Saturday, February 23, 2013

4th Grade Styrofoam Printmaking

























RNE's 4th graders had a great chance to get creative both with watercolor and printmaking in our last 2-D project.  We painted concentric circles on 8" x 8" watercolor paper, moving analogously in our circles.  We learned about the grand rose windows that grace European cathedrals, discussing their radial symmetry and the organic and geometric shapes that make up a rose window.





 After learning how we could make radial designs by working on a diagonal within a square and then placing it repeatedly in quadrants, we began working on a diagonal design using both geometric and organic shapes.  Students deeply etched in their designs on a 4" x 4" styrofoam plate with a ball point pen, working from one corner outward on a diagonal.
 






 Inking stations were set up on each table; students inked on black block printing ink and brayed the plate four times (re-inking each time), rotating the plate circularly until all four quadrants had printed.  The result was a radial design that echoed the rose windows we had studied.  Beautiful job, fourth graders!


3 comments:

  1. Thanks, Hope--I was really pleased with how it came out. We even got to talk about the history behind rose windows, and the politics of the 11th century. Kinda cool.

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