First Print Project

Out of the various projects I taught, this print project remains one of my favourites.

'A Room with a View' was completed by a Yr7 group.

The inspiration behind the scheme of work had come from a visit to Tate Modern some time before. As a designer I am often drawn to graphic styles of art. I was struck by the work of David Hockney and especially Patrick Caulfield. I liked the simplicity and the contrast employed by Caulfield where he painted a tiny part of the composition very realistically. The starting point for this project with my pupils were postcards of Caulfield's 'After Lunch' and 'Interior with a Picture'.

I felt the block and linear type designs would work well with a poly-tile print.

Students initially made sketches from inside their homes with the request that part of the sketch could partially show a mirror, a window, an open doorway or surface top in addition to the other furniture and objects in the room.

Parts of the drawing were selected and simplified, then transferred to the tiles.Decisions were made about which parts of the tile would be printed in what colour. The tiles were then divided into their colour components or tiles were printed once with further over-printing taking place later.

The prints were made onto intensely coloured paper, pink, orange, yellow, green, red and white.

Where students had included windows or mirrors, I encouraged them to find scenes from photos or magazines to insert in these spaces. Similarly other students worked into their prints with oil pastels to add further colour and strength.