For this project students were presented with an artistic challenge: "If you were the author and artist for your own autobiography, how would you design your book cover?"
Students were encouraged to explore many avenues of their lives to include on their cover. Common themes were: fond memories, favorite foods, music, sports, animals, family, the list goes on and on. To begin, students were assigned to capture as many of their ideas quickly on paper by drawing smaller thumbnail sketches.
Once students developed and explored many ideas, they had to pick one idea or a combination of several ideas to use for their final design. They then created "relief" by carving the design into the "block" or "plate." In this case, we used flat pieces of Styrofoam.
Then students learned the process of printmaking to create their prints.
The four most basic steps to create a good print are:
1. Load the brayer with ink
2. Apply the ink on the plate
3. Print onto paper
4. Label the print
Students learned about the traditional ways to label their prints. In the beginning stages of printmaking, the artist "proofs" their plate. This is the process of creating several test or practice prints to make sure all the lines and shapes are printing how they want. During this stage, changes can be made to the plate between proofs. This is also a time to try out different colors. Because of this "testing" time, those prints are labeled as a proof in the bottom left. Then the artist traditionally signs their work on the bottom right.
