Inca helps emerging artist bring his ice cream men to life

Print Solutions

The versatility of Inca’s inkjet technology was on show at this year’s Royal Academy Schools Show in the shape of student Elliot Dodd’s striking exhibits, Ice Cream Man (Grabber) and Ice Cream Man (Daytona).

The pair of sculptures — which were sold to a collector at the end of the show — started out as hip hop video stills which Elliot captured, printed and moulded as a skin around 3D objects. He then photographed these and printed the resulting images onto steel sheets at Inca’s Cambridge demonstration centre using Spyder X and Onset X wide format flatbed UV inkjet printers. The final step was to mould these by hand into the finished pieces, which also incorporate PU foam and aluminium mesh.

For the 17 emerging artists lucky enough to take the RA’s postgraduate contemporary fine art course, the Royal Academy Schools Show is the climax of three years of intensive study.

Experimentation with a variety of multimedia technologies is at the heart of Elliot Dodd’s work, which combines 3D computer design, sculpture, drawing and sound as well as digital print.

‘Inca went out of its way to help,’ said Elliot. ‘I had access to two printers for the whole day as well as the help of two Inca technical specialists. This gave me the time to test print samples, discover the process and understand ink weights that achieved the best quality and colour gamut. In the end, we used the SpyderX to print a layer of opaque white onto metre square steel sheets, then printed the images in full colour on the Onset X3.’

Visit elliotdodd.com for more examples of Elliot’s work.