Friday, August 14, 2015

sandpaper monoprints


During the Fanciful Frolic camp through North Vancouver Community arts council, I decided to try a different kind of printing technique.

Oil pastel, sandpaper, and an iron.

I have done projects in the past where students created oil pastel artworks on sandpaper. Due to this experience, I knew how quickly the sandpaper uses up the oil pastel and so made use of the box of past their prime oil pastels in the art closet.

The students picked the colors they wanted and I suggested they create a flower from their imaginary world. I asked them to make sure they really layered the color so there would be enough oil pastel to make the final print.

The trickiest part of this project is getting the heat of the iron right and so I would suggest if you want to try this project to do some test runs to find the "sweet spot" to creating the right look. Even then, like all printmaking, the results will vary widely.

Also, don't use an iron you hope to reuse for your clothing unless you protect it with some paper between the artwork and the iron. The oil pastel can "leak" outside the sandpaper and get on the iron.

It is impossible to clean off too.

Trust me on this one as I go out to buy a new iron.....

The results had a lovely quality to them and the sandpaper work was just as pretty as the print. So when I mounted the work for the students, I mounted the sandpaper to the left and the print to the right.

I love the way they turned out.

seashell flower from the seashore, 6 year old

floral stalagmites, 8 year old

woodland fairy rose, 6 year old
(good example of not layering the oil pastel, still pretty but very different)

Fairy flowers, 6 year old

Sea Anemone flower, 7 year old

Sea flower, 6 year old

coral reef flowers, 8 year old

electric eel, 6 year old

ocean house, 6 year old

space craft, 7 year old

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