Printmaking With Dragons

The Dragons learned how to make monoprints this week.  Monoprints are printed images that can only be printed one time because the paint or ink leaves the surface of the plate after one use and there is usually not enough for a second print.

We started our lesson with a discussion about what a print is and how we make them. Some students mentioned that we can print using a computer, and then we talked about handprints, footprints, and fingerprints. Students were asked to explain the process of making a handprint and we discovered that paint is traveling from the hand to the paper, and transferring the paint from one surface to another in the shape of the hand.

Mrs. Taylor then explained that this is very similar to printmaking in art. Printmakers start with a plate of some form (metal, wood, glass, plastic) that is rectangular. They create an image on the plate with one of several methods and then press it into a piece of paper (or other surface) and transfer the ink or paint from one surface to another--just like a handprint!

To create our monoprints, we used a styrofoam plate and finger painted an image on the flat part of the back of the plate. We printed the image in the middle of rectangular paper and noted that the corners are not incorporated into the image. There were quarter pieces of plates to create monoprints for the corners and sides of the composition. All in all, we got to make a total of five monoprints each (large and small) in one sitting. 

Future printmaking projects are definitely in the works for this talented bunch of junior artists!