going somewhere new

Today I went somewhere new, there is nothing like it.

I will go there again.

Music v Art

It became an issue when I started art school and then joined a band and realised that singing was bloody ace.

Art was my first love,it defined my character,I do art, that's who I am.
But music, that was other people's territory. The Grade 8ers, the serious musicians, with application to their chosen instrument.
Of course writing this down makes me see the ridiculousness of my statements about music.

I love art. I can be moved by it, eternally satisfied by it.....but music......
Music stirs me in a way I just cant fathom.
It stirs the bottom of my pond.
It shows me my unknown unknowns.
It speaks a language I cannot put into words.
I love music and here is my declaration to do it more, every day, to share it, listen to and talk about it to everyone I can....
so watch out, if you see me coming run for the hills or get ready to chew the fat over this ace thing we call music. raaaahhhhhhhhhh!

I am ill. I am editing

So, I am house bound but have become addicted to editing small movies on a terrible piece of software which used to be much better in an earlier version.

This is a post to see if they work.....bloody hope so!

patch tool

Todays wonderful insight is the patch tool in photoshop.

hiding in the 'Healing Brush' section......take the patch tool,

draw as if you have a lasso around object you wish to remove but preserve a clear background...

In my case, a bird off a wire.... and bingo.....move your selection around till you get the right effect, a perfectly matched clear background, no birdy...nada!

Developer added to photocopier Colour prints nearly done

I think the title is pretty catchy!

So the developer which is magnetised and attracts the toner to the drum was replenished.

Back popped Jonathan Webb from EBS photocopiers to install said developer.

The blacks in my photocopies is now as black as night.

Today colour printing resumed on lining paper rather than the newsprint.

Mainly all went really well. Just some white marks on 20 prints to resolve.

The solution being to stop the print run and resume tomorrow morning when the machine is cold and has done a self-clean.

The lining paper was cut into 26cm pieces, keeping the width of the roll, on my A2 guillotine ( best buy of the book project so far!)

Grain runs north south of a roll, so when you put it on the wall, grain would run ceiling to floor.

I then flattened each piece but putting it through the photocopier with a blank 'screen', ie no image under the photocopier lid.

It is time consuming but works perfectly.


More interestingly, the music for the album is almost complete and one thing I really like are the noises that sound like someone is in the room with you, listening, the clicks, are they saliva sounds?

Printing days

If i want the blackest black over a large area, do two prints, remove artwork from glass, do 3 blank photocopies, then replace artwork and do 2 prints, remove artwork , lighten setting, do 3 blank copies, then replace artwork,remember to darken setting, do 2 prints.

continue.

It can take a couple of hours to do a page.

I have been flattening curly lining paper in the 'blank' passes.

When prints crinkle, this tends to happen if the paper has already passed through the machine a couple of times for other pages.

Best solution is to take that set of prints home and flatten them, cool them or change their environment in some way.

Return next day with prints and they don't crinkle.

Two prints on a page seems to work without problem before any crinkling occurs.

Toady's session stopped by big paper jam.

I'll sort it tomorrow.

Off to work now, ha ha.

More photocopier nerdification

So Jonathan Webb from EBS copiers arrived and cleaned the photocopier.
a service costs £49.50 plus £15.00 every hour? 15 minutes? minute? not sure.....
He was great and gave us a maintenance manual for our lovely ancient machine.

Our Konica 1216 has only done 70,000 copies which is nothing apparently, 1 million is what you might expect.

JW cleaned the 7 or 8 mirrors, he cleaned the bit with 2 wires which carry a high electrical charge and sound like a guitar string.

The blackness returned and we learnt how to keep the black.

So, each time you do a copy a portion of toner is used. The reservoir where the toner lives pushes out a bit of toner( more than for just one copy) ready for the next copy.
Now, if we have photocopied a totally black page, loads of toner would have been used, hence not much left for the next copy, so, the next copy might be a bit pale.
So, if we do totally black pages and used shed loads of toner, we have to trick the reservoir into depositing more toner out into position for the next copy.

We do this by photocopying a white page (a copy done but no toner used) Hence the toner stock builds up ready for next copy.

I'll stop now.

Thankyou.