quality resolution. Ideally I would have liked to scan my linocut prints in at 600dpi due to the size and level of printed texture I wanted to be visible, but I had to make do with the scanner presets.

Linocut printed results ready for digital editing:

Baucis

Despina

Once scanned in, both prints needed a little clean up. I opened both documents into Adobe Photoshop and began by using the "patch" tool, rubber and paintbrush tools to get rid of any unwanted marks whilst still retaining the printed aesthetic.

After both images were cleaned up, I could begin the application of gold as my second colour, as outlined in my mock-up shown to Ben. This was a little tricky as I didn't have the benefit of an image split into layers like my digital mock ups. Each composition is a flat print, therefore to separate large areas to be filled in with my chosen gold colour (such as the sun in the background), i tried two separate techniques,


Baucis
To attempt my colour separation i used "select>colour merge" to isolate the black areas of ink and copy to a separate new layer. Now with 2 identical compositions, i turned the lower layer composition completely gold and proceeded to remove all areas apart from the sun. Some details were left in the sun, but once the top black layer was layed over the top of the orange layer and aligned perfectly, these details did not show. now that once composition was on top of the other, I used the rubber tool to remove the black areas of the sun on the top layer, revealing the gold sun in the background. After merging the two layers together, the only thing left to do was use the magic wand tool to select smaller details of the composition such as areas of flowers and the city and fill these in with the same gold. Filling in colour in this way helped to retain the printed texture of the image, and stop it from looking too digitalised.

Despina
For my second printed composition "Despina", i had an idea for a process that may be able to save me some time in terms of creating my gold colour separation.
I began by drawing with the paintbrush tool in gold around the edges between the sun and the rest of the composition. This essentially separated the area of black ink that I wanted to fill, where the "magic wand" tool could then be used to select the isolated black area and fill in fully in gold.

Once the sun was filled in in this way, I could then move on to the much easier task of using the magic want tool to select smaller details within the composition and fill in with the same gold as I went along, similar to the process used with the other digital print.

each process was a relatively simple one, but took some time to get right and produce a pair of clean digitally edited prints. each process was the only way i could figure out how to do my 2 colour separation digitally on a fully flat single colour print.

Process in screen shots:

Once both of my digital compositions were completed, I took them to be printed at the digital print resource at Blenheim. I decided to print both out on 200gsm smooth stock to keep the detail within the composition as clean and visible as possible.

Final Linocut Digitally Edited Prints for submission:

Successes
Overall I think both digitally edited prints came out really well. I managed to retain a lot of the printed detail and the colour, as if the print was analogue printed with two lincout separations as originally intended. The addition of smaller areas of gold help certain details within the composition stand out which I feel strengthens the overall image. They both work well as a set toegther and I feel are strong aesthetically.

The printing process is of a high digital quality as intended and the set itself adds something extra to my final submission, in place of my missing final linocut prints that i was unable to complete. 

Weaknesses
As with any digital edit, it is hard to retain an analogue printed aesthetic. I tried my hardest to do so, however I would have liked to have achieved even more ink texture as I fear both compositions may look a little too digital.

Attempt to preserve printed ink details: