I loved the idea of how a thumb print can actually engage a child’s (mine as well!) creativity! In Art workshop this week, we discovered print making using ordinary acrylic paint.
We did 2 things today- a thumb print activity and a lino printing activity.
The thumb print activity involved using a thumb print on paper as the stimulus. We were told to put a thumb print on half a page and from there, improve on it. It worked as a stimulus for further drawing of an object, person, or other living things, place and space, or event. Half my class created an animal from that single thumb print, the other half drew plants from that single print. I used the thumb print as a balloon, and continued to draw a girl stick figure holding up the balloon.
Creating a picture from a single thumbprint.
Following that, we had to make two thumb prints on the other half of the page and turn them into something involving a skeleton. I admit, I had to do a quick google search on the iPhone to get a rough idea of what a skeleton looks like. I used the thumb prints as two eyes, and drew a “cartoonish” skull, with a triangular nose and a smiling face showing teeth.
Turning 2 thumb prints into a skeleton.
The last activity was to create 4 to 5 prints. It was a really fun activity. We were first given a square piece of scratch foam and were told to create any pattern on it – with the reminder that drawing a picture would be less complicated than having written words as worlds would have to be written backwards to be printed the right side up.
The next step was for us to use rollers and roll black paint (not too much, not too little) over our scratch foam tile and then use another roller to “print” it on.
Step-by-step Lino Printing process.
Even though we were to only use one side of the scratch foam, I used both sides. The butterfly print was the first one I did, but it seems that 1/4 had too much paint. 2/4 was about the same. 3/4 was the best, however, I felt that I should have drew harder into the scratch foam so that the pattern would be more prominent. I decided to flip the scratch foam over and do another pattern (it’s supposed to be a ‘thumb print’). I think it worked out much better than my butterfly print. By then, I was familiar with the amount of paint and force needed to have a good lino print.
I really enjoyed these printing activities! However, this could turn out to be messy with primary students, so smocks or art T-shirts would be a good idea to keep their uniforms clean.