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Print Making

Objectives:

1. Students will understand how woodblock prints are utilized in literatura de cordel and Brazilian culture (historical and cultural understanding).

2. Students will learn about the materials used to create woodblock prints (perceiving, analyzing and responding).

3. Students will find their own solutions in their process of creating a relief print (creating and performing).

New Mexico State Content Standards
Social Studies 1, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 14

Arts 1, 2, 3 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Materials
Water soluble markers, small damp sponges, styrofoam sheets 6” x 9” for printmaking or styrofoam food trays, water soluble printing ink, brayers, cookie sheets, drawing paper larger than 6” x 9” (larger than the size of the styrofoam), newspaper cut larger than the drawing paper and placed in stacks.

Motivation
1. Have the students rub their hands together to sensitize them and explore the different textures that you have available in your classroom. Encourage discussion about what the different textures feel like and what they are made out of.

2. Have your students make crayon rubbings of the different textures. Have them compare their results. They can make collages of the textures to display.

3. Explain that woodblock printing uses raised textures to make pictures.

4. Look at images of woodblock prints and pass around a used woodblock or linoleum block if one is available. Discuss the use of positive and negative space in creating a block for printing.

5. If a used printing block is available roll it up with ink and make a print from it.

6. Tell the students that they will be creating plates to make prints off of. They can draw a picture, make a design or write a message. (Anything written comes out backwards unless the letters and words are written in reverse originally.)

Procedure
1. Using water soluble markers, draw ideas for the print on the styrofoam plates using light pressure. Mistakes can be erased with a damp sponge.

2. Use a sharpened pencil or a ballpoint pen to engrave their drawing into the styrofoam.

3. Roll out the printing ink onto a cookie sheet using a brayer.

4. Place the styrofoam with the engraved design facing up on a stack of newspaper pages. Roll the ink onto the styrofoam.

5. Place a piece of paper on top of the inked styrofoam and rub.

6. Lift off the paper and admire.

7. Repeat as many times as materials and time allow.

Evaluation
Display the prints on a bulletin board with descriptive labels made by the students.

Have a workshop day where your students teach other classes how to make relief prints. Have a print swap after many students have created prints.

Curricular Connections

Visual Art
Come up with a theme, a topic, a person to celebrate or a design problem to solve. Have each student make a print that addresses the topic and put them together to make a large quilt out of prints. Mount it on oversized paper and label it for display.

Social Studies
Have students visit a local newspaper or press where they can see how automatic presses operate. They can write about the differences between the types of printing when they return to class. Extend their writing or discuss the way that computer directed printers relate to the other methods.

Collect images of graphic arts from many countries. Have students compare the styles and uses of graphic arts.

Language Arts
Have students make their own forms of literatura de cordel, rhyming forms of stories, current events and topics of interest to them. They can print them on computers and then xerox them to distribute.

Music
Listen to selections of Brazilian music and study the instrumentation.

Geography
José Borges uses a very hard wood which is not found outside of his country to carve his woodblocks. Have students research the types of trees that grow in Brazil and explore their qualities.

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