Art

‘Great Waves’ Ciro from 3H

This week the Grade 3’and 4’s finally got to print their ‘Great Waves’ and the results were amazing! There are three steps to every print, the first is design. After learning about Japanese artist Hokusai, and studying his most famous print, the students drew their own great waves. The design had to include a towering wave, some middle and/or foreground waves and Mt. Fuji. Many students also included the traditional long boats in their drawing.

The second step is the carving. The students then traced their design through the paper onto printing foam, and then preceded to carve deep enough into the foam so no paint could get in. The final step is the printing, the fun part, the students actually created a reduction print as they printed it twice. The first print was done with light colours over the sky and sea. Then they carved smaller detail lines into their foam such as small waves and clouds, then rolled darker colours over the foam and printed a second time over the first print. This technique allows a variety of colours to show through as the prints are layered, just like in traditional Japanese wood block printing (ukiyo-e).

Here are some of the students from 3H at work during the printing stage:

Charlotte