Pattern experiements - Potato printing

Potato printing was certainly a throwback, and the fun I had while doing it was no less than it was when I was young. I wanted to create a pattern that I could potentially use in my pamphlet through editing and so I came up with the concept of carving a potato, which is a convenient coffee-bean shape already. I took a mid to small sized potato and a knife and cut a slit down the middle, as well as shaving the edges slightly to give the round potato a more natural looking bumpy edge. I roughed the print up slightly before allowing it to dry out which further aged the look of the stamp.

Below, is the original colour of the potato prints. As you can see I added gold to the darker brown, smaller beans but this didn't scan very well. I used these colours whilst printing because these were the only paints I had in relative quantity and I didn't want to waste any valuable paint on something that could possibly go wrong.

 

The prints above are the final manipulations on Photoshop. Colourful, vibrant and still retaining that handmade aesthetic; I cant wait to use these throughout my project. The prints alone could be used as decorative pieces as posters, but even better if they could be put to use within this project whether it be a page background or even a set of postcards used as a promotional element for this project. Every colour combination has the possibility to work, with my personal favourites being the turquoise one that matches the theme of the journal, and the yellow, green and pink one that has a lighthearted feeling to it. 

This entire experiment has been fun and outgoing for someone like me that was previously restricted by paint, but this adds another dimension to my work and is something I can add to the bank of patterns that will go into creating a consistent booklet.