HighSchoolStudioLesson
You
CUBES
C arla Valentino
While planning a printmaking unit for my
ninth-grade class, I
was looking for a way
to extend a project beyond the usual
boundaries to incorporate each student’s personality. I also wanted to
add a three-dimensional element. My
original project involved creating a
linoleum block print of each student’s
face. As a class, we looked at the work
of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein
and viewed several short online vid-
eos about pop art. It was at this point
that I was inspired to have students
create a three-dimensional “ YouCube” using their linoleum prints as
an extension of the original project.
The Linoleum Block Print
At the beginning of the project, I
took a digital photo of each student.
I zoomed in on each face so that the
frame was filled with features and
little or no background. I adjusted the
size of the pictures to fit the 6 x 6"
Finished cubes
displayed in the
school library.
( 15 x 15 cm) linoleum block we were
working with and printed them out in
high contrast black and white.
After these were distributed, students placed 6 x 6" tracing paper over
the print of their faces to identify and
trace the large positive and negative
shapes. I had them compare the line
image to that of the print in order
to better understand the concept of
positive and negative space. I had
them fill the positive shapes with
black marker, reducing their faces to
