Class:MFA Illustration 2025/Week 9

Last Week

• Review Ps/Fresco Tiny Town Animation Projects

This Week

• Review animations round 2
• Inkjet Printer tips and best practices.
• Brief overview of next week's assignment.
• Color Calibration Hardware Overview.

Notes

Printing 101 for Illustrators

On the front page of this wiki I have created a new reference page for you Printing (and Inkjet Paper) Best Practices

Printing Best Practices

Options for InkJet Printer Papers & ICC Profiles

Where to shop for InkJet Printer Papers in NYC

Video Notes

• Review of Tiny Town Animation Project Revisions
• Inkjet Printer Tip and Color-Calibrated Reference Prints – Tips
• Digital Color Space Overview and Prepping Printer’s Marks and Trim for Color Print Projects
• Printing Assignment Overview and Inkjet Paper Tips
• Color Calibration Hardware Overview with Calibrite Profiler

Assignment

Use the techniques reinforced in class over the past few weeks to create a new hand and/or digitally created illustration, composited, and colored composition.

• Compositions must be 6" x 6" and printed on 8.5" x 11" paper.
• Subject matter is should be a colorful illustration of a song. You will share the song that inspired you with the class.
• You should use a range of colors in this illustration. Do not stay monochromatic; add a complementary color or use a more significant part of the spectrum.
• Your illustration must contain 3 areas of 3 different primary or secondary colors!
• Should be a composite image, multiple colored drawing parts from paper or iPad assembled into one psd illustration

And Then:

• Your task is to also bring two printed copies of your composition.
• Find our use a high-quality printing paper (Epson, Ilford, Red River, Moab, etc...).
• Each print should be centered on 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper.
• Each print should have written notation on the front or back:
  • Paper Manufacturer / Paper Type
  • Printer Manufacturer / Model
  • Print settings if possible
• This is the ideal week to experiment with print settings, write em down!
  • Try different papers (matte, glossy, luster, bright, natural, warm, cool, and so on).
  • Try different printers
• One print should be your best attempt at a perfect exhibition print.
• The other can be more exploratory, must be two different types of paper.
• Both prints must have the printer's marks from the photoshop file linked below.

Note:

• No prints on cheap/standard printer paper. I will not accept them.
• No prints on paper smaller than 8.5" x 11".
• No prints without the printer marks and color bars below.

We created a Photoshop file containing square printer marks and color bars. In Photoshop, you can place your art in the center and print your files with the crop and color bars.

• The _Printing_Stuff resources in our Google Drive folder

Bring prints with you to class next week and upload your digital files to Google Drive:

• One layered photoshop file.
• Two fabulous prints with color bars (above).
• A link to your song in Apple Music, Spotify, etc...

Linework created as digital or analog, it's up to you.