Printmaking Geometric Animals with Roberto Montenegro

PREPARATION: as students arrive for class ask them to brayer one color onto the paper
we used grey for this project

Take a look at: 

Jaguar and the Moon

Oil on canvas, circa 1950s. 

By Roberto Montenegro Crocker Art Museum

DISCUSSION: 

what do you see here?

Is it flat?

Does it appear to be made from paper?

What about the colors the artist chose?

How many colors?

What is the purple shape?

Why did the artist chose purple for the moon?

Why is the jaguars head Black and the rest of it’s body yellow?

What about the shapes and dots around the Jaguar?

ARTIST: Roberto Montenegro Nervo (1885-1968) 

he was a Mexican painter, illustrator, and stage designer.

In 1903, Roberto Montenegro began studying painting in Guadalajara under Felix Bernardelli, a Brazilian-Mexican artist

He lived in Mexico City, and in 1904 began studying architecture. 

It wasn't long after he abandoned it to study at the Academia de San Carlos under many talented artists

Some of his fellow students were Diego Rivera and Francisco Goitia.

An influential promoter of popular arts, Montenegro organized events like the first popular arts festival which was held in 1921. he also published "Pintura Mexicana del Periodo 1800-1860" in the 1930

PROJECT: printmaking animals

Step1: Encourage students to see any animal as a series of shapes. ex: cat: two triangles for ears, circle for a face, oval for a body, rectangles for legs. add pieces of sticky foam to create the shape of any animal

Step2: For the cat: cut out two triangles and place them on the top of the card board piece

Step3: continue adding shapes to your cardboard until you have your whole animal created.

Step4: On a small piece of cardboard create a shape to be added around your animal like a moon or stars

For printing: LIMIT COLOR CHOICES FOR THE STUDENTS. we were able to choose form three red, yellow or blue.

Step3: Print your animal on your prepared paper using one color for the animal and one for the shape

Step5: using a q-tip add dots in and around your animal

Step6: using forks, wine corks and any additional items, add pattern in your background

Materials,

Paper in white black or grey or all three

Paint

Sticky foam rectangles

cardboard base

q-tips

scissors

cork

forks