Our printmaking unit is well underway. We spent two weeks (about 5 hours) on monoprinting with plexiglass and acrylic paints. The first week we used 8.5″ by 11″ pieces of plexiglass. Students learned a bit about color theory and spent time exploring the concept of reverse image, layering, and registration. I realized 8.5 by 11 was too big to create a nice composition.
The second week I gave a variety of smaller sizes for students to choose. Students were expected to use a base sheet of construction paper to draw registration marks for the plexiglass plate and also the print paper. The goal was proper registration, clean borders, and layers of at least three colors. This made for a challenging class period, but we needed to keep up the pace and expectations in order to prepare for relief printmaking.
Some of the students voiced frustration and said it is impossible to create anything realistic with monoprinting. However, we visited our local art museum a few weeks ago and viewed “Taint” by Allison Saar. Wow. It is amazing what can be accomplished with monoprinting as skills are built.
I did not purchase geli-plates for use in my classroom. I wondered if the benefit gained would be worth the $20 price tag for each small geli-plate. Last weekend I attended the MAEA conference and a teacher shared geli-plates she made on her own. Although she said they were $20 each, they were the size of a cake pan and she said they worked great. I would like to make one for future use and will let you know how it goes. For now, here is the video of our immersion into monoprinting. A student composed and performed the music.