4th Grade - Laurel Burch inspired Printed Cat Portraits

Laurel Burch Printed Cat Portraits!  A very simple printmaking project with a couple fun embellishments!  A great  LINE, COLOR, TEXTURE and DESIGN lesson. You can lean any way you decide!

Week 1 - We look at the art of Laurel Burch, mostly her cats. We discuss their BIG human like eyes and beautiful patterns. Students drew their own cat portrait on a 6x9 piece of white paper. Then tape it and lightly trace it to a piece of printing styrofoam the same size. I like to use ball point pens to press the foam down further, to get it ready for printing. 

Week 2 - Students select 4 pieces of 6x9 pieces of construction paper in various colors. Then with old oil pastels, we color on the side a bit, making the paper multicolored. Once done, we printed our styrofoam with black printing ink. 

Week 3 - Students selected the best 2 of 4 prints to frame side by side on white 7x10, then down to a 12x18. We used colored metallic papers for eye balls, with black oil pastel lines if they liked. Then paper crimpers to make colorful whiskers. The final steps made them look more finished! A very satisfying product in the end!

 

Kindergarten Lichtenstein's in Primary Colors!

This has been my new favorite Kinder project this year... one I pulled out of a hat 10 minutes before they were coming.  You know... one of those days you're sure they were not finished with the last project, but.. the were! 

I fast... pre-drew a curve at the bottom of the papers for the sun and made it work! First day, we talked a lot about primary colors and the color wheel.  I showed them the three Lichtenstein paintings below and we outlined the sun in blue and painted the rays. That was it.  Next week, we painted in three sections yellow, (including the sun), then printed circles with red using a circle sponge on a stick. Next week , we printed the stripes with cardboard and added some printed circles.  DONE! They ALL turned out cute!  My other two classes did stars and lightning.  I pre-drew both the star and lightning and taught it basically the same way.  The only difference, the star and lightening needed a cardboard printed outline. Overall, great results!!! 

4th Grade Texture Printed Cityscapes!

This lesson is vintage...my mother, Judy Bowerman,  taught this lesson and made the printing blocks over 25 years ago! She took a bunch of random rectangle wooden blocks and glued textured wall paper to them with wood glue.  They have lasted this long!!! And now, the texture from the wall paper is no longer visible. The blocks print the texture of layer tempera! But, they still create a stunning project.  This is one of those that EVERY student has a high level of success.  The best part of this project... easy clean up!  Just let the blocks dry! No washing!

Students move tablet to table to change colors.  I have a set of blocks for each table. 

Week two, I cut up different sizes of cardboard and chip board, whatever is available to print the windows, doors, details.  And even a building that never existed before! Students LOVE this lesson and they all turn out great! I hope you try it!

1st Grade - Cityscapes AND Seascapes!

I love teaching young ones to notice the details of the world.  Pointing out the differences within the landscape of our city, state and all over the world opens up our students minds to notice the details. Both these two projects include an element of printmaking.  The city, we used cardboard and black paint to print a city and the seascape, we folded our paper to print the reflection of our boats.  Both of these projects I found on Pinterest, and have adapted to my classroom.  Enjoy!