Gyotaku Prints

Gyotaku Prints

Another of my favorites....I know I say they are all my favorites!

Fish printing is always a great way to introduce PRINTMAKING to students.  They love the idea that you can take something from nature and make art from it.  They love that it is something they can do at home with minimal supplies and materials.  And they think it is hilarious that the fish smell fishy! 

So in my classroom we use rubber fish.  Rubber fish are safe and not so smelly ;) 

We also do bubble prints.  These are fun and always unique. 

Here are the materials you will need for the fish prints:

Rubber fish or real fish

Paints

Brushes

Paper-drawing paper or rice paper

Paper towels

For the bubble prints you will need:

Containers to mix the paint, water and soap

Straws (one per person)

Water

Tempera Paint

Soap or Bubbles

Spoons for stirring

How to Make Your Prints:

I usually have one group of students work on making the Gyotaku prints while the others begin their bubble prints.  I set out the bubbles at each table-usually 2 different colors. I call one table at a time to do the fish prints.  I set up one table as the fish printing table and the students can select the fish they would like to use.  Once they print it they can go back and make bubble prints. 

For the prints you see in the photos here we only used black ink for the fish. 

This year we are going to use a variety of colors and I'm going to try this entire lesson in a different way. 

I will post those photos later for comparison!