Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Reductive printmaking: self-portraits

Fifth graders have finished their printed self-portraits.  We learned a lot about facial proportions,altering and  registering a printing plate for two separate printings, and creating visual texture.  The results are very nice, as you can see:







2 comments:

  1. OK, now I can leave a comment! Thanks!

    I love these prints. I'm not a big printmaker, so I'm wondering how you get the kids to "register the plate" for the 2nd printing. And are you using foam plates? Any specifics will help, since these are just fabulous!

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  2. yes, we used 6x9" foam plates. the first printing was just contour lines, then we removed the face and texturized the hair and shirt. for the second printing, we picked up the printing plate and pressed it over the original printing area, pressed the foam down to get the paper to stick, then flipped the whole thing over and runbbed the paper for the ink transfer. it was actually fairly simple, although the plate is pretty fragile once it is cut.

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