Art and Picture Books

"A Remainder of One" by Elinor J. Pinczes; Illustrated by Bonnie Mackain

Printmaking:

• Definition: Printmaking involves three steps: Cutting some shapes into an object, applying ink to the raised surfaces, and pressing the image onto paper.
• Related Terms: Relief print, woodcuts, potato prints, block prints, linoleum cuts, lithography, intaglio.

Instructions For Making Your Own Plasticine Printmaking Artwork

• Pick Your Favorite Drawing
  • Pick one part of the drawing and recreate it.
  • In this example, the author has picked a mushroom and some grass:

• Flatten one side of your Plasticine out, and press your shape into the flat side, using a pen or stick. You can also roll out Plasticine snakes to created your raised image. Remember that in printmaking, only the raised parts are printed.

• Apply a very small amount of paint to the raised surfaces, or use a stamp pad:

• Press the image onto the paper. Do this more than once and make some patterns:

• Create some more prints. These will be used for our sun pattern:

• When the paint dries, you can colour the rest of your drawing:

• If students have trouble with printmaking, have them start with simple shapes to create pattens. We are inspired by the flower printmaking on page 4 of "Summer" by Steven Schnur, illustrated by Leslie Evans:

• We make our simple shapes:

• And use them to create our flowers:

• Afterwards, clean paint off the Plasticine, and mash it up for your next printmaking creations.

Check out these websites for ideas and information:

• https://www.accessart.org.uk/teachers-play-with-plasticine-to-make-prints-in-the-education-room-at-the-fitzwilliam-museum-cambridge/
• http://www.filthwizardry.com/2010/09/plasticine-stamp-printing.html

Check out these tutorials: