My Digital Print Making Workflow for Kids 12+
Introduction: My Digital Print Making Workflow for Kids 12+
Since we were in permanent lockdown or only had
half of the class any other week we (teachers) didn’t see our pupils that often. That’s is somewhat of a sad situation for arts teachers. Since I love printing, woodblock, linocut, intaglio (etching and engraving) and often do different projects involving printing techniques, I came up with an easy and free workflow for preparing linocuts or woodprints at home with the extra task to use a CAM program and prepare an NC file for CNC cutting the print.
In the process there is a lot to learn including digital graphics design, general understanding of print making and some interesting technical challenges.
I also accidentally found some interesting new possibilities machining Linoleum that I have never before seen anywhere else.
Some inspiration comes from artists <PERSON> (massive, photorealistic, monochrome woodblock portrait prints) and <PERSON> which uses CNC maschines formulticolor wood prints and automated drawing/plotting.
Supplies
For the first stages you only need a PC and free (online) software and tools.
From there on you will have to use a CNC router and different print making supplies.
Step 1: ​The Motive and the Manual Way
A classic topic for linocuts is portrait. We normally use portrait photos which we just alter the contrast a little and print in A4 or A5, whatever size the Linoprint should turn out. Then we draw on the Photos with a very soft graphite pencil (3B-12B).
The paper is then turned and laid on the Linoleum. We use the handle of the cutting tool to press the Graphite on the Linoleum and then retrace the motive.
If Text is involved the children can now see that the Text is mirrored on the printing plate.
Step 2: ​The Digital Workflow
For photo editing we use Photopea.com which is a down to perfect online Photoshop clone.
For homeschooling I upload a step-by-step tutorial with detailed explanations of the tools (how to set a cropping ratio etc.) I will just assume you are capable of basic image editing here…(or able to google relevant video tutorials if you get stuck).
1. Open your Image so that it fills out your frame or choose an interesting crop.
2. Create a new Adjustment Layer using “Curves”.
3. Create an Adjustment Layer using “Threshold”.
4. Now you can play with the settings to find a good contrast.
5. If you happen to have a bad picture with too little contrast or other issues you can try compositing different settings with layer masks.
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When you are satisfied with the result you have to flip your image horizontally (or just know you will get the mirror image when printing).
7. Reduce your layers (you can keep all layer when you first make copies of them) to the backfround.
8. At this point you might have too many details. A good way to get rid of too much detail is a filter.
Try the “watercolor” filter from the filter gallery.
9. You can also reduce the resolution and resize it again or hand edit our unwanted details.
10.Save your work in PSD format and save a copy in GIF format.
Step 3: Converting Into Vector Graphics
Here is another teaching moment. We discuss the difference between pixel/raster and vector graphics and when to use one or the other.
I use convertio.co or freeconvert.com/gif-to-svg/ to convert the GIF into SVG.
I have tried many online converters and those two are the best. If you want to have a whole class convert their images in one network at school, convertio will display a limit and stop converting files after the first 20 or so images.
Now the children can see the difference between the GIF and SVG when they open both in a browser window side by side and zoom in.
You also can use InkScape to trace pixel images into vector graphics. Using a converter is just the easy way. There are also converters that will output perfectly useable DXF files.
Step 4: CAM Software
I use EstlCam for the process. It can do carves and is free to use indefinitely. There is only a waiting period, which is getting longer and longer with time, when saving or opening different files.
It also only takes 2 minutes to install and is so easy to learn. 110