Printed Cityscapes

First graders continued with the cityscape theme and learned a relief printing technique using styrofoam sheets (a relief print is a print from raised images). We reviewed shapes and lines we would see in a cityscape such as rectangles, squares, triangles, straight lines, horizontal, diagonal, and vertical. Then, students planned their drawings on 6"x9" copy paper (same size paper as styrofoam sheets). Once competed with their cityscape plan, students then taped the drawing to the top of the styrofoam sheet and began tracing their pencils lines with an incredibly sharp pencil. The difficulty with this part of the assignment was making sure students applied enough pressure with the pencil to transfer an indentation into the styrofoam sheet. Sometimes, the planned drawing would tear as students transferred their lines. This was perfectly normal.

After all pencil lines were transferred to the styrofoam sheet, students then inked their styrofoam sheets with black water based block printing ink using a brayer, printing the image three times,  and re-inking after each print for good contrast.

As a class, we discussed how artists sign and number prints. Artists use numbers very similar to fractions when signing. Most students signed their print with a 1/3. The bottom number represents the total number of prints created. The top number represents one number within the series of prints.

Cityscapes

First graders are experimenting with a variety of materials to create their own cityscapes. After examining a slideshow of various examples of cityscapes created from different materials and brainstorming many objects or items we would see in a city, students are using the following materials at stations to develop their own unique cityscapes.

Newspapers: We discussed how columns of text, headlines, or even rectangular ads can appear like buildings in our mixed media cityscape.

Scrap Paper: Students have a large selection of colored and textured paper to choose from and even wall paper samples to create buildings, windows, or other elements within our cityscape.

Magazines: As students are looking through the magazines, we discuss proportion and how some images such as people may be too large for our cityscape and appear like giants next to our buildings. So, students are looking for images to cut out that would fit within our cityscape theme proportionately.

Chalk and Oil Pastels: Details can be added by drawing with the chalk and oil pastels. I am noticing most students are using these two materials to create their sky or enhance their newspaper or scrap paper buildings.

Cardboard Printing: Scraps of cardboard cut in various sizes can create the straight lines that we would see on buildings and skyscrapers within a cityscape. Students tap one side of the cardboard in black paint and stamp the cardboard on their paper to create rectangles, squares, and triangles for buildings, windows and doors within their cityscape. The goal is to create lines with cardboard not to paint and fill inside the buildings like a brush.

As students are working at each station to build their cityscape, we discuss how materials such as newspaper and magazines can overlap to create various areas of space within our mixed media art. By overlapping newspaper on top of our cardboard printing, some areas of our cityscape will appear up close while other areas will recede into the background.