Wooden Sandpaper Book; designing and laser
Designs for the prints
This blog continues from this blogpost where I establish an idea for a book containing sandpaper that can be torn out and used. The concept developed to create motivational/witty prints on the non-grit side.
All illustrations for the designs are done to the size of 8cm by 9cm, which fits the sandpaper page size.
I decided I would only do 3 of the design ideas for each character as some of the ideas weren't that strong and it makes up a nice cohesive collection.
Sandy the Snake:
The first designs I did were the snake ones, using the reference images I found to come up with a character design and positioning her into the actions corresponding with the text. I had chosen the typeface Halau Spooky from Adobe Fonts. It has a curly nature to it which mirrors the snake's profile.
I did versions with illustration of the texture of wood on the wood bits.
Sorrowful Sam:
I then did designs of the panic-y person, which I also based on a few elements of the reference images I found. I wanted the design of the character to be fun, androgynous and silly, also keeping it simple for a successful laser and print outcome.
I chose the typeface CC Clobbering' Time from Adobe Fonts first, as it has a rough look to it like would before being sanded, so it felt fitting.
I then tried a different typeface as it didn't match the illustration style very well.
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| Comparing the fonts |
I decided to go with Blakely from Adobe Font as it suits the style of the illustrations, and gives the appearance of a vintage style poster, which I like.
Sid the Sandpaper:
Finally, I worked on the sandpaper character, who I designed in Rubber hose style cartoon character, referencing the images I found.
Making wooden book covers
To keep in theme of wood, I wanted the print designs to be made from wood material. Lasercut and laser-emboss is the quickest way to turn digital prints into wooden printing blocks, so I decided to use this method.
It was the first time I had produced print blocks using the laser, but it was a fantastic success. I made sure the emboss was deep enough to leave a strongly raised design, and ensured the work was set up in the software perfectly.
Once they came out of the machine, I cleaned them up and sanded them so there were no loose bits of wood. They printed successfully and should work well with the next stage of the development of the sandpaper book.
Once they came out of the machine, I cleaned them up and sanded them so there were no loose bits of wood. They printed successfully and should work well with the next stage of the development of the sandpaper book.
Woodblocks and print outcomes:
The woodblocks cleaned up well and the test prints show that they print successfully! I am chuffed with the result of these. The next step will be to print onto the sandpaper and make up the book.
