Drawing with Stamps

This winter, we are bringing back homemade stamps for a new project inspired by the artwork of Ed Emberley!

Our stamp pads are made from upholstery foam and washable tempera paint, and our stamps are made from leftover receipt rolls and tape rolls. You can read our previous posts on how to Make Your Own Foam Stamp and Make Your Own Stamp Pads to use at home or in the classroom!

In books such as Ed Emberley’s Great Thumbprint Drawing Book, Emberley uses clever and simple drawings on top of his thumbprint to create fun-sized creatures. We brought this method to the studio, and I have been interested in how guests have been layering their stamps with the markers and pens.

However, just because the stamps were round didn’t necessarily mean the creatures had to stay round as well! Many guests experimented with the stamps, using them as a tool for shading, as seen in this dragon here, where the artist used varying amounts of paint on the stamp to create different values. The blending made the original shape of the stamp almost completely invisible!

Other guests utilized the repetition of the stamp to create a leafy pattern for a tree!

The use of stamp repetition to create a drawing is a popular technique that was even taught in one of my college classes. Though we have used stamps for projects in the Art Studio in the past, we had not included drawing tools for a while, so it has been wonderful to see the unique compositions!