Our year 7 course concentrates on the art elements and principles. This unit links with our curriculum requirements on shape and form.

Stencilling
Students sat in our Japanese Garden and drew on inspiration from nature and the environment around them. They were to create a page of images, designs, and sketches that they later transferred to a design for their art piece.
Students were required to make a detailed drawing of their final design keeping the shapes of their objects clear. We needed to look at the shape /shapes each image makes. Each image should be made up of a number of shapes allowing gaps to be left between them (Rendering was not a requirement and needed to be avoided)
We then transferred their final drawings onto clear transparencies with permanent markers. Firm drawing paper or stencil paper may also be used.
Using blades/stanley knives, students cut between the shapes leaving a good width between the cut out areas. (Don't leave too narrow a strip as it may weaken your stencil.)
The stencil was taped into place with masking tape and supported with the other hand whilst painting/sponging.
Students mixed paints, keeping the sponge or brushes fairly dry and painting over the stencil in soft dabbing motions. We found that sponges worked well in larger areas and brushes worked better for smaller areas.
We then tried stencilling images on a variety of coloured backgrounds.

Year 8
Tone: Activity One
Students were asked to bring in an A4 size magazine image of a face. They were then required to make a black and white photocopy of their original image.
Students were given a lesson on tone and creating different tonal effects. Students were asked to look for areas of tone. They needed to break up their face image into four tonal grades. They needed to look for areas of tone and break them up into shapes. Students could choose any four colours to create their tonal drawing in, as long as they varied in intensity. (Eg. A light colour was to be used in light tonal areas where as deeper colours were to be used in darker tonal areas.) Students were not to render their image, however create flat areas of colour.

Activity Two
Students either used a light box to trace their tonal drawing or they chose to photocopy their drawing. The result was to be used as a template. Students then chose four pieces of coloured paper of, again, varied colours and intensities. Students were to use one piece as their main colour/ background colour. (This is generally the colour with the largest area) Then cut out the other three colours according to the template and stick them onto the main background until they have a paper collage of the tonal drawing.
This activity teaches students to stylise an image. They learn to look beyond traditional tonal rendering and look for areas of colour, positive and negative spaces in a design. It also helps students develop skills necessary in printmaking techniques, which are to be used later in their schooling.

Year 10
The Circus is in Town
Serigraphy is one of four basic printmaking techniques; Relief, Intaglio, Planography, Serigraphy.
Serigraphy is used to create silkscreen or stencil prints. The area to be printed is created as a stencil. The stencil is either painted onto or attached to a silk screen and the ink is forced through the screen with a squeegee creating a print.
Artists traditionally numbered an edition of prints under the bottom left hand side of their print. The numbers are written in pencil and indicate the print number and edition size. (Eg 4/15 indicates that the print is the 4th print of an edition of 15) The title of the work is written in pencil underneath and in the centre of the print and the artists signature is signed in pencil on the bottom right hand side of the print.
We looked at artworks by artists such as Seurat, Toulouse Lautrec, Picasso and studied their circus images. Students were then required to create a four colour design, based on the circus.
Designs needed to contain interesting shapes and flat areas of colour. Once designs were completed and coloured, they needed to be transferred onto four separate transparencies. Using a permanent marker, they traced each individual colour, creating four stencils.
Registration marks were drawn onto the corners of each stencil. These marks were then traced onto ten sheets of paper and placed aside ready for printing.

Materials needed were organised, ink, squeegee, and silkscreen.

We started by printing the lightest colour first. The transparency stencils were placed over the paper ensuring the registration marks were well aligned.
The silk screen was flooded by placing ink along one end of the screen and dragging the ink with the squeegee until there was a thin film of ink covering the required area. The screen was placed over the stencil then the ink was forced through the screen by applying firm pressure to the squeegee. This process was repeated until the edition had been printed. Once the first colour had dried, the entire process was repeated again with the second colour, then third and fourth stencils.
The students then correctly wrote the edition, title and signed the completed prints for assessment.
If silk screens are not available, carry out the same process, but use brushes and sponges to apply ink instead of using the screen.

Filler stencils
Painting with liquid screen filler is an easy and direct way of producing a stencil. (Speedball Water Soluble Screen Filler is successful and now available at Zart Art). With this product you can use water based screen printing inks.
A design or drawing is worked out. The easiest way to transfer the design onto the screen is to place the design underneath the screen. The mesh is transparent allowing easy visibility of the design. This process is based on the progressive build up of colour.
Start by painting with the liquid screen filler anything that is to remain white.
Registration marks on the backing board are extremely important for an accurate and successful edition of prints. Students must mark the exact place to align their paper for every print.
The first colour to print will be the lightest colour. The areas to be kept this colour are to be painted onto the screen with filler, creating the second stencil. Students progressively print the colours required and then paint out, using the filler onto the screen, the areas they want to remain those colours.
Speedball Water Soluble Screen Drawing Fluid is another successful medium. Students can paint this directly onto their silk screen. This is applied where they want the image to appear. Screen filler is then applied onto the screen in a very thin layer. When the screen filler is dry, the Drawing fluid can be washed away with water, leaving the area exposed to print. This process can create beautiful brushstrokes and fresh, free flowing lines.
A Year 12 student last year has used a number of the techniques developed over the previous activities in her Unit 3 & 4 screen prints. She started her process by taking black and white photographs of family members. Some of these images were expressing fantastic emotions and showed the characters of the sitter.
The student then enlarged her image and looked at the flat areas of tone her image created. (as the yr 8's did in their activity) She drew a detailed colour plan to be used for her silkscreen. She chose bold vibrant colours that made each area of tone a distinct shape. (Her detailed plan was a beautiful piece itself.)
The technique that this student then used was painting with liquid screen filler to produce a stencil. (Speedball Water Soluble Screen Filler). She progressively painted out areas onto her screen until the image was complete. She experimented with colours at each stage of printing. She did not stick purely to her original colour scheme. Her final piece is a collage of her silkscreen images arranged over a larger surface.

Copyright 2004 Zart Art & Zart Education Service