Line printing supplies are simple, low cost and easy to make. All you need is cardboard, paint and paper.
Watch Cathy show you how to make your own straight line printing stamps.
Supplies
Supplies
Cardboard line stamps cut from corrugated cardboard boxes, heavy duty cardboard or matt board are used in all the activities on this website. And all you need to begin are the two straight-line stamps. After experimenting with many different sizes of cardboard stamps I have found the dimensions shown below to work the best.
1. Large Straight Line Stamp: 3”x 2 ½” (8 x 6 cm)
2. Small Straight Line Stamp:1 ½” x 2 ½” (4 x 6 cm)
Use the longer side of the cardboard, the side with the wavy line that you can see through, for printing. It is not that you cannot use the other side, but it is not as strong, and it tends to bend and collapse.
See the difference in size between the two line tools. The line printing tools are proportional. The smaller stamp is half the size of the larger stamp.
You can see the 4 steps of the line printing process below.
Dip
Lift
Press
Repeat
As you introduce the process to any group, be sure to also show them what to do with their line tools when they need to stop! A few simple guidelines helps keep hands, prints, and work surfaces clean.
Guidelines:
- Rest cardboard stamps against the tray of paint when not in use.
- Pick up the cardboard from the clean side when ready to print.
- Use the printing motion as demonstrated
Curved line tools are useful for more advanced work – letters, names, and the alphabet, signs and posters, machines, architecture, skeletons and composition.
To Make Curved Line Stamps:
- To make the large 3”curved line stamps, cut masking tape rolls or paper coffee cups in half.
- Cut toilet paper rolls in half and then in half again to create the small 1 ½” curves.
To Print a Curved Line:
- Hold the half circle on its edge
- Place carefully so as not to smear
- Lift straight up
Jon, age 7, demonstrates printing a curve.
Consider letting line tools dry and reusing them. Straight line tools will probably need the worn, painted side cut off. Half circles can be used again and again, especially if the paint is the same color.
Liquid tempera paint is used for all the lessons in this website. Regular grade tempera paint (not washable, which has filler in it) works best since it has more color pigment.
If you are working with a whole school, you probably order large bottles of tempera paint. But, pint-sized bottles of tempera paint with squeeze tops make paint distribution go quickly and easily. It makes sense to get a “6 pack of pints” and refill them as needed. The 6 pack contains the primary colors – red, yellow, blue – plus black, white and green.
As you squeeze a line of paint out on a tray, be sure to try printing a few lines yourself before distributing trays of paint to students. If the paint seems too thick, you can add a little water and mix.
- Trays or coated paper plates for holding and distributing paint
- Practice paper 9×12 inches (standard copy paper works well for this — or pieces of newspaper)
- 12 x 18 inches paper or larger. You can use any kind of paper, but use heavier paper if you plan to have students paint their prints.
- Large rolls of paper for group practice and murals
- Newspapers for covering tables and for padding work areas
- Plastic tablecloths come in handy for covering tables
Small found objects that print clear lines and shapes are exciting and suggestive to have on hand to add to linear constructions. Be on the lookout for small bottle caps, spools, pencil grips, and other objects that hold potential for printing.
When limited to exploring one object at a time, students figure out how to use an object in different ways.
It is helpful to have students explore found objects before adding them to prints. Here a table of three-year-old children explore objects that print different kinds of circles. Exploring just circular forms offers an opportunity to observe and describe subtle differences.
*Warning! Don’t be too quick to add found objects! Once objects are added, it is difficult to return to the more difficult intellectual and physical work of linear construction.
Watch a second-grader add a found object print to a pattern design. Notice that the found object was offered only after the linear pattern design had been developed.
Once prints have dried, I have found that children enjoy revisiting their work by adding color to small areas with oil pastels. Crayons and colored pencils also work, but oil pastels are more vibrant and actually look like paint. When other areas are painted, it is difficult to tell the difference.
This kindergartener loved using oil pastels to color in his first line printing exploration.
Placing a section of newspaper under the print makes coloring so much easier. Realize that coloring takes time and does require a little muscle work. Some children will spend a great deal of time coloring, whereas others tire quickly and are happy with a few bright spots of added color. Be sure to suggest repeating each color to unify the composition.
Start with “Dried Tempera Cakes”
Dried tempera cakes are easy to pull out and use to add color.
Emma, age 4, adds paint to a group printing exploration.
Watercolor or dried tempera cakes were used to paint this Imaginary Building.
Liquid Tempera Paint
The way in which liquid tempera paint is made available, the kind of brushes that are used, and the way in which paints are introduced makes a big difference in children’s attitude and approach to painting prints. A stiff 3/8” width easel brush is great for filling in both large and small areas. It is also helpful to have some narrower ¼” wide brushes available for details.
- Stir paint
- Wipe brush on side of container
- Outline and fill in or gently move brush up and down and side to side to fill in spaces
- Leave the beauty of the lines for clarity
- Replace brush in appropriate container
When one brush stays with each paint color, colors stay purer and water is not necessary. Consider having jars of paint available for use – at least one jar per student. Mix a variety of unusual colors such a blue-violent, red-orange, yellow-green, and light blue. You might enlist a few students to prepare jars of paint for the class.
Exploring color mixing is a great way to fill prints with beautiful colors! Teachers should distribute the three primaries as needed – BUT NOT ALL AT ONCE! After much trial and error, I have learned to give out trays with just yellow paint to begin. Teachers, hold onto those squeeze bottles and be in charge of squeezing out the next primary when students are ready. And don’t squeeze out too much at a time or you will have a lot of wasted paint!
Directions*
- Start with a dollop of yellow paint on a palette or a coated paper plate.
- Paint yellow in at least three places.
- Squeeze a very small dollop of red next to the yellow.
- Take a very tiny bit of red and mix it into some of the yellow until you have orange. Mix until no streaks are showing, then paint your orange mixture in at least three places.
- Mix 3 different oranges by adjusting the proportions of red and yellow. Try to mix a light orange, a medium orange, and a red-orange mixture. Always mix until no streaks are showing. And always paint each color that you mix in 3 or more places.
- Paint with pure red in 3 places.
- Squeeze a very small amount of blue onto the painting palette. Mix three different purples, painting each one in 3 places. Continue until you get to pure blue.
- Paint pure blue in 3 places.
- Mix the greens on another day, starting again with a dollop of yellow and a very tiny dot of blue.
*Painting each color in three places is a way of saving a record of all the color mixtures, as well as a way to unify one’s composition. Children tend to get caught up in the excitement of mixing colors, so the “paint each mixture more than once” is an important guideline!
Watch a teacher give instructions for painting line prints.