Printing is always one of my art students’ favorite units of the year and one of my favorite ways to make art. Nothing quite compares to the joyful feeling of replicating an artwork multiple times and seeing the unique and often unexpected differences in each rendition. I have taught printing at all grade levels using a wide variety of printing materials, including potatoes, lino, monoprints, natural objects like leaves, string prints on cardboard, and glue lines. One of my favorite materials to teach students with is Styrofoam. It is inexpensive, quick and easy to impress and cut but still gives good results. Students are less likely to cut themselves with Styrofoam than they are with lino and it can be impressed on easily with a pencil so it does not require additional carving tools or mounting.
The first step is to draw a design as pencil lines onto a paper that will be the same size as the Styrofoam matrix. My K-5 students only make one copy of their drawing, but I have my high school students flip over the drawing and trace the design onto the back of the paper using a light table or window, then make a copy of the back side they just traced onto. Then the design has been reversed which is important, especially if the design features text, because printing from a matrix flips the image. Copying is also important because tracing the drawing onto the matrix will create grooves and additional lines on it. The additional clean copy is also useful for making into stencils later on.
Stencils are how additional shapes and colors can be added in layers onto their prints. This makes prints which look like they were silk screened, but they also have the lines and shapes showing which are impressed into the styrofoam. The example above shows the impressed lines as the paper color (white) with the remaining space being the color of the ink (black).
The impressed matrix of Styrofoam is then rolled with ink, smoothy and evenly, just as lino is, flipped, and pressed upon the substrate, typically the piece of paper. Using a wooden or metal spoon and pressing down while making circular movements creates a print with a nice amount of ink coverage.
The impressed matrix of Styrofoam is then rolled with ink, smoothy and evenly, just as lino is, flipped, and pressed upon the substrate, typically the piece of paper. Using a wooden or metal spoon and pressing down while making circular movements creates a print with a nice amount of ink coverage.
Sometimes students become overly stressed about the ink not looking perfect but imperfections can often create wonderful effects. It is best to not throw out prints with uneven results. These provide an opportunity for creative problem-solving and can be covered again with the same or different colors of ink as a whole or through stencils if desired. Prints can also be mixed media, with collaging, painting and/or drawing being added to the print when dry.
Watch my video on Youtube to learn more about my creative process and see and hear how to make prints of your own.
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