Taratories Blog

Making Patterns with Printmaking

Today's art class was a really fun one.  We got to dabble in a little printmaking.  One of my students had a great idea to roll paint on the paper to add some color and texture to the background.  I just LOVE it when kids come up with their own awesome ideas to make an art project better! 

Instead of the traditional method of carving designs into a surface to create the designs, I went with a much easier and less dangerous option which was using foam stickers to create the designs.  They were to create two designs each that were both symmetrical in nature.  They started from the center and worked their way out on their design boards to create a symmetrical pattern.  They cut some of the shapes to form other shapes.  It was fun to see what they came up with!

After their designs were complete they used brayers to roll paint onto the foam shapes on their design boards.  Mixing colors with the roller is fun for all ages ;)

They then stamped their designs on top of their papers and I just love how they all turned out.  Every one unique from the next!

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This was, by far, one of my favorite art projects that we have done in my art classes and I would love to expand more on printmaking with them in the future!

Optical Illusions

Today in my art class I exposed them to the artist, M.C. Escher.  I showed them a lot of examples of optical illusions and, of course, they were very blown away and mesmerized by what they saw! Op art is such a fun form of art for kids and it was so fun watching their little faces try to figure out what they were seeing in the artwork. 

We drew some simple optical illusions today drawing/shading 3D blocks that seem to be falling apart.

They were able to get creative with their backgrounds behind the blocks drawing whatever fantasy land they could dream up.  I like this interesting take on the blocks shown below.  This student wanted the perspective to be looking down through the hole like it was missing floor boards.  She shaded the abyss darker toward the center to give the illusion of the hole getting deeper.  

The color behind the blocks really helped separate the blocks from the background giving the illusion of depth and distance. 

I like the way they turned out and they seemed to be proud of them too!