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Class 2: Collagraph Printing 

The student who created the image above, experimented with marbling their paint on the shapes before pressing them. This is a great example of a unique way of transferring paint to a collagraph to create a print. 

Project Description: 

In this lesson, students experimented with how to transform materials and manipulate color, shape, and line to create abstract art. They explored how emotions can be communicated with design elements. Each student engaged in a multi-step process, first creating a cardboard and foam paper design, then applying paint, and finally transferring the image onto paper to create an abstracted collagraph print. In today's art exploration, students used color, shape, and line to to create non-representational forms.

Essential Understanding: 

Artists and designers communicate their emotions using visual elements to create non-representational designs.

Objectives/Outcomes:

Students will be able to... 

  • Brainstorm colors and shapes into design ideas

  • Use several materials and techniques to envision a collagraph

  • Transfer paint to collagraph to create prints

Skills:

  • Manipulate a variety of materials

  • Envision creating a collagraph as it will transfer onto paper

  • Combine 2-D and 3-D materials/techniques 

The student's work pictured above shows how this student experimented with using drastically  different color schemes to change the "mood" of their print. 

Click blue button below to view full class documentation

Click red button below to view lesson plan

 What worked well for this art experience? Why?

   I think something that worked really well for this experience was the open endedness of the prompt gave the students room to create unique images. None of the final artworks looked alike. Another thing that seemed to work in our favor was that most of our students seemed to be really intrigued with the process of making collagraph's. Something I put into practice in this lesson was the advice from our reading to, “Teach the person you are talking to, don’t teach a system.” I noticed this advice really came into play in my classroom because each individual students have vastly different needs. For example, to teach one of our students what to paint I had to put the paintbrush in his hand and put my hand around his leading his hand to get him started. After the initial push he was able to continue painting on his own. Where as for another student, all I needed to do to teach her the next step was tell her to paint her foam shapes and she was able to do that without any more help.

What didn’t work well for this art experience? Why?

    Unfortunately, similar to last time the students seemed to finish the assignment fairly early and ended up wandering around the room and disrupting students who were still working. This time we added more parts to our assignment and it seemed more complex so I wonder if that isn’t necessarily the answer to keeping the students engaged until the end? Maybe in the future it would be a good idea to have two mini projects that make up an entire lesson, that way the students can become re-engaged with the activity instead of becoming distracted. Another thing that didn’t work very well in this experience was that no matter how many different things I tried I could barely get one student to participate. I was able to get him to smash his paintbrush into one of the shapes to color it for me and I was able to get him to help me pat down the paper to make a print but he wasn’t engaged. This was slightly disheartening because the last time we had him in class he was a great participant and super excited to learn. I wonder how in the future I should address a student when they don’t want to participate.

 

What would you do differently?  Why?

   In the future I may consider trying to have two mini projects that make up an entire lesson, that way the students can become re-engaged with the activity instead of becoming distracted. I think I also need to try to think of projects that’s process takes more time. Another thing I would change is I would of had my group meet up a week ahead of time to fix the changes we needed for our assignment instead of waiting until the last minute. I think if we start to prepare for lessons way earlier than when they are coming up we will not only feel less stressed but we will also have more time to make improvements to our lesson.

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