Mrs. Ryback's Art Studio: 2nd Grade Pop Art Prints

Artists are inspired by so many different things, from nature to current events, the people in their lives and the dreams in their minds. 2nd Graders discussed the work of Pop Artist Andy Warhol, and discovered that he was inspired by the elements of Popular Culture, like movie stars, fast cars, fashion trends and even the soup cans in his pantry! We noticed how bright and colorful his prints are and how he replicates his images many times in one work.

Students brainstormed in their sketchbooks at least 4 ideas inspired by pop culture and their personal interests, drawing representations of each. They chose their favorite one to print for their final artwork.

Printmaking is the process by which an artist makes copies, or stamps, an image many times. For this project each student printed their image 4 times.

(Quick side note: when an image is printed the resulting print will be a mirror image of the original stamp. This means that if a student chose to use words in their image, they had to write them backwards on their original drawing. Keep your eyes pealed for those words, because they were an extra added challenge for these young artists!)

We created stamps of our drawings in foam sheets, then chose 4 colors for each of the backgrounds of the prints. Looking at a color wheel, we talked about how important contrast is- that the colors we choose to print with should contrast with the colors of the backgrounds. By this, I mean that the colors should be drastically different, opposites in some way, whether they are dark and light, bold and dull, or complimentary. Students wrote down the colors they wished to print on each of their 4 background papers.

Working in small groups, and beginning with the lightest color of ink chosen, students printed their image 4 times. They used a brayer to roll ink onto their foam stamp, then pressed it onto their background papers. Once dry, they assembled the 4 prints to create one finished Pop Art inspired work.