Linoleum leaf prints

Arts & Activities, Nov, 2005 by Karen Skophammer

MATERIALS

*Leaves

* Paper in various colors

* Linoleum blocks

* Plexiglas[R]

* Water-based block printer's ink

* Brayer

* Baren

* Gouges

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will ...

* define shape, texture, line, color, space and value.

* recognize the positive and negative areas and how they complement the design.

* experiment with the possibilities of relief printing to express ideas.

* utilize the materials, tools and techniques of block printing.

* develop a concept of balance, composition of masses, textures and shapes.

* display pleasure in creating original art prints.

Nature plays a significant role in teaching art to students in my classroom. It helps them develop a sense of the visual properties of texture, line, shape, color, value and space. Nature can inspire us as artists and it also can become the source of artwork.

When the leaves start changing colors in the fall, it is irresistible not to use the vivid colors and interesting shapes and textures of the leaves for an art lesson. I decided I'd have the students make stationery, note cards and scrapbook covers by creating leaf-design linoleum blocks and printing them in various colors.

When looking at a leaf, the veins (or lines) create rhythmic patterns. Repetition of a certain type and direction of line alone or in combination with other types and directions of lines creates rhythmic patterns. In nature, there is an infinite number and variety of them. I held up a leaf and showed the class the rhythmic pattern.

My class went then on a "nature walk" to collect leaves. I told the students to be on the lookout for leaves that had interesting repetitions of lines on them. There were lots of "oohs" and "aahs" from the students, many of whom realized they had never really looked at leaves before.

When we got back to the art room we talked about the shapes of the leaves. We decided they were organic shapes or non-geometric shapes. The contours of the leaves were irregular and made up of irregular and curved lines. We also noticed that the lines on the leaves broke the leaf into many smaller shapes.

What about texture? Students could feel the texture on the leaf. It was at this point that we discussed creating a linoleum-block print. These fifth-graders were familiar with block printing so they said the texture, when printed, would be only two-dimensional and called pattern or visual texture. After all of our preparation, the students were anxious to begin our hands-on portion of the unit of study.

Students traced around each of their linoleum blocks on a white piece of paper. (This way the students would know how large to draw their leaf designs.) Then, they drew a pleasing leaf design on the white piece of paper based on the leaves they had collected. I encouraged the students to include the leaf's veins when they drew the leaf to make the designs as interesting as possible.

Next, we blackened the part of the drawing that we wanted to receive the ink and print (positive area) and left the rest white, which would not receive ink (negative space) and would be the color of the paper the design was printed on.

Some students chose to leave the whole linoleum's background sticking up to receive ink, and they outlined the leaf design with the gouge, making the shape of the leaf appear white when printed. Others carefully cut away the background and left the leaf shape and veins sticking up so the leaf would print the color of the ink used. Gouges were used to carefully cut out portions that were marked white or to cut away.

After cutting was completed, water-based block printer's ink was rolled out on Plexiglas[R] with a brayer and transferred to the cut linoleum's surface. Paper was then pressed on the inked linoleum, rubbed with a baren and the print was then pulled.

When the prints were dry, we discussed how the ink and paper color choices affected the mood of the prints.

The students were pleased with their results and couldn't believe they had learned so much from something they had seen but not really looked at their entire lives!

Karen Skophammer teaches art at Manson Northwest Webster School in Barnum and Manson, Iowa.