Project 2 Wrap Up

I think this project went a lot better than my previous project in a few different ways. For one, it was easier to focus on one project as opposed to trying to complete a few of them. Also, with this project I had a clearer idea of what I wanted to do from the get-go and I stuck with the project idea I had from the beginning and saw it through despite others changing their minds about screenprinting as their project. I feel like taking some time in the beginning to watch Illustrator tutorials on Lynda.com. I took the first week of project 2 to watch the "Beyond the Basics" tutorials about Illustrator, which I think was awesome because I had no idea about the different capabilities of Illustrator. For instance, I had no idea Illustrator, a 2-D program, could produce 3-D images. I had such a narrow view of Illustrator and now, I want to incorporate it as much as I can.


However there were also some struggles along the way. For one, like I just mentioned, other people in my group had agreed that they wanted to learn how to screenprint together, but then later changed their minds about their project, which I was not aware of. I had been waiting to do it with them/obtain our materials, that I learned later on that since no one was doing it anymore except me that no one had ordered any screenprinting supplies. No one's fault by any means, but the miscommunication lead to some draining of my worktime inadvertently.

Also, the vinyl led to some difficulties as well. Although it provides the benefit of allowing a super novice like me to learn how screenprint easier, while also giving the added bonus of allowing your screen to be re-usable if you peel off the vinyl, it can be fickle. I learned that vinyl definitely works better for a more simple stencil, that is also smaller and can be centered for more accuracy, because the more complex the shape, the more opportunity for the vinyl to get stuck to itself and create unsmooth bumps, which therefore lead to chances of the ink getting under the intended areas creating smudges. However, I don't regret using the vinyl, just because I was trying to learn how to do the whole process through an Instructable, but if I were to do this project again, I would probably seriously consider just going for the photoemulsion just to attempt to get a more clean product. Either that, or I learned from Keith if I put the vinyl on the back side and still put the ink through the front side, I would probably have a cleaner look, just backwards and with less issues of the bumps.

Overall though, I feel pretty proud of myself for figuring out the screenprinting pretty much without any experienced people's help. Considering that I am in the Comfort Zone/Something New, I definitely did something that was totally out of om comfort zone that is completely new to me. And that I feel like is an accomplishment in itself. That, and something came out of it that is completely usable and works. Furthermore, I think it was cool that the Illustrator tutorials proved to be very beneficial immediately, considering I needed to use one of the main tutorials on Live Trace to prep my file for vinyl cutting.