Printmaking with summer in mind

I had two students who wanted to explore printmaking.

Both will also be spending the summer abroad, one in Southeast Asia and the other in Argentina.

And so I figured it would be a good opportunity to have each student create not only a print for framing but also some cards that they could use during the holidays to converse the old fashion way.

Yes, I know I live in a dream world, snail mail for a generation attached to their phones and computers.

The 14 year old admired a sea turtle print I had in the studio that a friend of mine had created for her family Christmas cards a few years ago.  A friend who I worked with in our children's elementary school running the Art Docent program for years and is a very talented artist.

The students' attention to detail when it came to carving her block was quite impressive, especially to the other teens in the class who had done this project already.  They knew the time and effort she had taken to create her work and praised her accordingly.

14 year old

Once she had a print she was happy with, we took a collection of the other prints and made them into cards.

And then just for fun, I had her take the silk dyes and paint a background on silk that we then adhered to bristol board with matte medium.  She is not necessarily happy with this print, but next week will use it to create a mixed media project by adding details with a white gel pen and whatever else interest her.

I'm sure it will be quite interesting in the end.

The eleven year old student made the cutest little dolphin.  She used the soft cut block for carving and even added a second block for a "thought bubble" for adding messages to her cards.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures with the thought bubble added, so you'll have to take me word for it when I tell you how cute it actually looked.

I then had her print on a variety of colored paper using the same colored ink so she could see how a single color can change depending on what you pair it with.

I also had her explore tone on tone.  By the end of class, she had a lot of prints. So many in fact that her younger brother walked into the room with an exclamation of, "whoa!", he was so impressed. I mounted several for her that could be framed so she'll have gifts for her grandparents and relatives when visiting in Argentina if she so chooses. She might even decide to send her daddy one of her cards (or her art teacher) who will be staying in Canada during the summer.

All in all, I think both girls had a great time with the project.  Not really a surprise as I've yet to meet a child who doesn't like printmaking. There is something magical about creating a work with an element of surprise to it since you never know exactly what you are going to get when you pull the paper to see the print.  I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more printmaking projects during the summer camps with all the students not lucky enough to be visiting family in far away places.