Read below to find out how we created these, see step-by-step pics and watch my YouTube tutorial on this lesson!
Printmaking is one of my favorite things to teach in art. I love it because it always has an element of surprise with the results each time. Getting all the “Ooooh’s” and “Ahhh’s” after printing is so fun and magical and is always fun to see!
4th Graders used their previous knowledge on printmaking from when they were in 3rd grade when creating their “Complementary Creature Prints”. 3rd grade students used markers to print… and this time, as 4th graders… used black tempera paint to print. We used liquid watercolors to create the background before printing a symmetrical radial design on top using black tempera paint.
I love how colorful they are and loved showing students a variation in printmaking. They did a fantastic job!
This lesson took 4 to 5 (40 minute) art classes to complete.
DAY 1 – PAINTING THE RADIAL RAINBOW DESIGN
On the first day of the lesson, we reviewed symmetry (images that are the same on both sides) and students were introduced to radial design (a design that can include any lines, shapes or colors that starts in the center, and radiates outwards in a circular way). I explained we’d be making a symmetrical radial rainbow painting.
After demonstrating, and reviewing the order of the rainbow, students then measured to locate the center of their paper, using a ruler and marked the 6″ spot with pencil. From the center out, they then painted a radial rainbow design on their 12×12″ tagboard with liquid watercolors.
DAY 2 – DRAWING THE RADIAL DESIGN
Students drew curving lines (with some space between each line) on a 6″ square piece of copy paper that had been folded into a triangle, in pencil.
Then drew different lines and/or shapes between each curving line. Making sure not to draw too small or too detailed. Simple is best. They could be a pattern of lines and shapes, but didn’t have to be.
Then students opened the paper up, and traced over their pencil lines with a black sharpie.
Then students flipped up the blank bottom half over the top half that had been traced in sharpie like below.
The drawing can be seen through the paper (as shown on the picture to the right above). Then students traced over their lines with a pencil like below.
TIP: Place a sheet of white paper underneath your work while tracing so the lines can be seen more clearly. OR place the paper on a window to allow light to shine through the backside to see more clearly as you trace. OR- rather than using copy paper folded into a triangle, use tracing paper.
Once ALL the lines have been traced, THEN unfold, by taking the bottom half out like below. You should be able to see the pencil part on top, and the backside of the sharpie part below. Here you can now see the entire design is continuous on both halves of the paper.
From here, take the paper and tape it to a 6″ square cut piece of styrofoam (the printing plate). Use clear tape and only tape it to the top in 2 areas so the paper can open and close like below. Don’t worry about the tape covering your drawing a bit.
Once the drawing is taped onto the printing plate, students started tracing over ALL the lines with a dull colored pencil. (The colored pencil lets you know where you have traced since it leaves a colored line). Press firmly as you trace. This step transfers your drawing onto the printing plate.
It’s a good idea to check to see if its transferring well enough, so flip up the taped down drawing to check how it’s coming along. As long as you can see the lines indentations on your printing plate well enough, you’re good!
Continue tracing with a dull colored pencil until the entire design is traced.
Once that’s done, students flipped over the paper they were tracing. Here you should be able to see the drawing completely transferred onto the printing plate like below.
Next, students traced over their indentations of their design on the styrofoam printing plate with a dull colored pencil. (Tracing again pressing firmly). This step is crucial and creates a nice deep indentation which creates a clear print later on. If it’s not pressed in twice (once with paper over the styrofoam, and again a second time on just the styrofoam the overall print wouldn’t be as clear when time to print.)
From here, students then colored in *some* of their shapes they created within their design with colored pencil. Again pressing firmly! Areas where it is colored in, will reveal more rainbow from the painting created. Students could fill in as much as they wanted or as little as they wanted. This step was the final step before printing, so kids were very anxious to get printing! Teacher example on left, student example on right.
Once shapes were filled in, students flipped over the styrofoam printing plate, and drew an arrow with sharpie pointing to the corner where they started their drawing.
*Technically, to print a symmetrical radial design, the arrow could be drawn pointing in ANY one chosen corner, as long as it’s in just one corner. For a complete circle design like we created, we drew the arrow in the corner where we originally started the curving lines.
HOWEVER, no matter where you place the arrow, this arrow is necessary to know where to position the printing plate on the paper each time you print. The arrow should always point to the center of the paper each time it’s printed. Doing this creates the symmetrical radial design. (More on this below). They also wrote their name and class in sharpie on the back somewhere as well.
Then the paper that was taped on gets taken off and thrown away and students were ready to print!
DAY 3 – PRACTICE PRINTING ON 12X12″ WHITE PAPER FIRST
After a printing demonstration, students created a practice print on white paper before moving onto their final copy (on their rainbow painting).
Students shared plates of black tempera paint and brayers and rolled out their brayer onto the plate of black paint a couple times. Since the paint has a slippery texture, it’s important to THEN roll the brayer onto a sheet of scrap paper to get the paint evenly distributed onto the brayer. This also gets rid of any excess paint before rolling onto the printing plate.
Then the brayer gets rolled onto the printing plate.
Once students evenly coated their printing plate with black tempera paint, they carefully lifted it up and printed onto 12×12″ white 80# paper. It’s important to have the printing plates edges lined up with the papers edges and have the arrow pointing to the center of the paper.
Then students pressed down with the flat of their hands and then used a CLEAN brayer, and rolled over the backside of their printing plate all over to transfer the design to create the first print like below.
Then, lifted it off to repeat those steps 3 more times, rotating the printing plate so the arrow pointed towards the center of their paper each time they printed.
DAY 4 – 5 FINAL STEP! PRINTING ON THE RAINBOW PAINTING!
Students reviewed the printing process and continued to print their design onto their rainbow painting that they painted on day 1!
It was fun… but very messy!!!
This is why we drew a BIG arrow! So you can see it!
If you haven’t see it yet, Here’s my YouTube video tutorial below. I hope you like it!