So last week one of my favorite digital brush/texture makers, Retro Supply Co, released a new package for Procreate. (I make all my stuff on Procreate on the iPad, it’s my favorite app EVER, I’ve may have talked you into buying it). Anyhoo, the new package is to make things look like risographs!
Risographs are Japanese copiers that were produced in the 1980s. They use soy based inks. The colors are translucent and printed on separate drums so there are usually imperfections in the print quality, which bring the charm.
I learned about risographs last year and was poking around to see if there was one around here that I could get some prints pulled. So when this kit came out for digital, I got it right away.
Oooh that pink? That’s a riso classic. It’s like it was made for me.
See that separation(or the bad registration)? That’s another classic mark. Limited colors (that lean heavily toward pink/orange/turquoise and you know how much I love that). More colors are made by layering (or in digital art world, multiplying the layers) over each other.
Which kind of brings me to another question: why I am a doing all this to look analog? Especially since I am well old enough to have been part of the analog art age.
I think the main reason is that I am cheap as hell and analog art making is expensive. For all the romance of film, oil paint, etc — there was real heartbreak when it all went to shit. Feeling that way limits what I am willing to try. As hard as I tried as a kid, I couldn’t shake the feeling, for example, that drawing on good paper was IMPORTANT. And that severely curtails my creativity and my freedom. When I tried to treat the expensive stuff like throwaway it really did go to shit. And then you’re just SOL.
I love digital, I love digital, I love digital. I love taking risks, I love making things that are stupid, I love that I can start an idea and then jump to another one without consequence. I love not having to be stuck or committed to an idea. I can go as fast as I like.
Did you know I used to paint in oil? I mean there’s nothing like it, acrylic really doesn’t compare in color and weight. But do you know how long it took shit to dry??? By the time I came back to it I already had another dozen different ideas.I can’t think of more than a handful of paintings that were a straight line from start to finish. It mystified me how anyone could stay with one idea over the course of weeks. I painted over layers and layers of regret.
Anyway, I’ll be over here multiplying my layers.
ETA- I totally am not sponsored by Retro Supply or Procreate and like an idiot paid full price and missed out on the sale that happened the next day.