Printmaking
Making a print that represents YOU.
Project Description: You will be creating prints that represent you. This image could be anything that reflects you as a person (self portrait, symbol, animal, designs...). The printing plate will be made from foam using pens to indent the design.
Before you begin the printmaking project you need to know the difference between POSITIVE and NEGATIVE space in an art piece. Positive and negative space play an important role in determining the overall composition in a work of art.
What is Positive and Negative Space?
Simply put, positive space is best described as the areas in a work of art that are the subjects, or areas of interest. Negative space is area around the subjects, or areas of interest.
Take a look at the image to the left.
For example, do you see faces or a vase?
If you are seeing a vase, then you are seeing the white area as the positive space. The black areas become the negative space. If you are seeing faces, then you are seeing the black areas as the positive space, and the white area as the negative space.
When you start designing your print, keep in mind that whenever you are pressing the pen into the foam plate, that space will be the color of your paper. Whatever is still sticking up off of the surface will have the ink rolled onto it and stamped onto the paper. So with the image above, the faces would have had ink and the vase would have been the area that had the pen colored into the foam plate. IF YOU DO ANY WORDS OR NUMBERS THEY NEED TO BE BACKWARDS ON YOUR FOAM, SO WHEN THEY PRINT THEY WILL BE SEEN THE CORRECT DIRECTION. See the video below for a process example.