ART HISTORY

Printmaking at Home
Focus on Process:

BRUC E M USE U M
1 Museum Drive • Greenwich, CT

Currently at the Bruce Museum is an

Above, a lithographic stone and, on the right, a printed image of
a bassoonist holding his instrument, titled Pour Toi, Les Vielles
Histoires, created by artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in1893.
exhibit of prints by the artist Henri
de Toulouse-Lautrec made through
the lithographic process. Lithography is a printmaking process
that involves creating a drawing on a special lithography stone,
using acid to fix the drawing permanently into the stone, and then
creating prints from the drawing by inking it. Toulouse-Lautrec used
lithography as a way of creating multiple images quickly, and many
of his works were posters or advertisements. While lithography is a
difficult medium to master, printmaking is not, you can do it at home!

Your Turn! Make Your Own Prints!

What You Will Need: What To Do:
1. Cover your table with
• Square of Styrofoam from newspaper so it doesn’t
an egg crate
get dir ty.
• Plate or food packaging 2. Create a drawing on your
• Pencil with a dull tip Styrofoam with the pencil.
• Tempera paint Ever y where you press down
with the pencil will become an
• Big paintbrush area where no paint sticks.
• Blank paper 3. Use your big paintbrush to
• Newspaper to cover your table cover the top of the Styrofoam
with a layer of paint. Tr y to
avoid getting paint in the places where you made lines!
4. Press the paper onto the painted side of your Styrofoam and then peel it of f.
5. Presto, you have a print!
6. You can clean of f your Styrofoam and use dif ferent colors.

Common Core State Standard:

GET
Creative!
ELA: Literacy: R.L. 3.3-5.3, R.L. 3.7-6.7, R.L. 3.1-5.1,
R.L. 6.4-8.4, R.H. 6-8.4, R.H. 6-8.7