Week 9: Styrofoam Printing
Welcome to week 9 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?
Styrofoam printing? What's that? It's a form of block printing. It's like using a rubber stamp but with styrofoam instead. You draw your design on the styrofoam, put some ink on it, stamp it onto some paper. Done! Alright, it's not QUITE that simple, but you get the idea.
I've done print making before, but I've never used styrofoam. This was a new adventure for me. But, that's what this whole 52 weeks of art is all about, trying new things, expanding my artistic creativity. So, styrofoam printing, here I come!
In case you did not know, not all styrofoam is created equal. You can get some cheap foam plates and use those, but they are thin, flimsy, and overall just not great. You're gonna want to go with something a little sturdier. Foam trays that meat comes on work great. Now, you don't have to recycle your meat trays - although you could, that's a great way to help out the environment if you're in to that sort of thing. You can buy new trays. Just make sure you cut off the sides so you have a nice, flat surface to work with. If you don't have a flat surface your print won't turn out great.
Alright, now that you've selected your styrofoam of choice, on to your design. Keep in mind that whatever design you choose will be printed in reverse. So, if you're doing text make sure you trace it in reverse onto your foam. Unless you want to read backwards. It's your art, I'm not gonna tell you how to make it.
I went with two different designs. First thing, measure out your paper, your design obviously has to fit onto your piece of styrofoam.
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| Measured my paper to fit my foam. |
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| Clean up your design, clean lines only. |
My second design was this little foxy guy. He's kinda cute, I guess I'll keep him.
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| My foxy friend has thicker lines than Flynnigan. |
Next step, transfer your design onto your piece of foam. Here I have some transfer paper I was planning on using. FYI, transfer paper does NOT work on foam.
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| Getting ready to transfer Flynnigan onto foam. |
I taped Flynnigan onto my foam, I didn't want him moving around while I was trying to trace him. For this part you can use a ballpoint pen, I recommend using a different color. That way you can see where you've already traced. I used a mechanical pencil. I was trying to get some very fine lines that I wouldn't have been able to get with a ballpoint pen.
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| Flynnigan getting ready to be traced. |
When I found out that my transfer paper did NOT work on the foam I had to trace Flynnigan again. I used more pressure this time and hoped for the best - no mistakes this time around. I used some charcoal powder and rubbed it over Flynnigan so I could see him better. I wanted to make sure I got all my lines.
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| Flynnigan after his charcoal rubdown. |
Time to ink him up. Flynnigan's a goldfish, so I used gold ink. Obvs. Make sure you cover your work surface so you don't get ink all over the place. I used some flyers I got in the mail. Nothing better than free, right? Thank you, Rebecca Johnson, for the brayer and glass. What's a brayer? It's that roller thing you see in the picture below. It's like a fancy paint roller for print making.
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| Gold water based Speedball ink, speedball brayer, piece of glass. |
And here we have Flynnigan's transformation from drawing, to foam, to final print! Yeah, I know, this isn't the best photo. Sorry, Flynn, you're a little blurry here. I used paper that is made just for printing.
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| The many faces of Flynnigan G. Fish |
Did you forget about my foxy friend? Well, he got black ink.
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| Black water based speedball ink, speedball brayer, piece of glass. |
Here's my fox is all his glory. Going from simple line drawing, to foam, to final print.
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| The three steps of foam printing. |
Now, when you're doing print making, keep in mind that the first print is probably not going to turn out great. You have to try it again, make sure you get a good, even coverage of ink all over. Below, you'll see Flynnigan printed twice. The top print is a second run, the bottom print is the first printing. You can see much more detail in Flynnigan the Second.
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| Flynnigan the Second, Flynnigan the Original. |
Here's some close up photos of both prints.
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| Flynnigan the Original |
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| Flynnigan the Second |
Here's Foxy. Here's his first run, second run, and then printed on some colored pastel paper.
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| Fox run one |
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| Fox run two |
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| Fox on pastel paper |
Well, what'd you think of Flynnigan and Fox? Are you a fan?
On to rating styrofoam printing...
Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.
Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.
Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.
Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?
Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium
So, for styrofoam printing, my rating is: 17
Ease of use: 5
If you can use a pen/pencil then you can do this. Easy peasy. Just keep in mind that ANY mark you make on the foam will end up a part of your print. And it's pretty easy to mark up styrofoam.
Affordability: 3
The styrofoam is pretty cheap. It's the ink, brayer, and paper that'll cost you. Now, @RollingMeadowsArt used markers instead of printing ink. That will save you cost on actual print making ink. So, if you just want to dip your toe into the print making waters, using foam and markers is a good choice.
Accessibility: 4
Foam plates are available just about anywhere. Markers are also available everywhere. If you want to use print making inks you'll have to go to an art store and turn to the internet. I LOVE the internet. Amazon is the best.
Fun to Use: 5
This was fun. It was easy to do. Quick. Seeing Fynnigan in his final form was exciting.
If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...
If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!
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