Project Grade 8 Art & Music

Orrin Flats From Above: An Irrigation Relief-Print Series

A grade 8 printmaking project in which students carve three aerial-view relief blocks showing how farms in a fictional irrigation district water their crops.

Grade: Grade 8
Subject: Art & Music
Material: Project
Time: 5 sessions, ~250 min total
Prep: Moderate prep
Materials: Soft-cut relief printing blocks, 4 by 6 inches, three per student plus scraps for practice, Lino cutters with V and U gouges, and bench hooks, Water-based block printing ink in black or one dark color, brayers, and inking plates, Printing paper cut to 5 by 7 inches, plus newsprint for proofs, Pencils, tracing paper, and small hand mirrors, Wooden spoons or barens for burnishing prints

Standards

D2.Geo.4.6-8 C3 Framework

Explain how cultural patterns and economic decisions influence environments and the daily lives of people in both nearby and distant places.

How this material aligns: In the Milestone 5 artist statement, students explain how each farm's choice of irrigation method, a decision shaped by crop, cost, and the water the district can deliver, creates the land pattern carved into their prints and changes how much canal water reaches the crops.

All materials for D2.Geo.4.6-8 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-09-24.

Objectives

Students will describe how furrow, center-pivot, and drip irrigation move water onto a field and why a farmer might choose each one.
Students will plan and carve relief blocks that show each method's aerial pattern, deciding on purpose which areas print dark and which stay the color of the paper.
Students will unify a three-print series with a shared canal line, consistent carved textures, and mirror-reversed lettering that prints correctly.
Students will write an artist statement explaining how farm water decisions shape the look of the land and the use of the canal's water.

Vocabulary

Furrow irrigation: Watering crops by letting water run down small ditches plowed between the rows of plants. It is a simple, old method, but a lot of water can soak away or run off.
Drip irrigation: Watering plants through tubes that release water slowly, drop by drop, right at the roots. Very little water is wasted along the way.

Also: relief print, brayer, proof, edition, center pivot, fallow

Teacher overview

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, agriculture accounts for roughly 70% of global freshwater withdrawals, and the way farms apply that water leaves visible marks on the land. From an airplane, furrow-irrigated fields read as long parallel lines, center-pivot sprinklers draw green circles inside square fields with dry corners, and drip-irrigated orchards and vineyards appear as fine dotted rows. In this project each student carves three relief blocks, one for each method, for the fictional Orrin Flats Irrigation District, which will use the prints on the cover and section pages of its annual water-year report. A canal line running across all three blocks joins the prints into one landscape, and an artist statement explains how the farmers' decisions produce the patterns.

Expect two misconceptions in the first session. In printmaking, most students carve the lines they want to see printed, expecting the carved grooves to hold ink. In relief printing the grooves stay the color of the paper and the uncarved surface prints, so a student who carves furrow lines will get white lines on a dark field. That result can be a strong choice, but it has to be a deliberate one, which is why Milestone 1 asks students to mark every area to be carved before they cut anything. Lettering raises the same issue, since the print is a mirror image of the block; the transfer method in Milestone 2 reverses the drawing automatically, and students check the result in a hand mirror.

On the geography side, students often assume that water which soaks deep or runs off the end of a furrow field is simply gone. Some of it does evaporate, but much of it returns to the groundwater or to the river, where farms and towns downstream may use it again. What a farm does upstream therefore changes the water available to people elsewhere, and the strongest artist statements make that connection.

For safety, demonstrate carving with a bench hook before anyone picks up a tool, and require students to push the gouge away from the hand that holds the block. Soft-cut blocks carve more easily than traditional linoleum and are less likely to cause a slip.

Orrin Flats From Above: An Irrigation Relief-Print Series — Grade 8 Art & Music

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Project Brief

Driving question: How can a series of carved prints show, from the air, the different ways farms bring water to their crops?

The client. The Orrin Flats Irrigation District is fictional. It delivers water from the Tallisker Canal to farms in a dry valley where crops could not grow on rainfall alone. Every winter the district holds a meeting for farmers and publishes a report on the past water year. This year it wants a set of three prints for the report's cover and section pages, each showing one way of watering crops as it looks from an airplane.

Three ways to water a field:

Furrow irrigation. A ditch runs along the top of the field, and water flows from the ditch down small trenches, called furrows, between the rows of crops. From the air, a furrow field looks like long, straight, parallel lines. Furrows are cheap to build, yet some water soaks too deep near the ditch, some runs off the far end, and some evaporates.
Center-pivot sprinklers. A long pipe mounted on wheeled towers turns slowly around a point in the middle of the field, with sprinklers hanging from the pipe. From the air, the watered land is a large green circle, and the corners of the square field stay dry. A pivot takes less labor than furrows, but some of the spray blows away or evaporates in hot wind.
Drip irrigation. Thin tubes run along each row of plants, and small holes let water drip directly onto the roots. From the air, you see rows of dots, such as orchard trees or grape vines, each one fed by a tube. Drip wastes the least water, but it costs the most to install.

Farmers choose a method based on the crop, the slope and shape of the land, what they can afford, and how much water the district can deliver. In a dry year, some fields receive no water at all and are left bare. These are called fallow fields.

Water that the crops do not use does not all disappear. Water that evaporates rises into the air and leaves the valley. Water that soaks deep or runs off the end of a field often flows back into the groundwater or the river, where farms and towns downstream may use it again.

How relief printing works:

You carve away the parts you want to stay the color of the paper. The raised surface that is left takes the ink.
The print is a mirror image of the block. Any letters on the block must be backward so that they read correctly on the print.
You can show a furrow as a carved white line on a dark field, or as a dark raised line with the ground around it carved away. Either choice can work, but you must make it on purpose.

Rules for your series:

Carve three blocks, each 4 by 6 inches, turned sideways.
One block shows furrow irrigation, one shows a center pivot, and one shows drip lines. Every block must also show at least one fallow field or dry corner.
The Tallisker Canal crosses all three blocks at the same height. When the three prints sit side by side, the canal lines up into one long landscape.
Print in one ink color, black or one dark color, on white or cream paper.
Carve the words ORRIN FLATS into one of the blocks so that they read correctly on the print.
Use a different carved texture for watered land and dry land. A viewer must be able to tell them apart without any color.
Print an edition of three good copies of each block.

What you turn in: You will turn in your three carved blocks, your edition of prints, and one set of prints mounted side by side. You will also turn in an artist statement of 150 to 200 words written to the district board. It must explain how each pattern comes from the way water moves onto that field, why a farmer might choose that method, and what happens to water that the crops do not use.

Milestones

Session 1, study and sketch (50 minutes): Read about the three ways to water a field. For each one, draw a thumbnail sketch as seen from above, 2 inches by 3 inches, so it has the same shape as your block. Mark every area you plan to carve away with a small X. Next to each sketch, write whether its crop lines will print dark or stay white, and why. Output: three thumbnails with carve marks and a written choice for each.
Session 2, plan the series and transfer (50 minutes): Draw your three designs at full size on tracing paper, with the canal at the same height on all three. Write ORRIN FLATS the normal way on one drawing. Lay each drawing pencil-side down on its block and rub the back with a spoon. The drawing transfers in reverse, so the print will face the right way. Hold each block up to a mirror to check the lettering. Output: three blocks with transferred designs, checked by the teacher for canal height and lettering.
Session 3, carve and proof two blocks (50 minutes): Set each block against a bench hook. Always push the gouge away from the hand that holds the block. Carve the furrow block and the pivot block. Ink each one with a thin, even layer and pull a proof on newsprint. Output: two carved blocks and a proof of each.
Session 4, carve the third block and revise (50 minutes): Carve the drip block and pull a proof. Lay all three proofs side by side. Check that the canal lines up and that watered and dry land look different. On each block, fix at least one thing, such as clearing an area that picks up stray ink or deepening a texture that filled in. Write a one-line note for each fix. Output: three revised blocks and a set of proofs with a note for each change.
Session 5, print the edition and write (50 minutes): Ink each block evenly with a brayer. Print three good copies of each block on your printing paper, and set them aside to dry. Mount one set side by side so the canal lines up. Then write your artist statement to the district board. Output: the edition of prints, the mounted series, and the artist statement.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Rubric

Criterion	Emerging	Developing	Proficient	Advanced
Aerial pattern shows the method	A viewer cannot tell which method each print shows.	One or two prints clearly show their method, while the third is unclear.	All three prints clearly show their method: parallel furrows, a circle with dry corners, and dotted drip rows.	All three are clear, and details such as the head ditch, the pivot's center point, or tube lines along the rows show how the water moves.
Control of carved and printed areas	The print shows areas the student did not intend to be dark or white.	Most areas print as planned, but one block shows an unplanned reversal.	Every block prints the way the thumbnails planned, and the dark-or-white choice for crop lines is deliberate.	The dark-and-white choices are deliberate and used for contrast, such as dark watered land against white fallow fields.
Unity of the series	The canal does not line up, and the three prints do not read as a set.	The canal nearly lines up, or the textures change from print to print without reason.	The canal lines up across all three prints, and watered and dry land use the same textures on every block.	The series reads as one continuous landscape, with textures, borders, and lettering that tie the three prints together.
Print quality and lettering	Prints are blotchy or faint, or ORRIN FLATS prints backward.	Lettering reads correctly, but inking is uneven across the edition.	The lettering reads correctly, and the edition shows three clean, evenly inked copies of each block.	Every print in the edition is clean and consistent, with crisp edges and no stray ink.
Artist statement	The statement describes the prints but not the water or the farmers' choices.	The statement explains one or two methods and a reason a farmer might choose them.	In 150 to 200 words, the statement explains all three patterns, why a farmer might choose each, and what happens to water the crops do not use.	The statement also shows how an upstream farm's choice changes the water available to others downstream.

Differentiation

Support

Provide pre-drawn aerial templates for the three blocks, with the canal line already placed at the same height, so students concentrate on deciding what to carve and on carving safely. Let students practice each texture on a small scrap block before carving the real one. For the artist statement, provide a three-paragraph frame with one paragraph per method and the starter "From the air, this field looks like ___ because the water ___."

Extension

Ask students to design a fourth block, 4 by 6 inches, showing the same valley in a drought year, when the district can deliver less water and more fields lie fallow. They write two or three sentences explaining which fields in their drought print they chose to leave dry and what economic reasoning a farmer might use to make that choice.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "furrow," "sprinkler," "drip," "fallow," "carve," and "mirror image" with labeled photographs of each irrigation method and a demonstration block that shows a carved line printing white. Post a two-column chart, "carve it" and "keep it," with a printed example of each. Allow the artist statement to be written as three captions under the mounted prints, one per method, using sentence frames.

Extensions

Using free online aerial imagery, students look at farm regions in two different parts of the country and sketch the field patterns they find. They label each pattern with the irrigation method it most likely shows and write a short note comparing what the patterns suggest about water supply in each region.