I am familiar with printmaking from my elementary school years when I used potatoes and apples to make art pieces. In class we experimented with styrofoam sheets, tile blocks, and rope glued to cardboard to make different prints. We used various materials to print on, for example, cloth, white paper, and coloured construction paper.
There are techniques when working with ink in printmaking; one has to roll the roller over a sheet of glass to make sure that the roller is ‘load’ with ink and ready to roll ontop of a design template. There is many tools you can use and methods you can do to create images on your materials, for example, you can draw a picture on styrofoam with a pencil pressing firmly, you can use a chisel to make an image out of the tiles, you can glue string on cardboard.
In creating a print, there is a ’positive’ image and a ‘negative’ background; the positive is the image that will print on a piece of paper and the negative is the background around the positve that is usually solid or non existent. If you want only a ‘positive’ image then it is important not to press down on the surrounding material.
To create a print with ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ characteristics, when working with a tile, one needs to draw a illustration of an object they wish to print, and chisel around the object so that the image is in relief. Then, roll the roller (after it is loaded with a colour) over the image, and print it on a piece of paper. It is your preference how much material you would like to chisel off.
Twinkle Twinkle-use of tile and chiseling ( I chiseled only a little bit around the image)
When working with string, the string creates the positive image, surrounded by a negative background.
Dream-use of string ( I pressed down on the surrounding material a little bit)
Sea to Sky- use of tile, string, and styrofoam
Lesson plans for all grades:
http://www.kinderart.com/printmaking/fruit.shtml
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ArtStillLifePrintmaking312.htm
Printmaking techniques can be divided into the following categories:
- relief printing, (ontop of the block) where the ink goes on the original surface of the block.
- woodcut or woodblock or wood engraving-image is carved into the surface of the wood-the carved image remains white while the surrounding is inked.
- intaglio: (into the block)-etching- the whole block is inked, and the ink then wiped away from the surface after it is stamped, so that the ink remains only in the lines where the ink goes beneath the original surface of the block.
- planographic, where the matrix retains its entire surface, but some parts are treated to make the image, eg. lithography, monotyping, and digital techniques.
- stencil, including: screen-printing
Artisits: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/toulouse-lautrec/uses chemical processes of oi-based paint and water
