Day 44

Inking up a gradient block

WHAT I DID

• Printed Lhoist background block, a gradient in blue
• Watched the Veteran's Day Parade

This guy was giving it his all during the Veteran's Day parade

WHAT I LEARNED

• When printing background blocks (especially warped ones), it is often better to not tighten the quoins so that the block has room to move as it is inked/printed
• When printing a solid background, it is smart to center the block as much as possible on the page so that you have lots of room to play with the trim of your poster
• With gradients, you must pay attention to where one color starts and another stops, and also how smoothly they are blending. I've seen color areas marked off to the side with tape in lithography/silkscreen setups in order to keep things consistent; I imagine you could do the same with letterpress.
• Constantly keep an eye on gradients as you're printing, they easily become inconsistent