Bleed seemed like a great Art Word of the Week leading up to Halloween. But don’t worry, it’s nothing too scary. I use the word bleed two ways in my art practice. The first one refers to what happens when dye colors don’t stay where they are supposed to be. The photo above shows a piece of felt I laid on top of a dyed fabric. The dye colors transferred and bled all over my felt which ruined this particular project. Oops.
The second way I use the word “bleed” is when I am printing things like postcards. The bleed is the extra margin around the outside which lets you print all the way to the edges of the paper. That’s where you see the pink line on this photo. Your artwork is just a little larger than the cut size of the paper to make sure that there are no unprinted bits that show when the print is all finished. This was a postcard I made to send New Year greetings last year.
