City Prints

Children of all ages joined me recently at the OKCMOA to learn about printmaking. This fun art project had us painting and printing our hearts out.

First we used watercolors to create the backdrop for our cities. We painted the top half of our paper with warm colors to represent the sky and the bottom half with cool colors to represent water.





We set our papers aside to dry and move to our next step.

Now we draw our city design on printing foam. We used a pencil to press firmly into the foam leaving the valleys that will be our lines when we print.



Now cut your city outline out of the foam and get ready to print. We used Speedball ink to load our brayers and spread a thin about of ink on our city.





We line up our city on the top half of our watercolor paper and press all over the backside of the foam. Carefully lift to reveal your first print.



Now we use the same piece of foam without re-inking and press to create a print on the blue portion or reflection of our city. Carefully lift and you are finished! Make as many prints as you like!



You will need:
-Scratch-Foam Printing board
-White paper
-Watercolors, brushes, wash bowl
-Pencil
-Scissors
-Printing ink, brayer and plexiglass

Blue Prints

I had a wonderful day of making art with children of all ages at the OKCMOA's Drop-in Art Program this past weekend. I am honored to be on board for another season of teaching art to children. This is a great little project to learn about collage, printmaking and texture. This technique is actually called collagraph, or printmaking from collage.

We used a piece of black poster board as our printing plate. The kids went through to pick and choose from a variety of different items: yarn, corrugated cardboard, foam stickers, fabric, craft sticks, etc.

Using a glue stick, glue your collage items down. We used glue sticks because they dry fast and we were going right into printing. If you use Elmer's or similar glue, the items will likely slide out of place before having a few hours to dry.







When the collage is finished I had the kids move to a printing area. I had plexi, paint and brayers set up on newspaper to help keep the mess under control.



We just used washable Crayola tempera paint. Blue is the color we used, but you could use whatever! Cover your entire collage with a nice even layer of paint. It might take a few times.





We printed on white paper that is a little larger than the printing plate. (The size I prepared was: 9x6 cut white paper to print on and 8x5 black posterboard for printing plate.) Holding plate upside down, center over paper and press down. Press firmly all over and gently peel apart. This is the first print. You can re-paint and make as many editions of this print as you like! We had so much fun, it really kept the kids busy.

You will need:
-Poster board
-white paper
-tempera paint
-foam roller
-collage items
-glue sticks
-scissors
-plexi or something to roll paint out on

Artist Trading Cards

I have been having a great time this summer sharing printmaking on a small scale with kids through the Metropolitan Library System in Oklahoma County. I have almost visited all of the local libraries and the attendance has been great.

It has also been a big reminder in the fact that not all children are exposed to art. But they are hungry for it. My last visit a child ran after me at the end, hugged me and pleaded, "Please say you'll come back Miss Erin!" Heartstrings pulled!

I have been teaching printmaking and we have been making Artist Trading Cards, or ATC's. To keep cost down we are using craft paint, and brushes instead of inks and brayers. I start by supplying the kids with a small foam rectangle cut from foam plate (the size of our ATC), pencil, flat paintbrush, water dish, paper towels and 6 blank cards. Workstations are set up on newsprint to keep mess to a minimum.



I explain the process of using a pencil to draw our design on foam, pressing hard. We discuss our cards printing in reverse so any writing needs to be backwards.

I set them loose to draw then invite them to a front table of supplies to choose paints using a plate as palette.





At their workstation they used a flat brush to lightly coat their foam with paint. They use a pencil to go back over their valleys (lines they drew) if it filled with paint. They press their first card and voila! First card done. We talk about the first print being the artists proof. It shows us where we might have gone wrong and allows us a chance to learn and make changes for the rest of our printing run.

My example, draw on foam, cover lightly with paint and printed for my cards to trade with the kids.





The kids made many cards and at the end have the opportunity to exchange cards with one another. We had so much fun. Here are a few examples from my last visit. Have fun!

You will need:
-craft paint
-flat paint brush
-pencil
-foam for printing
-cards or paper
-water bowl for rinsing brush

Some of our works!

Bubble Wrap Printing

What a fun group of little print makers we had today at the OKCMOA. The average age today was 2 years old. They were excellent little students. I had our workstations set up with bubble wrap taped on top of newspaper with brayers and plexi ready to go.



First we used a brayer to cover our bubble wrap with our first color, yellow. We rolled, rolled, rolled. Then we pressed, pressed, pressed our paper on top. We peeled it away to reveal our first layer of paint. We made 3 prints today so we would have artwork to share.



I gave each child a bubble wrap shape with a new color and they brushed that new color of paint on and used it as a stamp. We used circles, squares, rectangles and triangles...working on that shape recognition! For each shape I introduced a new paint color along with a clean brush. And talking about paint, I will tell you I like these paints. They are Color Splash!
I find the color to be more vibrant than other brands. I am sure most of you have a brand you prefer...tell me about it in the comment section! While our pieces dried we read a book...The House in the Night.I picked this book up at my sons Scholastic book fair last month. It's a beautiful book. I thought it would relate well with the Peters exhibit and discussing light. It's a big hit at our house and the children enjoyed it this morning. We visited the Peters exhibit and returned to the classroom to sign our pieces.

Here is what you need:
-bubble wrap
-paint
-brayer or just foam brushes
-drawing paper
-tape
-newspaper (makes cleanup much easier!)

Here are a few more!