Gyotaku: Japanese Fish Printing

This week at UMS we are continuing our studies in printmaking by learning about the traditional Japanese artform known as Gyotaku (meaning "fish print"). Gyotaku began in the mid-1800s as a way for fishermen to record their catch. Before selling their fish at the market, they'd make a print of the fish using ink and rice paper. Here's a video of contemporary artist, Naoki, discussing his Gyotaku process:

Here are some photos of Mrs. Davis' class trying it out for themselves. We used rubber fish!

Preparing Surfaces

Today in art class we talked about preparing surfaces. Some artists take loads of time to prepare the surface for their artwork; sometimes they spend more time preparing their surface than they actually do drawing, painting or printing. Preparing your surface can truly enhance your artwork's overall effect...and the process can be very freeing and fun. Today we prepared two different surfaces; we created our own handmade scratch-paper as well as painted a watercolor background (to be used for a printing project next week). 

Make Your Own Scratch Paper:

1. Color an entire piece of paper using crayons [Press hard! (You might break a few)]        

2. Mix 1/5 dish detergent with 4/5 black tempera paint             

3. Using a foam brush, cover your colored paper completely with a layer of black paint/detergent

4. Let dry 

5. Scratch your image!                                                                         

                                                                                                       

First, we colored the entire paper using crayons

Next, we painted black on top and set it aside to dry

                           Here are some pictures of Mrs. Howard's class preparing their surfaces:

Yes, she was sent to the sink right away.

Beautiful liquid watercolor paintings

Here's our black tempera painting station and a few kids at work