Spring Session 2011- Week Six

Monoprints & Cute Animal Drawing tips

I know I say "I love blah blah blah" in almost every post, but I love monoprints. Monoprint technique for me is very open, freeing, random, abstract, relaxing, and satisfying. The history of printmaking is so old, and the machinery that they used to use, and some still do is antiquated and beautiful. One of my goals is to be able to have the children experience many different kinds of art techniques. Everyone has their own response to different mediums. Some kids enjoy just being creative with anything you throw in front of them, and others have specific callings. Printing to me seems magical. When you pull your print it suddenly transforms from ink on a blot to artwork on a piece of paper. I'm simplifying, but it is still an element of surprise. We did two types of monoprints with the kids this week. We did a one color subtractive color print, and a multi-colored painted print. The one color print is where you take one color of printing ink, and roll it out on a plate (a flat surface such as plexiglass, we used old laminate flooring) with a brayer to an even consistency. You then use a piece of cardstock, stiff brush, fork, or almost anything that will take away ink. Use the piece of cardstock and wipe away ink off of the plate. Once they were done we then take the paper and carefully lay it over the top of the plate and using your hand press and wipe it all over so the paint can transfer onto the paper. Then carefully pull it off of the plate and enjoy your beautiful print.

Then we let the kids paint the printing ink on their plate with different colors, and then carefully placed the paper on top, and then rubbed the paper onto the plate. After that the kids pulled up the paper carefully to reveal their hand painted print.






After printing we did a small lesson on hoe to draw simple cute animals. Often in class we have the kids draw things, and often the kids say they don't know how to draw this or that. So we thought it would be a good idea to show them some simple tricks to draw some easy animals. We provided simple instructions and a basic shape to begin with that was a keyhole. From there we showed the children how to create many different animals from that same shape. After we went through many options we asked them to try and create their own animal using the same keyhole shape.