{Art Together} Printmaking

The latest issue of Amy's e-zine {Art Together} came out last week & I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy!

This issue is all about Printmaking & I knew as soon as I saw the topic that it would be something Ree would love. Mainly because it includes her favorite way of doing art these days....paint! She was so excited last week when she came into the kitchen and saw all the material laid out on the table.

  

The first activity we did was Found Object Prints. Which is just what it sounds like. Go around the house & find some things that have cool textures. Put paint on them and then stamp them to the paper. 

But it was this activity that really drew her in and kept her attention for quite some time! Scratch foam prints! I had some smaller pieces of craft foam laying around & we each took a pencil and drew a picture on them. Ree found out that she drew just enough to have the picture show up in pencil, but she didn't push down hard enough to have it make the indents in the foam. So when she printed it onto the paper her whole picture didn't show up. I thought she'd be a little upset but nope! She noticed that where she had colored in spots with the pencil came up white on the paper with the paint all around it. Then she took my piece of foam to "study" it to see what I had done different. While she was touching it she noticed that she could feel the lines where I had pressed down. She felt her own & noticed she hadn't done that. So she went over her drawing pressing down harder. Painted it up again and it worked! Problem solving at it's best!

Each time she pulled back the paper she exclaimed "This is so EXCITING."



Here are some of our finished prints.

We really had fun with these activities. And there are still so many more to do!! The most intriguing one that I am excited to try is gelatin prints. Amy gives a wonderful step by step tutorial on how to make the gelatin and then use it as a printmaking tool. And of course there is the featured artist with resources on learning about Hokusai. Many ideas for resource books on printmaking (which Ree reminded me of: "Remember Momma, the last time we did thing with this art book we got lots of library books?") I am spoiled with having Amy here in the same state....any library book she is able to get I am too!

Once again, Amy has taken an art subject that seems intimidating and made it anything but. In her straightforward, approachable way she has come up with activities that are enjoyable for ANY age group. And as always, if you have any questions or need help she is just the click of a mouse away through e-mail or her blog.

She is generously offering one reader here at iHappy a free copy of Printmaking. So if you are interested, just leave me a comment! Comments will be open until Friday when we'll pick a winner!

Congratulations Claudine!! You won the copy! Look for an e-mail from Amy soon!