Overprinting

Overprinting is something that is proving to be very popular in illustration recently - particularly in the zine world. Essentially it involves layering 2 or more colours/patterns on top of each other to add depth and an additional hue. It can be a way of effectively filling negative space and adding subtle definition to existing illustrations/photos.

It's pretty easy to do this if you have access to a photocopier that has the ability to change the colours of an original drawing. You simply layer your drawings the way you would want them to fit together. For example, you may want to do an illustration of a dog - so the first layer could be the outlines; the second layer could be a block colour to fill the outline; and the third layer could be details such as fur patches. You would draw these all on separate pieces of paper and have to make sure each layer lines up, then photocopy them all on to the same piece of paper. The layering of the different ink colours have a really cool effect.

Alternatively, you can use a Risograph machine which is specially created for overprinting. However they cost a lot of money unless you have one available to use elsewhere, such as your college or university. These do typically produce neater illustrations though as it is easier to line up layers.

I wanted to experiment with this technique using a photocopier, and so I created a zine about my trip to Compton Verney that occurred earlier in the week. I took inspiration from a piece of Folk Art I came across in one of the exhibitions and decided to use the patterns and colour palette from that in my zine.

It took a long time to work out all of the individual layers (of which I had 3) and line them all up perfectly. I used a light box in the hopes that it would make that part easier, which it did but the finished zine still wasn't perfectly line up, so I could've done a better job at it.

After printing everything, I folded the paper into a basic Zine fold and it was good to go.

I would like to try this technique again, but this time perhaps with brighter colours so that you get the full effect of the colours overlapping. I think mine was too dark to show this properly.