Submitted by: Woody Duncan, Retired from Rosedale Middle School
UNIT: Printmaking - Collagraph
Lesson: Multicolor collagraph prints
Grade Level: Middle School (adaptable to other grades)

       
"Kansas City Jazz" by Ali Sultani         by Cameo, Rosedale Middle School

This lesson is designed to be the culminating lesson in a sequence of lessons dealing with the figure and using elegant shapes in a composition.      

Conceptual Objective: this process will expose students to a vivid, graphic means of expression with a strong chance of satisfying success using limited resources.

Behavioral Objective: each student will produce several mono prints (one of a kind)
from a collograph (cardboard) printing plate of their own design. They may also print an edition
of prints with the same color.  

Materials List : scraps of heavy matboard (sizes may vary), oaktag or other light poster
board, scissors, utility knifes (cheap retractable knives are best), pencil, ball-point pen,
carbon paper, white glue, glass inking plates (one per color), soft rubber brayers (one per
color), masking tape, stapler, old newspapers, cheap white acrylic house paint, 2 1/2 inch
flat brush, white drawing paper for printing, folders for student prints, waterbased block
printing inks (several colors, your biggest expense), printing press (you could print without it),
and a drying rack (a must).

Vocabulary List and Printmaking Concepts

Aesthetic Question: What is an original print ?

 STEPS IN STUDIO PRODUCTION

1. Begin with good drawings of the chosen subjects (I choose a different theme each year)

   Stress: Elegant shapes, good composition, and details should be simplified (Draw fairly large and encourage overlapping

   Size and format of compositions can vary to suit the needs of the drawing

   OPTION / you may want to limit the size and shape because you don't wish to be cutting lots of different size mats for final exhibitions of students prints
   

2. Transfer drawings to oaktag using carbon paper (printed image will be reversed when printed). Often the reversed image in the final product does not matter, if it does as with the word "NIKE" on a sweater, then show students various ways to reverse it.

   OPTIONS / do a tracing at the window on the back of drawing / put carbon paper face up under drawing while tracing lines / flip shapes over after cutting them out  

3. Cut figures out and then cut each figure into many separate shapes  
   EXAMPLE / separate shapes for hand, fore arm, upper arm, shirt, collar, neck, etc.  
   

4. Glue the separate shapes onto the heavy mat board (printing plate)  
   Shapes can overlap (creates a unique edge) but not fitted back  together, it is the spaces (or edges) that show in the print (the shapes as defined by their edges)  

   Separations between each individual shape is the essence of this process, if students fail to cut shapes apart they can go back and create separations using a sharp knife to make two close cuts and peel out to remove the lines needed to create an image

   NOTE: Having an earlier (simplified) lesson on cutting and arranging shapes to create a composition really helps in understanding what it takes to make this process work to create an image

   An example of an earlier cut paper composition (White on Black) is below. It was done by Ali Sultani before we made our collograph printing plates

      

5. After everything is glued down, you might suggest adding more texture, as with lace 
   paper doilies, or thin string, or rough cuts and slashes made with a knife  

6. Before printing apply a thin coat of cheap white acrylic house paint to both sides of the 
   printing plate / front so ink will release better / back to reduce warping  

Don't forget you may have painted over student names (if they put them on there) . Put names on back with permanent marker

STEPS IN INKING THE PRINTING PLATE  

I set up one long table as an inking station, another area of the studio for the printing (best with 
a press) and the third stop is to leave the newly pulled print on the drying rack before returning
to the inking station.  It's best to cover the inking area with newspapers to make clean up easier.
We put at least three inking plates out (one for each color) with a separate brayer for each color.

THIS IS A DIFFERENT KIND OF MULTICOLOR PRINTING -YOU PRINT ALL THE 
COLORS AT THE SAME TIME

I put the lightest color say (yellow) to the left and then perhaps (magenta) and then the darkest 
perhaps (violet) last. Instruct the students to work from the lightest to the darkest.

Inking the plate with the lighter color first seems to limit pollution of the other colors.

Caution students not to ink the plate fully, (leave white areas forcontrast) do not allow new colors
to cover others too much as you put each new layer of color on the printing plate. It is the play of 
one color against another that is the beauty of the final print.

PULLING A PRINT, IT'S MAGIC

I always have sheets of paper (soft manila) under the felt blanket on the printing press, it keeps 
everything cleaner, we change the paper between classes (sooner if necessary).

I keep white drawing paper in small stacks near the press (various sizes if necessary) so students can get to them easily.

Stress clean straight borders around each print, working in pairs usually helps, one partner keeping clean hands to handle the paper.

Often if a bit too much ink was used you can get a great (even better) print by running the plate through (without re-inking) using a second sheet of paper.

We make simple folders for each students dry prints, by just folding a large sheet of manila in half. If you are in a very humid area or prints don't dry enough even after a second day try putting a sheet of wax paper between each print.

EXHIBITING THE PRINTS

Color prints of this quality demand good white mats and if the edges of the image are neat and clean they are best matted so that the edge of the print shows with the student artist's name in pencil in the lower right margin.  

RUBRIC: (from rubric by Marianne Galyk)

Student Comments:

Teacher Comments:

Resources:

CHOOSE GOOD EXEMPLARS WHICH WILL MOTIVATE QUALITY PRINTMAKING

Artist List for Printmaking Exemplars

Images relating to theme (using Internet, books and magazines

Theme for 1997-98 "Winter Olympics"
Theme for 1998-99 "Kansas City Jazz"
Theme for 1999-2000 "Native-American Dancers"

USEFUL PRINTMAKING REFERENCES  

Printmaking Links page

Printmaking Techniques by Julia Ayers / Watson-Guptill, New York 1993

Monotype by Julia Ayers / Watson-Guptill, New York 1991

The Complete Printmaker by John Ross, Clare Romano, Tim Ross / MacMillian, New York Rev Ed 1990

Innovative Printmaking by Thelma Newman / Crown, New York 1977

Twentieth-Century Graphics by Jean Adhemar / Praeger, New York 1971

Printmaking History and Process by Donald Saff, Deli Scailotto / Holt, Rienhart and Winston, New York 1978

Color Woodblock Printmaking (Traditional Ukiyo-e) by Margaret  Miller Kanada / Shufunotomo, Tokyo 1989

New Media in Printmaking by John Bickford / Watson-Guptill, New York 1976  

National Standards:

   [MIDDLE SCHOOL LESSONS]