The change is seen in the animals who now savagely hunt and kill their food, as well as in Adam and Eve's need to cover their bodies as a response to the shame of discovering their own nudity. Neither of these changes would have taken place in the garden before the expulsion. In illustrating Milton's poem, Martin broke away from traditional depictions as seen in previous editions of Paradise Lost, such as Du Roveray's of 1802 illustrated by William Hamilton. Rather than the interpretations of his predecessors, Martin relied on his own, personal interpretation of the poetry itself as a focus for his inspiration. To illustrate Paradise Lost, Martin employed an intaglio print technique, mezzotint, that was relatively new to him.
Mezzotint is a technique in which a steel plate is ground and roughened with a rocker tool.
This tool renders the ground rough or smooth, depending on the number of points on the rocker tool, as well as the number of times the tool is passed over the plate. For this reason, Martin found the mezzotint technique well suited to his existing personal style. Prior to illustrating Paradise Lost, Martin had, mostly for economic reasons, successfully experimented with this technique in copying his own paintings. The series of prints that Martin designed for Paradise Lost was his first effort at creating original artworks using the mezzotint print technique. The designs for these prints were crafted directly on the plates, except for a quick preliminary oil sketch that Martin used to establish his ideas prior to engraving.