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- An interactive from the MoMA website allowing students to experience a variety of printmaking methods with examples of each.
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- Student Example #1
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- Student Example #2
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- Student Example #3
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- The project can be adapted to feature only a graphic design without a persuasive message. Another option is to provide objects for the student to trace and cut out to make their design.
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- An extension for this project is to have students create another print which is entirely non-objective.
Teacher: Michael Read
Class Length: 90 minutes
Grade Level: 7th
Number of Classes: 4
Title: Persuasive Message Collograph Prints
Objective: Students will learn about printmaking, persuasive techniques in media and art, and make their own series of prints addressing a social topic of importance to them.
SOL:
7.1 The student will identify and use analogous, complementary, and monochromatic color relationships in works of art.
7.5 The student will communicate information and ideas through illustration
7.18 The student will examine the uses and impact of persuasive techniques in print and electronic media.
Cross-curricular SOL:
English
7.3 – The student will understand the elements of media literacy
7.7 – The student will write in a variety of forms including with an emphasis on exposition, narration, and persuasion
Vocabulary
Printmaking – Method of art involving reproductions of an image from a printing plate.
Symbols – Pictures used to represent an idea.
Analogous – Colors that are adjacent to one another on the color wheel.
Monochromatic – A color scheme of one color.
Complementary – A color scheme with colors opposite one another on the color wheel.
Propaganda- Messages aimed at influencing their reader to think one way or another about a given topic.
Printing Plate or Matrix – Surface where an image is made to be transferred to another surface.
Edition – Limit of number of impressions by the artist.
Background Information
Printmaking can be a vehicle for Art as well as propaganda. Elaborately designed war posters use artistic techniques and carry propaganda messages. Dada artists, who protested war as well as the absurdity they saw in society and convention, created radically innovative designs in printmaking. The graphic quality of prints –often limited to shapes and only a few colors- lends itself to carrying an explicit message. Printmaking retains vitality as an expressive vehicle, even in the age of digital reproduction, with commercial equipment being acquired by college art departments as it is retired from commercial use.
Visuals/Resources
The iconic “I Want You” poster
Teacher example
Henri Matisse “Blue Nude” for reference in creating an effective design
List of possible subjects for students to address in their work.
Materials
Paper
Tag Board
Glue
Cardboard
Scissors
Tempera Paint
Brushes
Procedure
Day 1
Students view a PowerPoint on the history of printmaking and see work specifically that conveys a message that is illustrative and addresses a topic of social importance. Students see an example of a finished project and are guided in brainstorming ideas for their print piece. Use of symbols is covered as a means to communicate and students go back to work on drawing their ideas.
Day 2
Students continue working on their drawings, and following a critique, make revisions. When their design is in place students begin assembly of their printing plate following a demonstration – cutting out and gluing down the shapes of their design from tag board onto cardboard.
Day 3
Students finish construction of their plates. Ideally students will make 3 prints with black before being instructed on color schemes and choosing to print monochromatic, complementary, or analogous colors. The teacher demonstrates experimenting with printing on computer or scrap paper before students make their finished editions. Students should decide based on their experiments a final color composition to complete next class.
Day 4
Print an edition of 3 prints, as materials allow, show students how to sign and number them at the bottom. As students finish printing mount their works and do a critique if time allows or at the next class.
Closure
In the critique, encourage students to reflect on how well their idea is conveyed in their print. What elements contribute to the success of their piece (symbols, color, design, composition, drawing, the medium of printmaking, etc.)? Ask students what they have learned by looking at works of printmakers and their experience printmaking.
