I’ve been invited to take part in a collaboration between artists in Swansea and across the meltwater in North Devon. I’m starting to plan a new piece of work for it, probably an installation in cyanotype if it works out. I’m beginning with some sketching en plein air so today I took a walk up a local hill to do some drawings and photos of some very specific places that will be relevant to the final artwork. I used Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens in sepia, sizes S, F and B and spent just a few minutes on each. I drew into my A5 leatherbound steampunk sketchbook.
When I got back home, I put on some tonal washes with the walnut ink I made this week. It’s great stuff to use, very silky and thick, it flows nicely off the brush. It settles out in the jar so I dipped into the top to do the pale wash and then pushed the brush into the thick sediment to do the darker tones. This is where the final artwork begins. I have to work quickly from now on as it has to be finished for exhibiting in January.
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Hi, Rosie, can you tell me if you gathered you walnuts in Swansea or elsewhere.I am looking for them and their hulls and am at a loss! Thanks a bunch,
Hi Kelly. I was given them, I don’t know where the trees are, unfortunately.
Great sketch. Sounds like a good project, reaching across the water. Which side is the exhibition on?
Thanks Martin. I think there’ll be an exhibition in Devon in January 🙂
I really do like your sketches of the town, especially the first one. Have a really lovely day! 😉
Thank you so much 🙂
I like this a lot. It would make a great print. I have to confess that I don’t know what a cyanotype is, although I’m guessing it’s blue. 🙂
haha yes, it’s an archaic form of photography, little used by photographers these days. It’s a mixture of cyanide salts that result in a blue photographic image.