Be inspired by Grant Wood, an American REGIONALIST painter. He is famous for Daughters of the Revolution and American Gothic, two well love paintings. Grant Wood chose his subjects from his surroundings, what he knew - the landscape in his town and the people he saw each day. Now, you choose your subject from your surroundings...
Materials To Collect:
-iron and ironing board |
Steps to Success:1. On the fine grain sand paper sheet, draw the nature subject that you have chosen by observing it, and look at pictures, too. Fill the space, include imaginative ideas... Draw everything in REVERSE, especially important if you include letters or numbers.
2. Add bright, rich colors with the wax sticks, pressing hard and building lots of wax onto the sand paper. Use a dark color for outlining. Add detail, patterning a background, and whatever makes it bold and beautiful. |
3. Use a scissors to cut out your design, otherwise little wax bits left around your drawing can "muck up" the image when you make a mono print.
4. PARENTS: When your student is finished place the cotton fabric on the ironing board, then put the sandpaper, color side DOWN onto the fabric. Cover with a thin sheet of white paper to protect the hot iron, and iron over the paper slowly and deliberately to melt the wax onto the fabric. Your artist may want to apply more color and have you REGISTER the sandpaper in the exact same place for brighter color. 5. Toss the fabric (T-Shirt?) into the dryer for about 20 minutes to set the color. Admire your work! |
Show off your art, send a photo to share with us!
A monoprint is a printmaking technique using a "plate" or "block", in this case the sandpaper sheet, to create a one-of-a-kind artwork. The artist makes a picture by pressing color onto the "plate" and then attaching paper or fabric to the "plate" and forcing the color onto the new surface, called "pulling the print". There are many more ways to create mono-prints, watercolor on plexiglass is a favorite...
A critique is a conversation about art, often intended to give artists feedback about their work so that they can become better at communicating their ideas more beautifully. I learned that chickens aren't as good at critiquing artwork as my students, so hope we are back together discussing our artwork very soon! |