LESSON PRESENTATION INSTRUCTIONS

LINE

CONTOUR PRINTS

Katsushika Hokusai – The Great Wave off Kanagawa

Focusing on contour lines and positive and negative space,

students will create a relief plate and prints by impressing a

design into styrofoam.

Time Required: 1 Session

Lesson Objectives: Students will recognize craftsmanship in

printing and distinguish the difference between commercial

and fine art printmaking.

Materials:

Scratch-Foam, cut to 4”x4.5”

Pencil

Variety of Tempera Paint colors

Brayer and Printing Tray for each color being used

White construction paper, cut to 6”x9” (3 per student, plus extras)

Glue sticks

12”x18” and 9”x12” construction paper for mounting

Newspaper

Procedure:

1. Discuss printmaking and show examples to define the differences and similarities

in commercial and fine art printing. Review contour lines, how they create shapes

and positive and negative space.

2. Sketch out design ideas on scratch paper. Review and evaluate types of lines will

work better than others. Broad, bold designs show better – fine details and lines

close together are discouraged.

3. Draw the design onto the styrofoam, remembering to use enough pressure (but not

TOO much) to make a good impression.

4. Demonstrate the procedure for lifting prints. Students will lift three successful

prints, in three separate colors in order from light to dark (i.e. yellow, orange, then

red).

5. Prints can be left to dry while students rinse off their printing plates by gently

rubbing them under running water.

6. Glue 9”x12” construction paper in the center of the 12”x18”.

7. Cut out three prints leaving a white border around the design.

8. Experiment with several arrangements of the prints on the background paper

before gluing them down.

GRADE 4 – LESSON PRESENTATION NOTES

LINE

Printing table should be set up so that the white paper for the final prints is accessible.

There should be one station for each color being used, and students can rotate around to

each color. Each color station should have:

PRINTING TRAY: Large construction paper works very well, however it absorbs the

paint and will begin to get too soggy after a while. Keep extra handy to replace.

PAINT: Keep the paint bottle at the tray and add small amounts as needed. Always

starting with less than you think – adding is easier than trying to disperse too much.

PAINTING BRAYER: You apply paint to the printing plate by rolling out the paint with

the brayer on the tray until you have an even coat of paint on the brayer. Then the brayer

is rolled over the plate surface to transfer the color evenly. If the paint feels slippery

when rolling the brayer on the tray, there is too much paint. Continue to roll and spread it

out until the paint gets slightly tacky. If there is too much paint on the brayer when you

apply it to the printing plate, it will get into the impression and compromise the design.

If there is too little paint, you can just add some paint and reapply.

NEWSPAPER: Cut sheets of newspaper in half to create stacks of individual sheets.

The paper should reside alongside the printing tray. Students will lay their plate, design

facing up, on the paper when they are rolling the painted brayer over it. Sheets of

newspaper can be removed as necessary to keep the work surface clean.

DRY BRAYER: After the printing plate has been inked, it remains on the newspaper

placemat and the white paper is laid on top of it. A dry brayer is used to gently but firmly

roll on top of the paper, transferring the paint from the plate to the paper. Be sure to roll

over the entire surface, paying attention to the edges to ensure a print of the entire design

block.

STUDENT PROCEDURE: 1. Sketch out your design ideas on scratch paper. 2. Draw your design onto the Styrofoam – remember to use

enough pressure to make a good impression. 3. Lift your prints in order from light to dark: Yellow, orange, red. 4. Rinse off printing plate by gently rubbing under running water. 6. Cut out all four prints leaving a little white border. 7. Arrange prints on black paper before gluing down. 8. Write your name on the back, bottom right corner with a white

pencil.

Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Except

in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same

piece, which is called a print. Each piece is not a copy but an original since it is not a

reproduction of another work of art and is technically known as an impression. Painting

or drawing, on the other hand, create a unique original piece of artwork. Prints are

created from a single original surface, known technically as a matrix. Common types of

matrices include: plates of metal, usually copper or zinc for engraving or etching; stone,

used for lithography; blocks of wood for woodcuts, linoleum for linocuts and fabric

plates for screen-printing. But there are many other kinds, discussed below. Works

printed from a single plate create an edition, in modern times usually each signed and

numbered to form a limited edition. Prints may also be published in book form, as artist's

books. A single print could be the product of one or multiple techniques.

Everyday: Footprints in the snow

Fingerprints in ink

Lip prints with lipstick

Stamps and a stamp pad

Animal tracks

Tire tracks

PRINTMAKING 101

Printmaking is a sometimes misunderstood aspect of visual art. The distinction between fine art

prints and commercially reproduced prints (posters which have been signed) is not always easy to

make.

Fine art printmaking involves the creation of a master plate from which multiple images are

made. Simply put, the artist chooses a surface to be the plate. This could be linoleum,

Styrofoam, metal, cardboard, stone or any one of a number of materials. Then the artist prepares

the printing plate by cutting, etching or drawing an image onto the plate. Ink is applied (in a

variety of ways) and paper is pressed onto the plate either by hand or by way of a hand-run

printing press. The finished print is pulled from the plate.

Often the first three or four prints are different than the rest of the edition. These first prints are

called artist’s proofs. The number of prints pulled from one plate is called an edition. Once a

certain number of prints are pulled, the plate is destroyed so that more prints won’t be printed

later, thus ensuring the value of the edition. At the bottom of a print are two to three things

always written in pencil. On the left is a number that appears as a fraction (e.g. 6/25), this means

that the print is number six of a total of twenty five prints pulled from one plate. This number

excludes the artist proofs which are designated with an A/P. In the center of the bottom of the

print is the title (if any). At the bottom right, is the artist’s name and sometimes a date.

There are four main types of printmaking. The process and materials of these techniques

influence the appearance of the final print.

FOUR MAIN TYPES OF PRINTMAKING

Relief Printing

This is printing from a raised surface. A simple example of relief printing is a rubber stamp

pressed into a stamp pad and pressed onto a piece of paper. Relief printing plates are made from

flat sheets of material such as wood, linoleum, metal, styrofoam etc. After drawing a picture on

the surface, the artist uses tools to cut away the areas that will not print. A roller – called a brayer

– is used to spread ink on the plate. A sheet of paper is placed on top of the plate and the image is

transferred by rubbing with the hand or a block of wood, or being run through a printing press.

The completed print is a mirror image of the original plate.

Woodcut – Historical uses: Textiles and other decorative purposes, playing cards, calendars and

book illustrations.

Woodcut – Artists worth studying: Holbein the Younger, Fred Hagen, Vincent Van Gogh, James

Whistler, any Japanese printmaker.

Intaglio This describes prints that are made by cutting the picture into the surface of the printing plate.

Using a sharp V-shaped tool – called a burin – the printmaker gouges the lines of an image into

the surface of a smooth polished sheet of metal or in some cases a pieces of plexiglass. To make

a print, ink is pushed into the lines of the design. The surface is then wiped clean so that the only

areas with ink are the lines. A sheet of paper which has been soaked in water is then placed on

the plate which is run through a printing press. The paper is literally forced into the small lines

that have been cut into the plate. A variation of this technique – known as engraving – is etching.

With etching, acids are used to eat into the metal plate.

Artists worth studying: Francisco Goya, Pablo Picasso, Thomas Gainsborough, Rembrandt van

Ryn, Albrecht Durer.

Planography As we have just learned, relief prints are created from a raised surface, and intaglio prints are

created from a cut surface. Planography however, is the printing of a flat surface. Lithography is

the art of printing from a flat stone (limestone) or metal plate by a method based on the simple

fact that grease attracts grease as it repels water. A design or image is drawn on the surface with

a greasy material – grease crayon, pencil or ink – and then water and printing ink are applied.

The greasy parts absorb the ink and the wet parts do no. Acids are often used with this printing

ink are applied. The greasy parts absorb the ink and the wet parts do not. Acids are often used

with this type of printimaking to etch the stone and prevent grease from traveling where it should

not. For example, if a finger is placed on the surface, enough grease is transferred and as such,

the fingerprint will attract the ink. Unfortunately, lithography is a printing process which requires

the use of proper facilities and materials. However, showing your students examples of

lithography will help them to appreciate the fine art of printmaking even more.

History and uses: Lithography was invented in 1798. It’s main advantage is the great number of

prints that can be pulled.

Artists worth studying: Eugene Delacroix, Edouard Manet, Henri DeToulouse-Lautrec, Edvard

Munch.

Stencil: Serigraphy A stencil is a sheet of paper, fabric, plastic, metal or other material with designs cut, perforated or

punched from it. Ink is forced through the openings onto the surface (paper, fabric, etc.) to be

printed. Sometimes called silk screening, serigraphy (seri means silk) is a type of stencil printing.

A stencil is fastened to a sheet of silk which is tightly stretched across a wooden frame. Or, an

area of the silk is “blocked out” using glue, gum Arabic or shellac. The frame is placed against

the material to be printed. A squeegee (rubbermounted in wooden handle) is used to push the ink

through the open areas onto the material or paper below.

Stencil & Serigraphy – History: A long time ago in the Fiji Islands, stencils made of banana

leaves were used to apply patterns to bark cloth. The idea of using silk fabric as a screen was

developed in 1907 by Samuel Simon of Manchester England.

Stencil & Serigraphy – Uses: Signs and posters, decorating furniture, textiles (t-shirts)

Artists worth studying: Andy Warhol, Ben Shahn, Robert Guathmey.