Foam Brush Printmaking

I've really got into printmaking over the past couple of years, infact it's become one of my favourite things to teach. It can be an expensive media to work in though, so I thought I'd create a lesson plan that allowed teachers and students to create prints using the most barebones of materials! For this lesson you'll need a variety of foam brushes and rollers, which are readily (and cheaply) available in any art or craft shop. I used acrylic paint for my examples, though you could just as easily use tempera paint.

Here's a photo of the brushes and rollers that I used...

The first thing you need to have students do is choose their initial colour layer. They can then create patterns and designs on to their paper in this colour.

Once this layer has been allowed to dry, students can then select the colour for their second layer. Designs and repeated patterns can then be added over the top of the original image.

This second layer then needs to be left to dry. 

For the final stage, students should choose a third colour for the last layer. It's best to be quite sparing when applying this third colour - students should aim to keep some white space on their page as it aids the pattern recognition and visual continuity.

Printmaking always has something of an 'accidental' feel to it. You never quite know how the results will look until the end of the process. It's great for students to work in this way, adding extra layers to an image until they become happy with the result.