2D Boot Camp: Collage and Monoprinting

After painting in my high school 2D Boot Camp, students also tried out collage and printmaking. For collage, I had each student make a small torn paper work. I was inspired to try out torn paper collage a couple years ago when I came across the work of Elizabeth St. Hilaire who is known for her "paper paintings". It was kind of a refreshing way to approach collage since it was so different than what I'd done before. I gave students the option of doing a collage on paper that was around 5x7 inches or doing something more involved on larger paper. Most of the small collages were completed in a couple days. Students had access to a tub of magazines, construction paper scraps, sheet music, and other found papers.

 For the next boot camp, I demonstrated a few mono printing techniques using the 5x5 inch student gelli plates I ordered. I had a box of texture tools, several different colors of acrylic craft paint, and a few stencils/masks I'd made. Some students created their own masks and got really cool results. I didn't require the students to make their own masks or stencils since the purpose of this was to just try out mono printing and get used to the process.

The antlers and fish were masks created by a student.

I like to show the positive and negative result of prints. This one was a peacock feather first used as a mask then the feather was removed and the ghost which shows the texture was printed on top of a solid color.

Students have been making two dimensional projects in the medium of their choice and we'll be starting 3D boot camp soon!