I wanted to show different values and textures in this piece and I think I was able to do that with the different levels of carving. I wanted to show the way the hot sun and the desert look by showing the sand dune. I was inspired to make this because of a picture I saw on Pinterest and I really liked the design so I made it my own.

In order to make this, I first had to come up with an idea and there were countless sketches but I finally landed on this one. I then transferred my design to the linoleum block by shading the back of my sketch and drawing over it to make the pencil show up on the block. At this point, I had to map out what I wanted to keep dark, light, and how I wanted to show different values. Once I had all this ready I was almost ready to start carving but first I had to go over my lines with a sharpie so that they didn't rub off while I was carving. Then I started carving with the smallest option, I went around some of my lines with it and did the little details. Then I started to do the larger pieces and I ended with the sand part because I hadn't quite figured out what I wanted to do in order to show texture. I figured it out and then went in and made sure I had everything carved out that I needed. Now I was ready to start the printing process, using a bench hook and a brayer I was able to cover my block within and transfer my design onto paper. I used many different colors and it took me many tries to get my final products but eventually, I wound up with a normal print, an extended print, a colored print, and a wooden print.

Before I knew what I wanted to do I used multiple pieces of paper because I was jumping all over to place to pick a design. I didn't like any of my ideas so I went to Pinterest to look up cool backgrounds and I found one that caught my eye, I really liked the style and it looked simple but cool. So after a few tries, I finally liked the way my version of it looked. When making the actual prints I had to practice a lot because it seemed like nothing was looking right and sometimes I had a little piece that I needed to carve out in order to make the piece look better. For the non-tradition surface, I experimented with printing on wood along with mixing purple with a metallic silver color. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way my 4 final prints turned out.