Napa Vines At Night Printmaking Lesson

I came up with this lesson as a fun way to start out the school year here in Napa.  I wanted to teach the students about perspective and do a lesson relevant to our area.  We are in the middle of "Crush" here which is Harvest Time for the grapes.  This could be done as a drawing or even painting project, but I chose printmaking.

Using a foam plate I cut the curved part of the plate off, leaving a nice flat circle for the students to draw on.  We'll do some sketches on paper first and then draw on the foam.  I'll ask the students how does an artist make things look closer or farther away and we'll work on one point perspective.

Start with the mountains, then the foothills, and finally the hills with the vines.  Practice starting the vines and finishing them so they look closer and farther away.  I added a few stars to the night sky.

Here is what the foam plate looks like, wherever the student draws into the foam will print as a white line.  Note - the image prints backwards.

Using water based ink, a breyer and a plexiglass square for the ink each student can ink their plate and press the plate on paper to create their print(s).  I put newspaper under everything to limit the mess.  I have them use a soft cloth to rub the back of the foam firmly to get a crisp print.  

Now they can number and sign their artwork!

Happy Harvest or as we say here in Napa - "Crush"!

Gold Rush or Gold Mining Art Project

I have been teaching some classes for 4th grade and their teacher asked me if I could do something to coincide with their 3 day Coloma, CA field trip.  Since they are primarily studying the gold rush while there I came up with a printmaking activity that might be fun for any teacher studying the Gold Rush.

Since Printmaking was the primary form of communication during the 1800's I thought a printmaking activity would be a good fit, but it could be a sketching activity as well.  I am going to talk to them about how newspapers and posters were the way people received information during this time, and artists needed to use printmaking techniques to create illustrations for the newspapers etc...

I have the card stock already printed with the wording because the words print backwards.  The students will be doing the image in the center.

I am going to give them the outline of the miner to trace onto foam that I cut from foam disposable plates. (This is so much easier than lino or wood cuts.)  Then I'll demonstrate how the outline gives you clues as to where to put the interior lines.  Wherever they draw creates a white line, wherever they don't prints black.

Here is the pattern sheet to print onto card stock:

I am going to talk about pattern and how they need to create a few patterns in their drawing on the foam (mustache, hat band, pan, water, edges).  This makes their design more interesting.

Once they have their completed design they'll ink it (Speedball block printing ink) and print it, carefully putting pressure everywhere to get a nice even print.

When it is dry they can add a little bit of mod podge or glue to the nugget in the pan then put some gold glitter on the nugget, just for fun.  

A great project to mix history and Art!