New Zealand Fish Prints
Today was the start of a new school term. The major learning focus in the art room this term is printmaking techniques.
Maria's five and six year olds were the first students to have their art lesson this term. Our learning goal today was to use relief printmaking techniques to create an edition of prints. Since our school is very near the ocean I thought it would be fitting to use images of fish from New Zealand waters as subject matter for today's lesson. The students studied the fish images and drew detailed sketches in coloured pencil. They used different lines, dots and marks to show texture and pattern.
The students then used felt pen to transfer their designs onto their polystyrene printing blocks. They used a pencil to etch their designs into the polystyrene to create a raised surface for printing.
Next, it was time to start printing. The students made sure that their brayers had an even amount of ink of them by rolling them back and forward in the inking wells. They loaded up their printing blocks and placed a blank piece of paper on top. The students rolled a clean brayer over the paper to transfer their image from the printing plate. Some students even had a turn with the printing press.
The most exciting part was next - revealing the images. The students were very excited, some were even ecstatic, to see their printed images. The students made an edition of prints ranging from three to eight prints although some students would have kept printing all day if time allowed!
The students kept kept some of the prints to take home and cut out others to arrange over a collaged seaweed background. I had lots of fun teaching today’s lesson. It was a pleasure to introduce printmaking to the Year One and Twos.
