Thursday, June 30, 2011

Marwen rocks!

Spent Monday and Tuesday with ten other CPS teachers at Marwen on Orleans just North of Chicago Ave. learning about print making....we inked acrylic boards and sent our original designs through the presses to create our own prints. Making the duralar templates and carving a linoleum block challenged my brain to see an image in positive and negative, light and dark, and in reverse!! What great exercise...and NO headache...some mistakes, though!
Monday morning we used a coffee stir to "draw" with on the back of our paper...without looking!!! A blind sketch was made of a still life on the table and then passed to someone else using another color of ink to add their lines. Some were actually pretty good!
Then we used thin plastic called duralar to make a template/pattern OR some chose pictures from magazines, to make a multicolored print. What a great learning experience...my first attempt really missed the mark, but the second was the best!
Today we looked at a book of WPA posters created during the late 30's and then chose a "cause" as the basis of a design that we first sketched, then traced onto a linoleum block (in reverse). Carving the linoleum was fun..I liked the feel of carving! After lunch we printed!

Marwen serves disadvantaged youth by providing wonderful art opportunities and offers teacher programs during April June and July. This class was the second I've taken and can't say enough about the great artists and staff!

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