This week, each artist printed the final layer of the Art Stars logo design onto our tote bags, alongside our other printing work. Some classes used red ink and some used blue. We think they turned out really well! Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see them all.

Amber & Turquoise Class

Our reception, year 1 and year 2 classes used bubble wrap to print spotty designs in our sketchbooks. We painted patterns onto the bubble wrap before laying it onto the paper and gently pressing it down. We also painted onto acetate sheets and transferred these images to paper- a form of monoprinting.

Magenta & Violet Class

The year 3 and 4 artists tried their hand at bubble wrap printing and monoprinting too, and then used their spotty papers to create a collage. They used different styles of alphabet stamps to write messages in their sketchbooks. 

Maroon & Emerald Class

The year 5 and 6 artists also experimented with bubble wrap and stamp printing, and produced some lovely monoprinting too! We also completed our reduction block prints. We got some really effective results!

Our Finished Tote Bags!

This week each student screen printed the second layer of our design onto their tote bag in orange, alongside other printmaking activities.

Amber & Turquoise Class

Our reception, year 1 and year 2 artists learned how to use stencils to create images, similar to the technique we’re using to screen print. We used sponge brushes to paint through a stencil cut from card, and tried hard to use a stippling effect so that the edges of our images were crisp. We began with primary colours, then layered the paints up to create secondary colours.

Two of our students in Turquoise Class brought in some artwork they’d done at home- we were shown a fabulous painting of a truck on canvas, and a whole folder of Jackson Pollock-inspired work! It was great to see some artwork they’d done outside of Art Stars. Thank you for sharing it with us!

Magenta & Violet Class

Our year 3 and 4 classes designed and cut their own stencils from moisture resistant card. We experimented with combining different techniques in our sketchbooks, including using the stencils to produce both positive (solid) and negative (outlined) shapes. Some of us chose to base our designs around our initials, while others created characters or more abstract designs. We created some really bright, cheerful patterns!

Maroon & Emerald Class

Our year 5 and 6 students continued with their reduction block print. We cut away areas of our lino blocks that we printed from last week, so that less of the surface area would be exposed to the ink. We then printed directly on top of last week’s prints, using a contrasting colour ink. We had to take care to line up the lino block carefully so that it would correspond with the image underneath. This produced a successful layered design.

This week we began a three-layer screen printing project. We learnt about the stencil method of screen printing, in which a stencil is cut from moisture resistant card and taped to the underside of a silk screen. We were shown how to apply the ink across the top of the screen, and how to use a squeegee to drag the ink across the screen in order to create a print onto the paper underneath. We each printed the first layer of the design onto a tote bag, which we’re going to use to carry all our art work and materials!

We also used the printing blocks we made last week to create a series of prints.

Amber & Turquoise Class

We practised making prints from our collograph blocks in our sketchbooks. It was a messy job and we soon got covered in ink- we ended up with some lovely patterns on our hands though! We each printed the first layer of the screen print successfully.

Magenta & Violet Class

We produced some really successful prints from our collograph blocks in our sketchbooks, and also experimented with creating characters using fingerprinting! 

Maroon & Emerald Class

We practised printing from our lino blocks in our sketchbooks before producing a final set of four prints onto heavy duty cartridge paper. We will be working on these some more next week, adding a second layer in a different colour.

This week, each class learnt how to carve a pattern into either a potato or a piece of lino in order to create a printing block. 

Amber & Turquoise Class

Our reception and year 1 and 2 artists started off by making a collograph block. We used PVA glue to fix short lengths of string onto a piece of mountboard to create a pattern. We’ll use these next week to produce some collograph prints. We then experimented with printmaking using sweet potatoes! We made some scratches in the potatoes with pencils to add some interesting patterns to our prints. Our final designs will be used as front covers for our sketchbooks.

Magenta & Violet Class

The year 3 and 4 artists used lino cutting tools to carve patterns into the sweet potato halves, taking inspiration from the patterns found on leaves. We achieved some lovely clear results using this process, and some of the prints reminded us of fossils! We also made collograph blocks to use next week.

Maroon & Emerald Class

Our year 5 and 6 artists started off by designing an image to carve into a piece of lino. We sketched some possible ideas, taking into account that they needed to be fairly simple. Once we’d decided on our chosen design, we drew it out onto the lino. We were then shown how to use the cutting tools safely, and started to carve our printing blocks. It was quite fiddly and took a bit of getting used to but we all ended up with successful linocut designs! We made a few practise prints ready to move on to producing a series of prints next week.

This week we all learnt some monoprinting techniques! We rolled some block printing ink out into a tray, and then laid a piece of paper onto it before making marks on the paper using our fingers, plastic tools and pencils. We experimented in order to discover the most effective amount of ink to use, and how much pressure to apply to the paper. We also made prints by drawing directly into the ink using the plastic tools, then laying our paper on top and applying even pressure to transfer the image. We produced lots of prints, all with their own unique character! 

Amber & Turquoise Class

Magenta & Violet Class

Maroon & Emerald Class