Printmaking with Mixed Media

 This week we worked with foam printing plates again, but instead of using paint, the students colored them with water soluble oil pastels (you can find the brand on my Pinterest Favorite Art Supply board. The link is on the right)

 After painting the plate with water, the students printed the background.

 They used oil passes or colored pencils to create a foreground, and next week they will be using collage to add characters to their foreground.

 The younger students explored painting with the oil pastels. First they created a city scene using Sharpie markers.

 Next they colored it in with oil pastels.

Finally, they used water to activate the oil pastels and give the picture a painted look.

You can find more examples of work from this week on our Instagram feed, @thursdayart. You can also find some student drawings inspired by this sketchbook prompt:

Printmaking

Thank you to all of the parents that placed orders! We should receive them by the end of November.

We are back to our print making unit, and the students carved foam printing plates.

 After carving the image with a pencil, they cut off the remaining background.

 We used black tempera paint to ink them, then the students practiced on scratch paper before printing on their watercolor background papers.

By the time we got to the final printing phase, I was running around so much I forgot to take pictures of their cityscapes! The lovely results will be up next week!

Art In Progress

In the last two weeks we have laid the groundwork for several future projects. Students explored a different side of printmaking with rubbings

and made watercolor backgrounds for an upcoming printing.

We took a detour this week and began work on a very special project. The art department is participating in a fundraiser from Square 1 Art. Our Thursday classes will be creating some vibrant oil pastel drawings that you will be able to purchase on tote bags, phone cases, mugs, and several dozen more items. All of the profits will be used to purchase supplies for art class! More information will be sent home in October.

The students planned their drawings with some sketchbook work this week:

Collographs

Today we made collographs, a print made from gluing three dimensional objects to a base. We created cardboard printing plates. The students cut out their own designs, glued them on a cardboard base, and used paint to create a print.

The younger students used adhesive foams shapes instead, as cutting cardboard can be a little difficult.

This is a great art project to do at home when the recycling gets full or you have too many leftover Amazon boxes from buying all of those books you just had to have for homeschool this year! If you'd like to see how a professional artist creates a collograph, check out this website.

The students also got some time to work in the sketchbooks they decorated last week. Today's sketchbook challenge was to invent their own animal.

While shirts seemed to stay a little cleaner today, please remember to send your child in play clothes. Art can be messy business!