Love printmaking? Try these lessons!

I've rediscovered printmaking over the last month or so. I love printmaking because it is easy and can be done on the cheap. Well, sort of. The process is always so fun for the students and the results are magical--I love to watch them "ooh" and "aah" over their prints!

Well, here's a round-up of some past printmaking lessons from my site that may have you rocking and rolling with your students!

Matching Mittens with Found Object "Snow" Prints

USING FOAM TRAYS:
Reduction Prints (Using Styrofoam trays and found objects)
Andy Warhol Self Portraits (Using Styrofoam trays and a pencil to "carve" an image)
Reduction Print Selfie (Using Styrofoam tray and gradually removing portions of it between inkings)

USING CRAFT FOAM:
Haunted Houses (Using sticky-backed foam shapes)
Fall Banner (Using foam shapes to make stamps--can be changed for any theme or season)

FOUND OBJECTS AS STAMPS:
Create Your Own Stamps (Using found objects and wine corks to make your own stamps)
Matching Mittens and Snowflakes (Cut paper mittens with found object "snow")
Focal Point Fruit Prints (Using an apple or pear to print--exploring focal point too).
Leaf Prints (This is mine, it's from Deep Space Sparkle, but it is my go-to early finisher activity in the fall).
Modern Day Adinkra Cloth (Using stamped symbols on sections of card stock that are joined together into one "cloth")
Spring Forsythia Still Life (Using pieces of sponge to make a lovely arrangement of forsythia blossoms)
Not-So-Scary Dancing Skeletons (Uses doggy bone treats for unique stamps)

USING YOUR HANDS:
Andy Warhol Hand Prints (Seriously one of my most popular posts, but not mine--from Artolazzi--so easy!).

And one of my all-time popular posts--
Quick Andy Warhol Hand Prints

Peach-Faced Lovebird in Oil Pastels

About four years ago, my husband was hanging out in his garage with the doors open and in flew this little guy...a peach-faced lovebird! My hubby nabbed him and brought him in to me (no, I didn't believe the bird just FLEW into his shop...). Originally from Africa, this lovebird was far from home showing up in New Hampshire! We put ads in the papers, but never found his owners. "Bird," yep, that's his name, became a part of our family. The children love him and he seems to not mind the noise and activity that four children seem to create.

This isn't my Bird, but he looks just like this!

One of my younger art students loves animals, so I thought drawing Bird would be a great idea! My student had enjoyed working with craypas and baby oil on watercolor paper, so we used that technique. I had downloaded some images of peach-faced lovebirds to have on hand just in case Bird was being tempermental and we set up camp in front of his cage to observe and draw.

Here's my student with our model.

Bird must have loved the attention because he sat there on his perch and looked very handsome! When we looked away too long, he started performing and perching on the side of the cage so he could look upside down at us while we worked. What a great reminder to look at the subject you are drawing more than your paper!

Her drawings came out lovely--here's the final one where she used oil pastels for the bird and then watercolor pencils with a bit of water to soften the edges to create a nice, outdoorsy atmosphere for Bird.

Who would believe a bird could come in such colors!
It's nice to see Bird outdoors instead of behind the bars of the cage.