This summer I was asked to teach a week long printmaking class for our local park district, BOPARC. This was the second time I’ve taught a community based workshop for kids, and I continue to find more opportunities to bring printmaking to younger artists.
Making a sketchbook is the first project we do. This gets the kids printing right away, and it gives them a sketchbook for the rest of the workshop. I love having the kids print on the press, they always enjoy working it!
I think making a project like a calendar is a good functional project. This year we added a screen printing element to get more experience with different printing processes and tools. Students printed pre-cut acrylic flowers in red, blue, and yellow to think about composition and color layering/mixing.
I love the architectural project! Students make drawings of buildings using pictures of buildings located downtown in Morgantown. We talk about architectural elements and details that will make for more interesting drawings and prints. Students then transfer those drawings onto plates. Multiple prints are made using different colored inks on different colored paper. A sky is water colored onto a larger sheet of paper, and the building prints are then cut out and layered onto the larger paper.
Such a great group of kids! I think we all had a lot of fun!
Joseph Lupo 
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