Four-color Printing Just With Paper

This is a very simple system to imitate the serigraphic technique where you will only need four things.

You can use this to stamp paper, wood, fabrics... whatever!

• cutter
• paper or thin cardboard
• sponge, potato, rag, hard brush...
• paint: acrylic, guache

Optional, if you don't want to damage the table:

• cutting board, cardboard or something similar to protect it

First of all, you must choose your design. In my case, I chose a heart.

Now, you have to draw it , but you can also print it. I first draw it with pencil, and then did it again with a marker, son the lines are stronger. This is important for the next step.

If you don't have a scanner-printer, don't worry. You can make copies by hand. Just repeat the drawing as many times as colours you want on your design.

Put your drawing in the scanner and scan it with a good quality. I scanned in B/W, but it doesn't really matter. With a software like Word or similar it is very simple to multiply the drawing. In my case, I want to use 4 different colours, so I will print 4 copies.

I will use one of the copies for the outlines and the rest for the three colours.

For the first one, I make little marks (X) over the lines with a pencil to know where NOT to cut the line. This is because if I did it, all the drawing would become into little pieces, and we want them to keep together.

On the second copy, I painted the heart with just a few lines of each color in their respective places so I don't get confused when I cut it.

With all the marks done, it's time to cut off the paper.

For the lines copy, you must cut the black lines and keep the white space between them. Remember to respect the X marks! Do it carefully

For the other copies, just cut off the spaces for each colour. In my case, the up-right heart is for the pink, the down-left for the blue and the last one for the purple.

Prepare your paint and the tool of your choice. I used a sponge brush, but you can also use a normal brush, a piece of cloth or whatever. Even a potato!

Start with the colours. You can do it in the order you want, but the outlines must be the last step!

Keep the paper still with your fingers/hand or with something that weighs, so the paint doesn't move. It could ruin the print.

It's done! Enjoy it!