Lesson video

Hello, how are you? I think I've met some of you before.

If I haven't, my name is Ms. Holland, and I'm going to be your teacher today.

Should we find out what we're gonna be learning about in today's art lesson? We are gonna be making an abstract print using a paper-cut technique.

And this is part of our unit, Abstract art: drawing, printing, and textiles.

So by the end of today's lesson, you'll have used paper-cut printing techniques to create multiple abstract prints.

Our keywords are paper-cut print, print, and template.

A paper-cut print is a printing process using paper templates.

And a print is a way of making a copy of something.

And then a template is a guide or pattern used to create something the same shape, design, or layout every time.

Perhaps you've used a template before.

Our lesson is in two halves, and the first is about designing and cutting out our abstract templates, and the second is about printmaking itself.

We're gonna create multiple prints, lots of prints.

So let's get started.

Design and cut an abstract template.

How do you think this print was created? It's beautiful, isn't it? Take a look.

One of our pupils has created this.

How do you think it was created? A print is made when an artist creates a design on a surface and then presses it onto another material, like paper or fabric, to make a copy.

And sometimes a printing press is used.

We are not gonna be using that today, but a printing press was invented in the Renaissance Times, and this allowed people for the first time to make lots of copies of books through printing.

And artists realised the benefits of this and start to create prints of their artwork.

And today, you are gonna be following that path of history and making your own prints.

A paper-cut print uses paper templates to create simple shapes, which act as a barrier between the different colours.

So it can act as a barrier.

And I'll show you how in a minute.

And using a paper-cut technique allows artists to create several different multi-coloured prints using the same templates.

True or false? A paper-cut printing process cannot be used to create multiple prints from the same templates.

True or false? Well done.

Of course, it's false.

But why? Well done.

Artists might choose this process as they can make multiple prints from the same templates.

So let's have a look at this beautiful abstract artwork that one of our pupils has done.

You may remember it from a different lesson.

What shapes and lines do you see in this artwork? Look really, really closely and take your time 'cause it's very detailed.

And it was created using lots of different textured paper, shapes, and ink, and then mark-making tools such as fabric cloths.

Well, you might have noticed these lovely lines, thick lines of teal-coloured ink, or these lovely circles layered over one another, made using different materials and techniques.

And also this zigzaggy shape made from folded paper.

Before you begin printing, you will need to design and cut your templates, and it's worth taking extra time over this.

So I'd like you to take a lot of care when you get to this stage, as it will help improve the quality of your print later on.

So if you have lovely, clean edges, it will help improve your print.

And Izzy says, "Adjusting her shapes before cutting them and using scissors with precision." So using scissors really carefully, make sure you are set up very straight at the table and use your scissors very, very carefully is super important at this stage to make sure that the shapes come out perfectly for the printing process.

And you can look at your previous artwork to help you with ideas for your templates.

And I would like you to do this today.

So both of these artworks have a mixture of circular shapes and harder angular lines.

So lovely circular shapes, and then angular lines.

And you can use some of the shapes and lines from your previous artwork.

So Izzy says, "I really like the simplicity of the circular shapes, and they contrast well." There's a nice contrast between the circular and the blocks and lines.

And remember, in an abstract artwork, the shapes and lines do not have to look realistic.

Remember, abstract artworks are not about being representational or realistic.

They're about expressing emotion, feelings, and thoughts.

"So these artworks," Izzy says, "both reflect everyday objects, but do not actually look exactly like those objects." So the one on the left was actually inspired and was representing sunflower seeds through the shapes and the lines, and the one on the right was representing jugs, everyday objects of jugs.

And the artist picked out the lines and the shapes and the patterns on the jugs.

After identifying the shapes and lines that you want to use, next, draw these onto cartridge paper.

So cartridge paper is lovely and thick, and that will allow your print to stay clean and sharp and not get too soggy with the ink.

So draw them on the cartridge paper and then look carefully before you cut them out.

So this is a good moment to reflect upon the shapes and the lines and the think, "Do I really want to include them? Do I want to change them? Am I happy with the size and shape?" And Izzy says, "I think my circle was a little bit too small actually, so I will draw another larger circle." And adjust anything that you are not happy with now before you get to, before you start cutting out.

And then we cut out our templates.

So we take time to make the cutting lines clean and smooth because we want the print to stay sharp.

So look really carefully at these images and you can see that they're very clean lines.

So looking at this shape, look careful at it.

What has the artist forgotten to do? Just maybe think to yourself, what has the artist forgotten to do? Well done.

Yeah, the lines are still jagged and uneven.

Can you see? They're not close to the pencil mark.

And so this will make a really messy, messy print.

So the artist will need to take more time to create smooth, clean lines with their scissors.

So moving on to our first exciting task.

And this is about designing and cutting our abstract templates.

And I do want you to take a lot of time over this.

Don't rush through because if we can get these templates right, that our print will look even better at the end.

So what I'd like you to do is look back at your previous artworks and select shapes and lines.

Or if it helps, you can look at these artworks and select shapes and lines from them.

Then I'd like you to take your cartridge paper, so thick paper, and I'd like you to draw the templates onto the cartridge paper and make sure you are very, very happy with them.

Are you happy with all the shapes? Are you happy with the sizes and the variety of them? And then I'd like you to take a lot of time over the cutting out.

So use your scissors very precisely, sitting up straight, really sitting by the table nice and straight, and take time to cut round your shapes to make sure that the lines are very clean.

Pause the video, and off you go.

Well done.

I wonder what shapes you've got.

Have you got curved shapes, angular shapes, messy shapes, very neat uniform shapes.

Remember, there's no right or wrong.

This is an abstract print.

So it's an expression of an emotion, feeling, or representation, or idea.

Let's see what our pupil did.

So our pupil looked at their previous artwork and selected the shapes that they wanted.

Then they drew them onto the cartridge paper and adjusted them before carefully cutting out the shapes and lines.

Well done.

Perhaps, if you are in class, you can compare each other's shapes and see how different they are.

Right, let's move on to our second section of the lesson, creating multiple prints, and this is where we really need to listen very, very carefully and closely to the process.

Like with any creative process, we want to take time to carefully gather our equipment.

So we will need a sheet of acetate or a plastic surface.

So acetate is a type of plastic, clear plastic.

Masking tape, two contrasting colours of printing ink.

And think really carefully about those contrasting colours, which colours look really well contrasted against each other.

And printing inks, quite a thick ink that you'll explore in a minute.

Several sheets of paper to print on, and paper templates.

And then finally, two rollers and an inking tray.

And the rollers are very specific types of roller with a rubber rolling pin at the end.

So, first of all, on our acetate or plastic surface, we want to mask off an area which will be our printing area.

And so you're gonna create a rectangle with marking tape, like this.

So two sides have longer lengths, and the other two sides, the vertical sides have shorter lengths.

And this will help to create clean edge to our print so it won't look fuzzy around the edge.

Roll on your first layer of ink.

So let's have a look at this.

So you put a dab of ink in the middle of your taped off rectangle, and then you're gonna get your roller and you're gonna roll it.

And you're gonna roll it very smoothly.

And you'll know when it starts getting ready to print, because it gets quite sticky.

You'll hear a sort of sticky noise, and that means it's ready for printing.

And Izzy says she's gonna use her lightest ink colour first.

And that's a really good idea.

So try and use your lightest ink colour first.

And then on a separate surface, so not on that eight surface, start laying out your templates to find a composition you are happy with.

So find a composition and arrangement of the shapes that you feel really happy with, and you think will look great.

So here are some shapes and then laying them out into different compositions.

This helps you to avoid moving the templates once they are on your inked surface.

So you don't really want to do that.

So get to a composition that you are happy with.

I wonder which one you like the best out of these.

Then you place your templates carefully onto the inked surface in your preferred composition.

Try not to touch the ink as you do this.

So place them really, really carefully down.

Now you could create a print.

Now, some artists would want to create a print at this stage, but it won't have a neat edge, but that's okay.

So you arrange your templates and then you place a clean new piece of paper over the top and you get your other roller.

So the one without the paint on.

And you roll over the paper and you want to create a rolling motion with equal pressure.

So I'd go in a very rhythmic pattern, backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards.

Then you carefully peel off that paper, and you're left with a print.

And then for the second colour, use an inking trait to start rolling out your colour.

Again, you want to hear that sticky sound.

So put a dab of the second colour, the darkest colour in your inking tray, and then roll your roller backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards until you start hearing that kind of sticky sound.

And you'll really feel it as well.

Then you know your ink is ready to roll.

And carefully roll the second ink over your templates.

Here we go, like Izzy has done.

So she's now rolled the second ink.

And she's used her roller slowly in one direction because you are rolling over the shapes, you want to be really careful, yeah, that you don't move the shapes as you put the ink on.

So use your roller in one direction.

And if you wish, you can then make a single colour print at this stage.

So remove the masking tape so it's nice and clean the edge, place a piece of paper over the ink.

Again, roll with a clean roller, backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards with equal pressure, and then lift your print.

And here we have it, a lovely, lovely print.

I really like how the blue is different from the shapes to the blue in the background.

'Cause, of course, we had yellow in the background as well.

Carefully try not to touch the ink.

You now remove all or some of your paper templates.

So you could leave some on or remove them all from the acetate.

And Izzy has a really good hint for this.

She's used a toothpick, so a very thin piece of wood to take the templates off.

And can you see the acetate here? Yeah? So she's removed some of those templates, the zigzag and the two oblongs.

And we can now create a two-colour print.

So remove some of the templates, use a clean piece of paper, place it over, use a roller, a clean roller to roll backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards with equal pressure, and then lift your print.

And voila! Isn't that beautiful? You've got a two-colour print.

And you can see here that the templates that we removed are now in yellow, the background colour, and the blue are still that rich blue because the templates are still on, and then we have that lighter bluey, greeny background colour of the yellow and blue ink mixed.

Now we can remove the remaining templates.

There we go.

"And my acetate," Izzy is saying, "is looking a little faded now that I've made several prints." Because, of course, every time we make a print, we remove some of the paint.

We transfer the ink that's on the acetate to the paper, the clean paper.

So we are removing ink every time we print.

And now we can create a final paper colour print.

Paper-cut print, sorry.

Remove any remaining templates.

Place a clean piece of paper over the templates.

Use a roller, equal pressure, backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, and then remove it.

And that is your final paper-cut print.

True or false? All of the templates should be removed before creating a print.

Think back to the processes we've just looked at.

All of the templates should be removed before creating a print.

Yes, it's false.

But why? Well done.

You might choose to remove some or all of your templates before creating a print, but you can create a first and second print with the templates still in place.

So our final task, and this is where you really get to explore and create your first print.

And of course, you can go back and watch parts of this video to help you if you'd like to remind yourself of some of the process, but let's go through it briefly here.

So arrange your templates.

First of all, mark out with masking tape your rectangle.

Put a dab of your lightest colour in the middle.

Use your roller to roll backwards and forwards.

So to distribute the ink equally.

And remember to listen to that sticky sound.

Then arrange your templates on the rectangle as you wish.

Place your paper over your ink, your clean paper, roll equally with equal pressure, backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards.

And then lift your print.

Off you go.

Well done.

I wonder what yours look like.

I wonder what colour you've chosen.

So it might have an uneven edge, your first print, as the masking tape has not yet been removed.

And it might have blank spaces where the templates have remained on the acetate, but not had paint over.

Well done.

Let's move on.

Create your second print.

So now we're gonna get our ink tray, roll out our second colour.

And remember to roll the ink in the ink tray until it gets that sticky noise and sticky feeling.

Then roll a second colour of ink over the first layer.

Be very, very careful rolling one direction so you do not lift the templates.

Then you want to remove the masking tape so you've got a nice, clean edge.

Then you want to place your paper over your ink and use a roller on the back of your paper before lifting your print.

Pause your video, and off you go.

Well done.

Let's see what you may have had.

So you might have a sharper edge where the masking tape has been removed.

And you might have clear shapes still though in a single colour, but you can see it's slightly different from the background colour.

Now, our third print.

So remove some of the templates.

So just remove some of the templates and really think about where, because the colour will be different.

So do you want a really balanced composition? So you need to think or do you want it unbalanced? Place your paper over the ink, roll a clean ink roller backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, and then lift off your print.

Off you go and pause the video.

Well done.

Let's see.

Have you got multiple colours for the different shapes where the templates have been removed? And do you have a slightly faded appearance where the ink has made several prints? Have you noticed that? Isn't that beautiful? I bet yours are as well.

And then finally, we're gonna create our fourth print.

So we're gonna remove any remaining templates.

And you're gonna notice how the print has a lot of the ink has been removed.

Now you're gonna place your paper over your ink and roll backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, and then you're gonna lift your print.

Pause the video, and off you go.

Well done.

And here is a fourth print.

And you may have noticed that the shapes are in a single colour with a distinct background in a different colour.

And you may have noticed the more faded appearance where the ink has made several prints.

Now compare all of your prints.

Have you got a favourite one? Why? So thank you so much for joining me today to make an abstract print using a paper-cut technique.

Artists might refer back to their previous work to get ideas for their next piece.

And that's what you have done today.

As artists, you've referred back to previous artworks.

And then you've used a paper-cut technique, which allowed you to create several different multi-coloured prints, like the images here.

And then we've learned that artists might choose a paper-cut printing method as it means they create several prints from the same templates.

Thank you again, and I hope to see you very soon.