Printmaking with a Cause

Central Idea:  Art can be a way to inspire change. 

Through art, the students brought awarness to a particular issue they felt strongly about. 



"This shows the forest.  People are taking down the forest and the animals' habitat.  They might die if they don't find a home.  Blue is for sad because the animals get sad when they
cut down their home."

3rd grade student

"My print is about El Salvador.  In El Salvador there are babies being killed or taken from their mothers. I want people to stop the killing."
Emily, 3rd grade



"My print is about pandas.  Their homes are being destroyed by knocking down the trees they live in.  It's their home and they need it."

Grace, 3rd grade 



My artwork is about guns.  I don't think people should sell guns.  If we didn't
sell guns we wouldn't have so much killing, in any place, there should be no guns. The color red
works because it means mad, angry and killed."
Kavin, 3rd grade



I wanted to show China...how there are people there that are starving and barely have any clothes. 
Joanne, 3rd grade

Mixed Media Printmaking

Long Ago by Kelly
...This piece makes me think of a  calm and cold evening in the desert.

In our elective class, we've been exploring printmaking. These are mixed media glue prints.  Hard pastel sticks, pastel pencils and markers were used  to add layers of interest to the work.  To see the original glue prints and the process click here.

Printmaking With Glue

 

In the middle school elective class we've been exploring printmaking, specifically collographs.    The top two
images are pulled prints and the bottom image shows the actual inked plates.  This work is still in progress as we are using hard pastels to work into one selected print.  All of these images are the before, the un-worked print, next week I will post the results of the mixed media prints.

Process:
use glue to draw chosen image
let dry 24 hrs.
ink with brayers (we used speedball printing ink)
run through press
voila!

Tip: If you apply the glue thickly, it does give you a more substantial effect.  However, I encourage experimenting with the glue.  Drawing thin fluid lines, working the tip of the bottle into a field of glue to create interesting textures, adding sand to the glue or simply rubbing your finger across an area.  It's great to wonder what the effect will be once you pull your print.

Monotypes

 

2nd grade monotypes

We had a great experience making monotypes this week.  We actually painted the plate on our tables and
used a q-tip for drawing the image.  We then placed a piece of paper on top, burnished with our palm and pulled the print... voila!
The bottom image shows the process.

Kindergarten Monotypes

Collographs

 

The collographs were made from corrugated and regular cardboard.  We cut the desired shapes and glued them onto a larger piece of cardboard.  We then sealed the surface with modpodge. After it was dry, we inked the board with a brayer and ran it through the press.  I'm sure it would work just as well to use the back of a wooden spoon to transfer the image though.  Given more time, I think it would be interesting to work into them with another medium like colored pencil. Nevertheless, they did a great job!

Line Printing + Color

 

Looking closely at the artwork above you'll notice the images are all created with straight lines. Printing with a cardboard tool is always a fun challenge.  The simplicity is what makes it so open to diversity. It's wonderfully open-ended as the student may begin with a particular idea and it develops into another or the student may have no idea in mind and just start printing to find their mind making connections to create an image.   
Other variations of this idea and the process can be seen  here.

Monoprints

 

These were so fun to do and easy to set up.  We used a pack of transparency sheets (the kind teachers would use for the old projector models).  I demonstrated the process of painting on the transparency, placing a paper on top, burnishing with your palm, and pulling the print.  What's cool is they could explore the printmaking process over and over because they could 'build" their print as they went along.   For example, the first step is to paint your main image, pull print.  Next, paint background, pull print.  Then add details, pull print, etc. Matching the transparency and the white paper was a snap so there was great 

comfort in exploring. 

work of Ibrahim Emiko

The inspiration for the project came to me  literally about one hour before class started.  One of my favorite blogs is The Art Room Plant.  Hazel had just published a post on the work of Ibrahim Emiko.
 He works on glass to create what appears to be monoprints.  The site is in Japanese so even if you translate the page, meanings still  get lost in translation.  But as they say, art is a universal language!

Festive Trees

I was thinking about how much I love the simplicity and honesty of Folk Art and it gave me the idea for this holiday tree lesson.
 These were made by Kindergarten students.  It's basically printmaking with a cardboard tool and using your fingers for the ornaments.

Process:

1. Show them how to make the basic tree shape by creating a mountain or a triangle shape with the cardboard tool.
2. Use the same cardboard tool to fill in the tree.  I actually have them say all together "press, lift, press, lift".  Otherwise, they may forget and start using the tool like a brush.  Once we say it a few times they remember.
3. Next, yes, here it comes...finger painting for the ornaments.

Tips:

• Demonstrate using one finger for each color.  Finish one color of ornament, then move on to the next color, etc.
• Demonstrate leaving plenty of space for the ornaments,  otherwise, they may fill up the tree completely.
• These are about 8x10 or so and we finished in one 45 minute class period.  

Printing Complimentary Colors and Negative Space

Printing with a cardboard tool is always one of my favorite lessons.  The simplicity is what makes it so open to diversity.  I cut pieces of chip board into about 2x3 or so.  Place one color of paint onto a plate and let the designing begin.  After about 10 minutes I added the complimentary color (I gave them a new piece of chipboard ).   We talked about seeing the energy between the two colors .   About the last 10 minutes of class I passed out small paint brushes and added magenta paint to their plates.  We talked about filling in the shapes or the negative space.  I love the results and my  students did not want to stop...always a good thing!

I Am Poem and Animal Print

I think my favorite part of this lesson was adding the I am an Animal Poem.  The actual writing took the whole class period but I think it was well worth it.  The kids had so much actual fun while they were coming up with their poems.  I wish you could of seen the room, it really was so enjoyable for all of us!  Granted, this was not a spelling lesson (and I'm okay with that).  I always tell them we are not seeking perfection, it is all about the experience and enjoying what we are doing.  I loved watching them help each other out (collaborative learning) and come up with great ideas.  I try to always add some type of writing element as a reflection.  I think it adds so much more meaning  to their work.  First, we did one together as an example on the rug and then they went to their tables to start their own.  I found the I Am poem online here.  It's actually supposed to be for grade 4 but I guess it's true what they say...believing in the students makes all the difference!  These are from grade 2!

Symbolic Prints

These prints came out awesome!  First we looked at and discussed the work of Joaquin Torres Garcia.  Through discussion, we realized that you can really tell a story through images.  The student's challenge was to draw or design  symbols  which encapsulated who they are as person. They also had to strategize as to how to use the space of the printing plate to highlight or bring focus to those things that were most important to them.  Although this lesson is not over, I wanted to share some of this great work.  I hope to be working with our Language Arts teacher to have the students create poems based on their work.  

This Week in Art...

There has been so much going on this week! Kindergarten students have been exploring the potential of crayons (pressure applied, rubbing on side, using the point, etc). First and 2nd graders have been learning about visual texture by drawing animals and trying to show their fur or skin texture. Third graders are learning about the art of paper folding with kirigami and 4th-6th graders have been working on creating symbolic prints... Whew!  Oh, and last but certainly not least,   7th and 8th graders are each creating an altered book!  Scroll down to see pictures of everyone's fabulous art!

I love love love doing this lesson with Kinder or First Grade. The results are always so beautiful and the kids are completely engaged in the process. Using a small rectangular piece of cardboard as a printing tool the students created these amazing magical like structures. The cardboard piece allows students to create structures before they can actually draw them. A line becomes a tool for thinking and developing ideas.

I want to thank Cathy Weisman Topal for the inspiration for this lesson.