Knight Prints

To go with our clay castles (and to sneak in learning human figure proportions without the pain of re-living facial proportions) we made Knights.

I saw this done on a larger scale with middle school students and I think it probably works better that way; however, our knight prints turned out just fine too.

First I used the cheap brown butcher paper and cut it into 18x10" pieces.  The students measured 2 inch broke their paper up into 2 inch sections so they could draw their knight exactly in proportion- they started with the blobby marshmallow person and slowly transformed him into a knight.

Then we rolled out the ink on the table (yes, right on the table!) just like if we were printmaking- we spread out the ink and gently laid the paper DRAWING SIDE UP (you must not write on the other side as that will be the final product).  We retraced the knight with a regular pen and lifted him up to see the print on the other side.  The trick is to not touch the paper while redrawing the knight.  Some students had to trace again in a different color if their first color turned out too blotchy.

Here are some examples- there were many more than 4 good ones but I think you get the point:

Here is a double colored knight- he was done in white, then let dry, then done again with black

Front and back of the same paper