Noonie's |DIY Relief Print|

I've always been fascinated by relief prints. A relief print for those of you unfamiliar with the term is an art form by which one reliefs or "takes out" pieces from a flat object in order to create a design. Paint or ink is then applied to the relief so that the image can be printed onto a surface. It's one of the oldest art forms + the works that artists have created using it are amazing! In fact we've actually featured an artist here on BSOM who does all kind of printmaking, if you missed it here's her Q+A. 

If you happened to catch this MOTW you'd know this DIY relief print project was something I wanted to try this past week + I did just that. I'm really happy with the results + definitely plan on exploring this art form some more, but for now here are a few snapshots of my very first relief print, along with how I made it (in case you wanna make one yourself). 

Oh + in case you were wondering/didn't recognize him, the cartoon guy I drew up + printed is none other than Mac Dre, my favorite rapper. :)

Tools You'll Need:

                              

* Egg carton or take out box

* Scissors 

* Piece of tracing paper +

A piece of paper to print your design on

* Pencil

(mechanical works best as it's

pointer than a regular pencil)

* Paint

* Tape

(optional, but helpful)

How To:

- Draw up your design on the tracing paper OR

if you're feelin' gutsy you can just draw your design right onto the egg carton.

(if this is your first relief I highly suggest you use tracing paper)

- Tape the tracing paper onto the egg carton.

You'll want to tape it on backwards with the pencil side down onto the egg carton.

- Using your pencil copy the backwards design onto the egg carton.

                              

- Remove tracing paper + begin the relief!

Now I happened to have the little sculpting tools pictured above laying around + I used them to relief the egg carton but there are definitely other ways to relief your design if you don't have these sculpting tools on hand. As the egg carton is really soft it won't take much to relief or press in the egg carton therefore the options for what you can use to relief are pretty open. Just to give ya a few ideas you could use the pointy end of the cap of a ball point pen or even the not pointy end of a nail, as I said the options are pretty limitless since the egg carton material is pretty malleable.

                           

Up close shot of my relief

- Once your design is relieved apply a thin coat of paint onto it.

If you put too much paint on the print you'll get these results...

Too much paint applied!

Sure you can see the design, but this was not the look I was going for.

- Press the painted side down of your relief onto a piece of paper, lift...and

VIOLA! You should have a print sitting right in front of you :)

Pretty damn easy right? I thought so!

These 2 turned out the best :)

I really like the faded effect of the 1 on the right.

Not only is this project super easy to do, but it requires tools that most of us already have laying around. Plus if you feel like you aren't good at drawing you can always just trace a design from an outside source right onto the tracing paper + create a relief print that way.

Hope you enjoy this project as much as I did! :)

Until next time friends...Cheers!!!

<3 Noonie