Teaching Packet

Process and Product: Printmaking

Part of Process and Product

Explore activities, ideas, and artworks to learn more about printmaking techniques- and get inspired to create! This unit features a video with a contemporary working artist who makes prints, image galleries of prints from the National Gallery's collection, an explainer that dives into the basics of printmaking, and a lesson for beginner experimentation with various printmaking techniques. This resource is intended for grades 6-12.

The image consists of multiple rectangular panels with wavy lines and blocky shapes, creating a fragmented landscape. The colors used are rich earth tones such as reds, blacks, blues, greens, and beige, resembling rock formations and valleys.
Clare Romano, Associated American Artists, Grand Canyon, 1977, color collagraph on wove paper, Gift of Bob Stana and Tom Judy, 2016.148.44

Grade Level

Subject

Language

Hear From An Artist About His Work

In this video, artist MasPaz discusses his approach to art and making prints for his community.

After you watch the video, discuss these questions.

  • What is the source of the artist’s inspiration?
  • What does MasPaz mean when he says he views his work as an “exercise”?
  • What choices did he make as he planned his prints?
  • What interests you about printmaking?

Prints From the National Gallery of Art

Artists use different methods of making prints to depict a variety of subjects. As you look at each group of prints, consider these questions.

  • How does each artist use scale, color, line, and shape?
  • Which printmaking methods do you see?
  • What preparation steps did do you think the artist took to make the print?
  • Where does the artist repeat a design or pattern?
  • What feeling or story does each print communicate? Why do you think that?
  • What about these prints surprises or inspires you?
Clare Romano, Calcio (Soccer), 1958, woodcut, Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Gift of Reba and Dave Williams, 2008.115.4135
The image features intersecting lines and irregular shapes forming an abstract composition. The elements create a design reminiscent of a garden with shapes resembling leaves, flowers, and stems defined by vertical and diagonal lines. Vibrant colors such as red, yellow, blue, and green are abstractly suggestive of blossoms. The overall effect is akin to viewing a scene through a stained glass window, hinting at an outdoor setting with abstract visual cues.
Clare Romano, Summer Garden, 1958, color collagraph on red laid paper, Gift of Bob Stana and Tom Judy, 2016.148.43
The image consists of multiple rectangular panels with wavy lines and blocky shapes, creating a fragmented landscape. The colors used are rich earth tones such as reds, blacks, blues, greens, and beige, resembling rock formations and valleys.
Clare Romano, Associated American Artists, Grand Canyon, 1977, color collagraph on wove paper, Gift of Bob Stana and Tom Judy, 2016.148.44
The image features intersecting diagonal and vertical lines creating angular shapes. These lines resemble a bridge structure. Above the bridge is a concentric circular pattern, and below is a swirling rhythm of lines. A small boat or ship is shown emerging from an archway amidst the lines.
Clare Romano, Bridge in the City, 1955, woodcut, Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Gift of Reba and Dave Williams, 2008.115.4134

Clare Romano (1922–2017) was a lifelong printmaker who pioneered collagraphy, a kind of printmaking. Devoted to the practice of printmaking, Romano spent her professional career teaching generations of students to be printmakers.

Romare Bearden, Iliad, c. 1970, color monoprint collagraph on Arches paper, Gift of the Collectors Committee, 2001.36.1
Pink lines cut horizontally across six musicians against a pink background in this stylized, horizontal screenprint. Three of the musicians have black-colored skin, two have brown skin, and one has skin shaded with muted yellow and gray. The largest musician is in the left third of the picture. He has a black-colored face with a brown triangular nose, and streaks of pale yellow suggest light or a sheen across his forehead, one cheek, and chin. He looks out at us and smiles as he clamps a cigarette between his teeth. He wears a periwinkle-blue suit jacket and rests his oversized, brown-colored hands on a piano keyboard. The two brown-skinned musicians play the saxophone and perhaps a clarinet to the right. One wears a parchment-white suit jacket and the other charcoal gray. The yellow and gray-shaded face floats between the keyboardist and the pair to the right. He may hold up an old-fashioned camera with a flash bulb. A man with dark gray and black skin sits at a drum set along the left edge of the sheet, and the sixth, whose face, hand, and trumpet are blocked in with areas of white and black, is near a red circle in the top left corner of the composition. The body parts, features, instruments, and clothing are fragmented and stylized, as if collaged. The pink streaks against the pink background suggest that the scene was created in strips and then laid down onto the background. Writing in graphite under the printed image reads “7/12 A/P” to the left and “Romare Bearden” to the right.
Romare Bearden, Untitled (Jazz II), 1980, screenprint on wove paper, Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Florian Carr Fund and Gift of the Print Research Foundation, 2008.115.11
The image depicts an intricate composition of angular and curved lines, with interlocking shapes forming an abstract scene. Human-like figures and a structure resembling a tree are visible, with branches weaving across the image. Patterns suggestive of clouds or foliage are found in the upper portion. To the right, a shape resembling a horse is present. The arrangement of shapes and lines conveys depth and movement, evoking nature and human interaction.
Romare Bearden, Prelude to Troy (No. 2), 1974, collagraph in blue on wove Arches paper, Gift of Yvonne and Richard McCracken and Mary and Jerald Melberg, 2000.58.1

Romare Bearden (1911–1988) experimented with different kinds of art, including printmaking. His love for music, literature, and history is evident in his art, and his prints featured repeated themes, like musical instruments.

The image features a large circle filled with abstract lines and shapes, including a prominent tree trunk that divides the composition. The tree extends into various sections that appear to depict different landscapes. Surrounding the tree are colorful, bird-like forms in vibrant shades of red, white, yellow, green, blue, purple, and orange. The upper portion of the circle contains areas of contrasting hues, including bright yellow and deep blue. The entire scene blends elements of nature with an abstract style, connecting familiar forms with an imaginative and colorful realm.
Lou Stovall, The Workshop, Inc., Sea to Shining Sea, 2008, color screenprint on wove paper, Gift of Lou and Di Stovall, 2009.8.1
This print shows two large, detailed flowers with deep purple and black petals and vibrant pink veins and edges. Around the flowers are sage green leaves that extend upwards behind them. The background is off-white paper.
Lou Stovall, The Workshop, Inc., Breathing Hope, 1996, color screenprint on wove paper, Gift of Lou, Di Bagley and Will Stovall, 2007.54.1
The image shows a large, green abstract shape resembling a tree, with a thin trunk rising from a solid green base, against a bright yellow background. The top of the tree is an abstract oval shape filled with wavy lines of various colors such as red, brown, orange, purple, and dark blue. Above this, ornate white letters spell out a message.
Lou Stovall, The Workshop, Inc., I Love You, 1970, color screenprint on wove paper, Corcoran Collection (Stovall Graphics), 2015.19.2514
The image shows a central, vertical shape in warm yellow and brown tones topped by a circular, multicolored mass of swirling lines and splashes. The background features large, flat expanses of warm and cool colors.
Lou Stovall, The Workshop, Inc., Spirit, 1971, color screenprint on wove paper, Corcoran Collection (Stovall Graphics), 2015.19.2515

Lou Stovall (b. 1937) founded the printmaking studio Workshop, Inc., in 1968 in Washington, DC. There he produced his own prints and works by other artists for more than fifty years. His screenprints offer a range of subjects—some abstract, some drawn from nature..

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