Mixed Media Seascapes
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We began this lesson by creating sketches of fish and other types of sea life, using reference pictures and books to help keep the drawings realistic. Students chose their favorite drawing to trace onto a thin Styrofoam plate. Pressure from tracing made indentations, which gave the Styrofoam a textured, incised surface. We used a rolling tool called a brayer to apply ink to the printing plate and then stamped the image multiple times on a watercolor-painted “sea”. (The beautiful textures in the water were created by scrunching plastic wrap onto the wet paint.) Some goals for this lesson included creating a natural illusion of overlapping, as well as having the fish/sea creature go off all fours sides of the paper. Learning how to roll the ink to the proper consistency in order to make a good print was another challenge!
Ms. Amsler's Artroom 
Oct 16, 2019 @ 23:15:48
How did the students do the overlapping without the color in the back showing though the color in the front???
Oct 16, 2019 @ 23:59:23
Great question! We print a series of non-overlapping fish in a single color first. Then the kids made several paper “masks” that were the exact size and shape of their printed fish. When they print their second color, they protect the first set of fish with the paper masks so they don’t get covered. Thus, the fish that actually look like they are in the background were printed SECOND.
Oct 17, 2019 @ 00:04:03
Oh soooo clever!!! Thanks so much! I LOVE your projects and the work you get out of your students.
Feb 23, 2025 @ 02:21:04
Hello! This was posted a long time ago, so I’m not sure if you’ll see this comment! Do you have a photo of the Styrofoam plates your student made? I’d love to see an example
Feb 23, 2025 @ 19:19:27
Hi Hannah, I haven’t done this lesson in a while, but we use the thin foam plates I use in many of my printing lessons. You can see them here: https://amslerartroom.com/student-work/mixed-media-collage-prints/ and here: https://amslerartroom.com/student-work/radial-symmetry-prints-on-oil-pastel/
Feb 24, 2025 @ 00:40:50
Wow thank you for responding! I’m doing a thematic unit next term about Oceans and am excited to do this activity. It is gorgeous! Thank you for the links 🙂
Feb 24, 2025 @ 02:06:09
One more question…can this activity be done with regular paint? We don’t have block printing ink at my school and little budget to purchase.
Aug 03, 2025 @ 06:44:19
These are gorgeous! I’m so glad someone asked about how you layered them because I was wondering the same thing!
For the styrofoam printing plates, I am assuming they just cut out around the fish body….did they add any thing to make holding it while printing easier? Or did they just carefully hold the edges when printing? Thanks!!!!
Aug 03, 2025 @ 17:35:48
You guessed it: They just carefully hold the plate by the edges! As you’ll see in some of the other printing lessons I’ve linked above, It’s also helpful to have them layer wide strips of masking tape smotthly to the back of the foam BEFORE they cut it out: this will give the thin foam added durability.