The designs, typically linear of Juan Miro, inspired us to realize our prints with styrofoam in the 6th grade classes. This material was cut from used food trays. The small plates have become the matrices for our prints. After analyzing the works of Miró, we found a large graphic repertoire of little men, eyes, animals, flowers and birds of strange shapes, stars and moons. Thus we copied the drawings on the styrofoam and engraved our printing plates with a sharp pencil. The background of the sheet has been colored with a collage of tissue papers with the typical colors of Miro: red, yellow, green and blue.
The printing of the matrix was made with black ink, repeating printing twice or more times on the same sheet.
LOVE THESE! One question- How do you glue down the tissue paper? Normally I have them paint on a mixture of glue and water. But that might mess up the surface for the printing ink????
Hi Alice! We used Stick glue, it’s dryer than liquid glue and the surface for printing become smoother 🙂
Love it!!! Do you think I can do it with black acrilic paint and a normal brush over the foam? I dont have ink.. thanks a million!
Hi ! I follow you on pinterest and Facebook! I think you have to try, but is possible to use acrylic colors instead of ink. Is important to put a thin layer of color on the foam, with a not to soft brush. If the color goes into the engrave the print could be not so good. I do the print with foam and acrylic colors here http://arteascuola.com/2012/05/recycled-polystyrene-foam-printing/
and here http://arteascuola.com/2013/01/terracotta-army-printed-wit-foam/ with another kind of soft foam. Have a look, try, and then tell me if it will work! 🙂
These are the coolest- will definitely be trying these out! I’ve done, styrofoam printing, I’ve done tissue backgrounds, I’ve done Miro… but put them all together, and it is just awesome! Thanks!
Hi Jennifer! Thanks for you comment!! 🙂
Love these much more than my current Miri project! Can’t wait to try them! Thanks for sharing. Mrs. P @ CreateArtWithMe@blogspo.com
Thanks Brandie! I had a look at your blog , Your students are doing amazing works! 🙂
Hi Miriam.
These are amazing.What type of paper did you use? Cardstock, watercolour…? I can’t wait to try this!
Karen
Hi Karen! On a white drawing sheet we paste pieces of tissue paper (flimsy paper). It’s very thin, light and transparent. But you can use watercolors as well.
Instead of styrofoam you could even use Craft foam, as in this activity http://arteascuola.com/2017/01/flowers-printed-with-craft-foam/
Enjoy printing!! 🙂
Hi there! I love this project so much! I did it with my first graders. I made some variations, as I didn’t think they’d be able to do the multiple prints, so I separated on piece of foam, by using the flat end of a pen and dragging it alongside the ruler. They had four sections to work in. Some of my students felt bad, when they saw that they drew more that one symbol. I told them that was great! Some of my students automatically started printing more than one print on the same sheet. I think it turned out awesome. A few of them had difficulty gluing down the tissue paper nice and flat, but overall, I was impressed with my first graders! Next week, we’re going to print using different colors on colored paper. This will be the “You do” part of “I do, we do, you do”. Thank you for sharing your wonderful and inspirational lessons! If you look on my artsonia page, you’ll see the results: https://www.artsonia.com/teachers/members/projects/artwork.asp?id=1338851
I saw the result and your students’ work is amazing, I can’t believe they’re just first graders. The idea of the four section is actually great, because they can draw more and more subjects and enjoy engraving the styrofoam. Thanks for your experience, your suggestion and your interesting artsonia page! Thanks for sharing !!
Thank you so much! They loved creating these. After we printed these, we went on and explored using different colors on black paper. You’re welcome for sharing!
Oops, the link to my school page is: https://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=85366
And, I had one typo “separated one piece of styrofoam”
Hi Stacie, you page is amazing! Thanks for sharing you work !
Thanks for sharing the link! 🙂