Print making and marking

For this particular page I learnt how to make prints. To start with, I was given a foam like sheet, it easily broke and felt very brittle. I was then given the option to draw into it with a pen or pencil or use the objects around me to create  the prints. Instantly I knew that using object sounded way more interesting than drawing something out onto the foam, in addition to that it was my first time using this type of material so I wanted to "go steady", try it out first then do more intricate drawings when I was use to working on the material. Therefore I looked around the work surface for objects. I found, a pine cone, an old rusted metal square and a shell. I started off by pushing the metal square straight down into the middle of the foam, this created a sheet of little in prints onto my foam square. I then placed the pine cone in the palm of my hand and rolled it around the square, I really liked the effects of the pine cone on my piece. It made subtle marks around it, all having different shapes and sizes. Although the two patterns didn't exactly match, I still really wanted to try the effects of the shell. So I did. I used the outside of the shell and pushed it down onto the foam, and it left different imprints of lines along the page. To conclude I like the effect created by the shell, it created faint indirect lines along the foam. Finally I needed to started printing the ink, to do this I covered the printed side of the foam with black ink. I then turned it over to face the paper, then using a roller I pushed down onto the back of it. After doing this for about three minutes, I peeled the foam board and paper a part, this left a print of the black ink on the paper. The white parts left from the print were where the patterns that I had made from using different objects. The first  print was successful, this was the first time that I had worked with this type of material so I was pleased with how it turned out, I feel that the different patterns made blended really well with each other on the page. For the second print, I decided not to add any extra ink, I wanted to look at the effects created off not using as much ink. The print was lighter basically, it wasn't something unusual, I could have predicted that this would happen, the less ink, the lighter the print. To conclude I like this method of creating layers, I think that using prints as background to my work would not only add interest and layers but also add texture to my page.