Mary Wormell inspired woodcuts

For a printmaking project, I introduced the children to a woodcut illustrator named, Mary Wormell, in the Storybook Wonders art camp.

We looked at her illustrated book called, 'Bernard, the angry rooster' and discussed different observations each child made while looking at her artwork.

Then it was time for the kids to create their own print using Wormell's work as inspiration.

chicken wearing a wooly sweater, 7 year old

I had planned on letting the kids create carved stamps but because the majority of the camp were very young decided I should probably rethink that idea, sharp carving tools and little hands are not a great combination and funny enough, parents aren't impressed at pick up if their children are covered in bandaids....

So instead I had them create styrofoam printing plates that they used for printing.

rabbit, 5 year old

I happened to have a ton of styrofoam round plates for the summer that I was using for paint palettes. So I just cut them up into a rectangular shape and handed them out to the kids. Reuse and repurpose at it's finest.

orca, 9 year old

Each child created a sketch of their choosing first on copy paper.

rhino, 8 year old

Then we taped down the styrofoam and placed their paper sketch on top.

rabbit, 7 year old

I put a piece of tape at the top of the paper to keep it in place, but give them the opportunity to lift it up and down to see if they missed any tracing lines during the next step.

rabbit, 10 year old

Which was to take a dull, and it needs to be dull, pencil and trace over their drawing to indent the styrofoam.

5 year old

Once they have an initial indent, each child went over the lines one more time just to make sure they were deep enough to create line when pulling a print.

When they were happy with their printing plate, they found an inking station and put ink over the top of the plate using a brayer.

Then put a damp piece of paper over top, rubbed it well, and pulled.

Voila!

6 year old

Lovely prints.

sting ray, 7 year old

And as always, a big ol' hit with the kids and they pulled print after print after print. Excitedly exclaiming to others, "Look at this one!" as they made each discovery.

7 year old

About as cute as their final artwork if I do say so myself.