Prepping for Screen Printing

Tomorrow the four of us (year one) are doing our introductory workshop in the Silk Screening studio. We had a brief intro with Jo (the technician) on Thursday  - she explained what we need to prep and have ready to go. The workshop is six hours (10-4) so it is a long process!

What we needed to prep is the image we want to silk screen. If we want to do more than one colour we have to make each different colour part on another layer, meaning separate images for each colour. It all has to be printed on acetate in solid black as creating the screen uses light - the black image stops the film from solidifying on the screen, and once you've prepped the screen (removing what hasn't set) the ink goes through... well, more involved than that. 

We could get a digital image printed on acetate OR hand trace on specific tracing paper. There wasn't a lot of time for prepping this: I had eye treatment on Friday morning, Saturday was a bust due to residual pain and blurred vision. I did go through images of my old work to see what could be used... had a couple of black and white images that would be quite cool. But, as getting them printed on acetate apparently costs money in the printshop, AND I haven't set-up a credit on my student card (I don't  know how, and cannot find any information on how to anywhere! I had no intention of bothering with it so didn't pay attention.)  I don't know if I would be able to get those images printed before the workshop in the morning. If I had printable acetate at home I would have done my own, BUT all we have is crafting acetate that is not printer compatible.

So as Plan B, this morning I found another image that I could trace manually onto the acetate sheets I have, and then painted them in with black acrylic paint. Doing it this way I separated it into two parts so I can do a two-colour print.

This image will, I think, be quite nice in the end.

My first choice was the skull, but I needed Photoshop to edit it into parts... However, I cannot access Adobe Creative Cloud... it won't let me download through the University account. It wants me to pay or only get the 7-Day Free Trial. I am so annoyed. After spending three hours messing around, I finally got a pop-up as the previous version on my computer was under my old college email (I can no longer access that version.) So I logged that out and logged back in with my new email. Still can't download. (*$*%^£**!)

I could go on for hours on how flippin' annoyed I am. To start with, when I accessed Creative Cloud back when I started my Fine Art program at college in 2018, it overwrote MY existing version of PS that I owned. Then the college rescinded my access after I graduated. But because Adobe had overwritten and updated my PS, without me wanting it to, I no longer have the old (very old) version of PS, which I was perfectly content with - and as it is now out-of-date/not supported, there's no way to recover it.

I ended up trying to do it in GIMP (which is still on my computer from doing my 3D Printing course online during the first lockdown) after it finished updating when I opened the program, I tried to edit the image. Unfortunately, GIMP is just enough different from PS that I couldn't make things happen. Not that I am really any good with PS, but I do know how to use a Clone Stamp! Which is really all I would need to create two layers.

I'll continue to pursue getting proper access to Creative Cloud (which is only for PhotoShop as I wouldn't use anything else on there.) But... whatever. I have ways to get things done even if it never works.