Matrix: Contemporary Printmaking - Museum of Fine Arts - Florida ...

Fall 2009
LESSON PLAN
Vocabulary:
Relief
Woodcut
Bleeding
Procedure:
1. Teachers will show images of prints made by Durer and Hokusai, provided at the end of
the lesson plan.
2. Teachers will provide information about these artists and their historical significance;
information is provided on these artists and their significance throughout the packet.
3. Students will answer a series of questions designed to get them thinking and talking
about the prints they have seen.
4. Students will sketch images that relate to the themes of the prints they are shown, for
the Hokusai, students should be encouraged to draw a landscape they are familiar with,
and for the Durer, students should be encouraged to draw another animal.
5. Students will produce prints based on these sketches.
6. Teachers will cut the Styrofoam trays so that there are flat surfaces with which to work.
7. Students will use pencils or pens, or for older students carpenters nails, to cut out the
lines in their prints, remembering that the images will appear in reverse.
8. Students will use rollers or paint brushes to apply paint to their Styrofoam trays, or plates
to be technical.
9. Students will then lay the plates down on a table and place sheets of paper over the
plates, patting gently, to prevent bleeding, to transfer the paint.
10. Optional Steps: Students may place pieces of felt over their plates and gently roll over
them with rolling pins. This most closely simulates the action of using a printing press.
This step may also just be demonstrated by the teacher.
11. Students will allow their papers or piece of felt, to dry, and may repeat the process to
create an edition of prints.
12. Students will then answer questions relating to the images they created in comparison to
the sample images by Durer and Hokusai.
Evaluation:
Through hands-on creation, students will learn the process of creating relief prints, using
comparable materials to those of the professionals. By creating these relief prints, students will
be more aware of the time it takes to produce the plates and also the multiple images that can
be produced using this method. Through the production of prints, students will show a
relationship between historical knowledge and imagery and their own lives.
34