technique: monoprinting

A few months back Claire did a post about monoprinting with leaves and experimenting with using natural forms as resist. I've always loved monoprinting but for some reason my learners have never seemed to of engaged with the technique. For the past 6 weeks I have been teaching my AS Fine Art students a series of creative techniques before they take the plunge into their first project and the following technique captured their imaginations and enabled them to build and draw upon exciting layers!

Over the Summer myself and Claire were super lucky to find this idea on the NSEAD Online Facebook group. If you aren't a member then join - the wealth of resources shared with all levels of art educators is amazing. After a bit of a play with the technique I thought about how I could make it more advance for my students and this is where I experimented with masking tape layers and washes to build up the texture and tone within the print. This technique would work well for any initial responses or as a quick method of recording to change the direction of a project and more importantly all my students relished in getting messy, testing alternative drawing methods and combining medias!

Follow the below steps to give it a go with your classes this month...

What you need:

• Block Printing ink (water or oil based)
• Print rollers
• Acrylic paint
• Masking tape
• Newspaper / Magazines
• Cardboard or any mixed-media base
• Relevant imagery to monoprint / draw on top of

Method:

1) Take your base (cardboard works great as it enables your students to work on top of a new exciting media) and choose a light colour of acrylic paint to work on top of. It is important it is light so that the print and layers you are about to build up stay clear. I told my students to ensure the colour reflected the mood of the image they were studying or you could link it to colour theory. Dry with a hairdryer before proceeding to step 2.

2) Start to build up layers with masking tape - thinking about the direction and scale of strips applied. I taught my students a technique called 'masking tape transfer' to add more depth to their base. To create this technique, simply apply masking tape directly onto any printed image (magazines, newspapers, train tickets, etc work great due to the quality of the ink!). Once stuck firmly down to the image/text - simply peel straight off! You will be left with the ink on the tape and what's great is that the masking tape is still sticky and can be applied straight on top of your base.

3) Apply a thin wash of white acrylic paint on top of the masking tape layer to ensure your print will stand out.

4) Roll your ink on to the back of a printed image (make sure your image is mirrored so it comes out the right way!) and rub off the excess ink with spare newspaper. I used black ink so it made a real contrast to the yellow background layer but you could experiment with single/multiple colour ways! Once you have rubbed the excess ink off, place the inked image face down on top of your masking tape base and start tracing on top of your image with a biro or sharp pencil. Once you have completed your drawing remove the printed image and ta-dah! You have been left with a unique and experimental printed drawing like below.

Tip: Less ink is more and the sharper your drawing implement the better! Biro's are great. My students responded to a variety of mark making techniques and extended their learning by using creative drawing methods such as continuous line and adding tea/coffee into their prints for further use of layers/tone.

As always we'd love to see visual examples if you give this technique a try with your students and if you know any other creative printing techniques then contact us to make a guest blog appearance.

- Kirsty ❤

Lesson idea: Acrylic Transfer

My Fine Art students are currently transitioning into A2 and I have spent most of the past month introducing them new techniques that are easy and cheap to do! This post is going to introduce you to the wonderful world of acrylic transfers which are simply, a photographic transfer process that creates beautiful prints of your chosen image on to any acrylic painted surface. Across this week my students have tested the technique on paper, fabric, acetate and wood and all have produced some confident results! What I love about this technique is that any image is suitable - it works in both black and white / colour (inkjet or laser printed!) and it can be developed further as backgrounds or into interesting textural collages like the work of Rauschenberg or Sally Mankus. Follow my easy how to, to get started...

Once the transfer has been rubbed off to reveal your final result consider the following ideas:

1. Acrylic transfers with different coloured paints

2. Drawing / painting into acrylic transfers

3. Creating transfers on different materials other than paper e.g. wood, plastic, cardboard...

4. Experimenting with scale, repetition and layers to create a mixed-media collage!

Here are some of my student responses and as always if you have tried this technique then we would love to see some of your own/student examples!

- Kirsty ❤

3W: Kindah Khalidy

who: Kindah Khalidy 

what: painting and surface design 

why: I came across Kindah's work on Instagram and fell in love. Beautiful abstract painting transferred onto fabric, what's not to love? I really want to buy one of her clutches but I can never decide which print I like... 

kindah khalidy // shop // instagram

Lesson idea: Rothko Weave

First of all we'd like to say a massive thanks to Mrs Jo Baker who got in touch with us over the summer to share her wonderful Rothko inspired weave project and has allowed us to share it with you here on the blog. We've mostly only taught at college level so it's always great to hear from teachers in schools and see the different way they do things! 

Rothko Inspired Weave Project

1. Students begin the project by researching the work of Artist Mark Rothko

2. They are then set a homework to do a landscape photography shoot! The focus of their shoot is to look for strips of horizontal colours within the landscape (if they can't take photographs they could always look for existing photographs at home! or you could provide some in class just in case!). The students need to bring a contact sheet of the whole shoot and select the 4 best images and print them a little bigger and bring those to the next lesson.

3. In class students work from the photographs to simplify the colours, first starting in colour pencil and then extended into watercolour with the two best compositions. 

4. They then gather scraps of material for homework in their chosen colours (you should also provide some in class!) Try and gather a range of interesting textures - fabric, crisp wrappers, carrier bags, threads, twigs, straws, etc! 

5. The students use a weave board made out of old mount card. Cut little v's in the top and bottom and wrap string around it in one long piece. There's a cool video tutorial - HERE

6. Students weave in a over and under on one line then under and over on the next - and then repeat! They need to pull the pieces of fabric down really tightly to make sure they get a nice strong piece of textile! 

7. Once they've filled the board they are done! They can turn over the weave, cut the string across the centre and secure each end - its a bit tricky so they will need to concentrate as the weave is unsupported until they've tied it all together! Once tied off they can use it in whatever way you want to develop it… 

As always let us know if you try this project - we reckon it's an ace way to combine art and textiles and we love coming up with ways to get students to appreciate a bit of Rothko! Enjoy! 

- Claire ❤
P.S all ideas, photographs and general awesomeness thanks to Mrs Jo Baker! Check out her Blog or start following her on Twitter!

Review: BP Portrait Award and Oil Painting CPD

Back in June I was fortunate to get a place on the National Portrait Gallery Oil Painting CPD, it meant giving up a Saturday but I figured it would be worth it! To give a bit of background on me and oil painting, I've never done it before! In fact despite being an art teacher I have little experience of painting in general. I said that during the introduction at the CPD and felt I got some peculiar looks! I guess it's interesting isn't it - people always think if you do art that you can paint! But i've always done different types; printmaking and graphics at college, drawing and embroidery during my degree and knit during my masters. I mostly teach Graphics and Textiles so whilst we approach painting it's never been a big thing! Right, ramble over, back to the event itself! 

The CPD day itself was really good fun! It was in conjunction with the BP Portrait Awards and to start the day we were asked to visit the exhibition and sketch from the two portraits we found most inspiring - we would have to work in the style of one of these later in the day. We were also lucky enough to meet this years winner Susanne Du Toit, she spoke to us about the portrait and then back in the 'classroom' spoke us through her painting process. It was really interesting to get this insight and was good to hear before we launched into our own paintings! 

Whilst we were painting I took a few in progress shots which I'll share with you then explain a little. One of the best bits of the day was that the whole sessions was subtly tailored in a way to make you confident in an approach to delivering oil painting yourself... 

Now I know my painting isn't incredible but it was enjoyable and the session left me feeling like I wanted to have another go! We had to choose a painting from the portrait awards (I chose Kholiswa by Lionel Smit) and select a black and white photograph to work from. In the morning we did a burnt sienna wash in acrylic to 'lift' the colour, then sketched out an outline and finally added a bit of tone all using acrylic. I felt semi comfortable at this point. We came back after lunch and started with the oil and that's when it got challenging! We were starting by adding skin tones - I found this a nightmare to do especially as we were working from a black and white photo. I think that approach could be interesting if you had students who were experienced painters but for a totally beginner like me I wouldn't recommend it! Once the skin tone was down it was time to add colour and details. In total we painted for about 2 hours, stopping intermittently to be shown different techniques for mixing, layering, using colour and finally adding the finishing touches. 

Overall it was a brilliant day and I'd really recommend it! Check out the National Portrait Gallery CPD page for info on their upcoming sessions! There's another oil painting one in October and if you wanna book really ahead there's another BP Portrait Award/Painting one next summer, this time with acrylic paints! The BP portrait awards were also great and it's free so check it out if you can! It closes on September 15th!

- Claire ❤

3W: Shawn Huckins

who: Shawn Huckins

what: 18th century ROFL paintings.

why: because we love a bit of technology in any artwork! Shawn Huckins describes his 21st century pieces entitled 'American Revolution Revolution: What would George post?' as exploring "...the brief history of the United States comparing the political revolution of when the country was founded in the 1700s versus the technological revolution that's been happening over the past decade." Students are constantly tweeting or playing on their phones so why not embed this idea into a project. We love the thought of personal and cheeky abbreviated text messages or twitter exchanges over images and think it is a great starting point for any self-portrait/fashion related project. 

What will your students post?

// Dazed Digital //

3W: Carne Griffiths

who: Carne Griffiths

what: drawing/portraits

why: because these wonderful portraits have been created using some slightly unusual materials. Although primarily drawn using inks there's also some more offbeat liquids in there - tea, brandy, vodka and whisky! It's the tea that got us thinking we can't wait to have a go using his work as inspiration for the portrait project we're currently delivering, dripping inks & tea here we come! 

3W: BMW Art Cars

Who: BMW Art Car

What: Priceless cars and artwork, sigh.

Why: Who wouldn't want a car like these? Okay.. Okay.. So, we're a little bit late in the game with this 3W find but wow, we wish we had found these sooner! You may of seen the BMW art cars recently on show in our home capital, London as part of the 2012 festival. If you didn't then these priceless pieces of artwork (and cars) were on show for 2 weeks in an inner city car park in the heart of Shoreditch. Artists such as the legendary Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jeff Koons, Frank Stella, Jenny Holzer and David Hockney to name but a few have all painted histories best automobiles in order to "marry artistic excellence with an already perfect object." If you ever get the chance to see these perfect pieces of art then do. It would of made our day to see a 23 minute painted car by Warhol - gutted much?

Did you go see the exhibition? What are your thoughts on cars being transformed into artworks? We'd love to see any pictures you took and hear your responses!

ICA // BMW // Daily Mail Review

Tutorial: Watercolour Text

I love watercolour but it's one of those things that I'm not that brilliant at, in fact painting in general is definitely not my forte, so when I discovered you can do watercolour like effects in Photoshop I jumped on it! I'm on a typography kick at the moment so I've created a tutorial that shows you how to make watercolour text in Photoshop. I know there's tons more techniques out there for this sort of thing but I think this is a great starting point, also if you've got my favourite typography book Handmade Type you could do a digital vs handmade lesson with your students and have a go at creating watercolour text by hand in the style of Natsuki Otani. 

Enjoy! - Claire ❤

3W: Charlotte Caron

who: Charlotte Caron
what: c'est chic animal portraits over photo portraits
why: because it's such an amazing idea and we wish we had thought of it! French artist Charlotte Caron has painted animal heads on top of photographic portraits of her friends from art school aiming to highlight the masks people assume in everyday life. In her artist statement Charlotte's intention was to "create osmosis between the two mediums" - To fall in love with the collection like us view the links below where you might just have to commission one yourself!

Justapoz Magazine // Trendland

3W: Damien Hirst

who: Damien Hirst

what: spin paintings!

why: because it gets us in all of a spin. What more could you want than crazy, coloured, psychedelic shapes? We think a spin project would make a great introduction to fine art. Not only would it be fun but it would introduce students to the idea of capturing movement in different ways. You could even make your own giant spirograth and spin contraption like these students from Alton College.

Damien Hirst // Tate Modern 

3W: Ian Davenport

who: Ian Davenport
what: Fabstraction!
why: because there's nothing we love more than paint dripping of a canvas. The skill that goes into each painting is incredible and you can't help but stand in awe in front of them. It reminds us of one of those great gardens you get in the chelsea flower show that look like they just grew that way. Yet, it was painstakingly placed and manicured to achieve that 'natural', accidental look. Take a look at the video below from a past exhibition of his work. You'll get a good feel for the concept and colour used within his work. We love it!

The Guardian // Vimeo

3W: Monti Medley

who: Monti Medley

what: Fine art abstract painting

why: because we love his interesting mixed media abstract paintings which he combines with music on his website.  Monti paints in acrylic adding texture with various mediums such as modelling paste, plaster, gel, resin and sometimes found objects. He is a self-taught painter who predicates his work on the simple notion of painting what he sees. He describes his work by using words such as decay, erosion and weathered. You can purchase his work on his Etsy shop. 

3W: Mary Ann Wakeley

who: Mary Ann Wakeley

what: Fine art abstract painting

why: because we love her beautiful etherial abstract paintings and the fact that she is self-taught. Mary Ann is based just outside Philadelphia where she also grew up. In reflection of her work Mary Ann says "The impulse to paint defies explanation. Why not ask why does one live? Why are we here? Being a painter is simply a way for me to express what is inside". Mary Ann sells her work directly from her website here. 

3W: Colin Chillag

who: Colin Chillag

what: painting/mixed media

why: because it's a wonderful 'unfinished' photo realist portrait. Colin Chillag develops his images from a minimal linear drawing and adds in his colour palette showing the developmental process to a painting. We think it's a great approach to get students to understand how to build up layers/sections of an image and not to be afraid of leaving what's necessary. Have a look at our previous blog post about  Cristina Troufa's work - she also likes to create 'unfinished' style paintings!

Colin Chillag // Comparison Idea: Cristina Troufa

3W: Cristina Troufa

who: Cristina Troufa

what: painting/mixed media

why: stunning intentionally 'unfinished' style paintings - we love the idea of introducing this mixed media approach to observational studies with our students! 

Cristina Troufa // portfolio 

3W: Diana Delgado

who: Diana Delgado

what: paintings

why: colour, texture, beautiful 

Diana Delgado // design for mankind