The following prints were created by drawing into the surface of 1.27 cm (1/2 inch) thick blue dense styrofoam from a building materials supply shop. This is generally used for insulation of walls during home construction or renovation. It is not that expensive and can be easily cut into blocks from the main sheet with a ruler and utility blade.
I used ball point pen primarily as the drawing tool as it tends to score the surface much better than pencil (which catches a lot in the material). Some of the finer lines were created using a compass point needle tip but again took a bit of effort dragging this through the styrofoam.
These were all example pieces created as part of demonstrations for relief printing with styrofoam lesson I have to elementary school children during the past several years.
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| Dog portrait |
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| two block study of flower forms printed in a light blue waterbased ink over a solid black square |
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| songbird on tree branch |
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| simple sunflower form (slight dot detail in the blossom) against a dark background |
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| landscape white ink printed on black paper |
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| the hockey game tan ink on black paper |
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| Light comes through two block colour winter woods study |
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| the key block (black) notice how the styrofoam has been flecked away to reveal a loose type of surface |
Very impressive work Brian! I know from experience how difficult polystyrene is to work with - remarkable subtlety.
ReplyDeleteReally nice work! Not only beautiful but can also help with saving the environment.
ReplyDeleteLovely prints! very inspiring :)…and thanks for your advice on barens ;).
ReplyDeleteHello there!
ReplyDeleteI was reading through some of your blog posts on this site and I believe this web site is real informative ! Keep posting .
Hotwire Cut Styrofoam
You're really good! i 've a question, how do you cut the styrofoam? because it's hard to make the texture.
ReplyDeletebye! keep on working like that.
to cut this type of styrofoam I use surgical scalpel and also rough the surface with a sharp etching needle. I draw into the surface using ballpoint pen.
ReplyDeleteThis is very inspiring. Frustrated with Lino at the moment and making expensive errors. But using this as a platform in this way is perfect. I already do my food shopping based on the textures of the containers (gel printing) so now will be sourcing some flat foam containers.
ReplyDeleteIncredible work. I've been thinking how to portray our wild turkeys in Montana winter, your art style is very inspiring. Thank you.
ReplyDelete