Painting, Making and Art Blocking
Physical art and making - woodblocks, painting, flags, banners!
Block Printing
XR Art Blockers have developed these facilities to help you provide prints for your actions !
How to Print
Video guide to effective block printing and caring for woodblocks
Also see video from XR Arts Factory showing flag printing.
Written guide 'How to Print' below
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Flag Making
Artwork and guidance for printing flags.
Video guide to make a XR symbol flag
Video guide to make a quadrant flag
Template Designs for flags
A label to print to put on the flag pole
Click on the image to make full size.
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Woodblock design files
Download woodblack design files
Artwork to make blocks can be downloaded as from Aktivisda (as png or svg). Some examples below:
The design files are useful for block makers (laser cutting and 3D printing) who want to create physical woodblocks that can be used to print banners, flags, t-shirts etc.
Get in touch
General Info: artsxr@gmail.com
Art Factory assets, banners & flags: artblockers@gmail.com
XR Art Blockers on Facebook
Banners
Banners - printing and painting
Graphics for Banners
Note: All artwork below is quarter sized
Template for Hand Painted Banners
Making your own banners is often the cheapest and most sustainable way to make banners.
You can download templates to make a selection of banners here (scroll down to 'Hand Painted Banners')
Video for how to make a banner
Watch the video here which includes
Multi-message velcro banner
How to make a multi-message banner
Did you ever wish you could change the message on your banner? This page shows how to create such a resource.
Free James Brown banner outside Bath Abbey
Make the banner backdrop
- This was made from second hand cotton duvet cover, ripped open along seams, hemmed as needed. Sewed generous pole slots at each end. (approx 4.3m x 1.4m)
- The banner was dyed bright orange (using Dylon machine wash dye)
- Used strong bamboo canes for pole slots
- 2 x 25m roll of 25mm wide sew-on loop velcro (the 'furry' side) from hookandloopfasteners.co.uk
- Each row of text is made up of 6 'tramlines', making a total height of 38cm. This will match up with the 38cm high FUCXED CAPS letter templates made below.
- Pinned velcro tramlines in place along the middle then machine sewed down both velcro edges, leaving approx 20cm gap at each end of banner.
Create a set of card templates
- Use black fabric that won't fray when cut, (so no need to hem, which would take ages) and it also tends to have a bit of stiffness to it.
- Stiffness is important as letters only have a few attachment points and you don't want them to flop. Ideally material would be lightweight and waterproof. We used some artificial velvet with plastic backing found in a local fabric shop.
- Not perfect as a bit heavy and not waterproof. Oilcloth might have been a better option. Other options considered were thickish felt (but not waterproof), craft foam sheets (plastazote). Tried for recycled material from Scrapstore but no luck there. Plastic backing on the velvet used had BIG advantage of then using stick-on velcro on the back, avoiding huge extra sewing job. Velvet also good as a message can be stuck on banner, then rolled/folded to pack away for ease of transport to action.
- Draw round templates with tailor's chalk. Cut out by hand (laser cutting would be quicker)
- Bought black corresponding 'hook' backing velcro from same company (PS30, heavy duty waterproof adhesive, 20mm wide)
- Cut backing velcro into 1/2cm tabs
- Each letter placed plastic side up on a set of 6 tramlines and velcro tabs stuck on along where they will stick onto the tramlines.
Suggest letterset and symbols
- 1 each of Q,X
- 2 each of J,K,Y,Z
- 3 each of H,V
- 4 each of A,B,C,D,F,G,I,L,M,N,O,P,R,T,U,W
- 5 each of S
- 6 each of E
- Numbers 2 each of 0-9
- Symbols ? ? ! * # # / = + . . . ' ' ' -
- Also degree symbol and XR symbol
And here it is:
Tips for use
- Simplest way to stick message on is put banner on clean floor, lay out the letters velcro-side up into right position then turn them over to stick in place.
- With the velvet you can stick a msg on and roll/fold banner up to carry.
- For speed a 2nd message can be prepared in advance and carried in spare A3 folder.
- To change message ideally put banner down on dry, clean ground.
- The carry bag has spare velcro tabs for any additional sticking down.
- Banner heavier than usual, better held with two end poles and one in the middle.
- Be careful in very wet/windy conditions as heavier so more prone to ripping or being caught by the wind.
- If used in rain ensure banner and any wet letters are fully dried out before being stored away. Wet letters can be temporarily stored in one of the empty A3 plastic wallets until you get back to base.
- If ever an additional letter/symbol is needed (eg an amazing msg that needs 3 Qs !!) keep templates and some spare letter material available.
Possible design improvements
If you need further information contact us on Mattermost @melclarke or email Mel at hello@xrbath.org.uk
A time-lapse video of the banner in use at the Science Museum
Stencil designs
Making your own stencils
We advise using old wallpaper for stencils. Just lay the printed sheets, in order where appropriate, over the wallpaper and cut through.
This can be done by hand with a craft knife or scalpel, or if available, could be done quickly and easily using a laser cutting machine.
Stencil files to download
Here are a collection of stencil files adapted from the XR Artblockers woodblocks, Paris68 Redux and other rebel artists. Perfect for printing on t-shirts, banners or posters using a roller and acrylic paint - instructions on how to make them are included within.
Extinction Symbol
Various XR symbol files to download from XR's cloud (if you have a Hub login) or a quick download of the Extinction Symbol (as seen below).
Badges
Graphic files that can be used to print and use for badge-making. Print onto A4 (eco-friendly!) sticker paper.
Download the files to print the images below here.
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59mm Roundel Badges
Paris '68 Redux
Paris '68 Redux reinterprets the work of the “Atelier Poplulaire”. The “AP” were groups of students, union members and everyone coming together (in Paris May, 1968), work-shopping ideas, then voting on which ones to mass produce, printing tons and going straight out to fly post Paris.
For their work check out this mega book: Beauty Is in the Street by Philippe Vermès, Johan Kugelberg.
Unfortunately over 50 years on… SAME SHIT and we’re getting ECOLOGICAL BREAKDOWN coming down on us, the only answer is DISOBEY NOW with beautiful ephemeral art with love and revellion in our hearts.
All you need is thin paper for the posters (chip shop paper), thick paper for cutting stencils and emulsion paint etc… then have a workshop and make tons.
Things you will need
- A4 printer
- Tracing paper
- eraser
- newsprint
- cutting mat
- scalpel handle and 10A scalpel blades
- scissors
- 4" foam rollers and 4" paint trays
- 2B pencil
- masking tape
- 275g paper
Selection of emulsion paint (see XR colours form the design programme) Recommended paper 275g bread and butter paper.
Stencils
Download and print pdf files to use for this technique.
Hourglass
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Swallow
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Cross Bones
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Empathy, Humility for Life
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Joy Grief Rebel
- Complete - Joy Grief Rebel
- Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3 | Section 4 | Section 5 | Section 6 | Section 7
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Skull
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Ampersand (&)
All Stencils
All the stencils above and more are collected together in a dropbox folder here
Examples
Lots of example images on this website by #bodypolitic
