I spend a couple of days in Pembrokeshire drawing dolmens. I managed to get to 4 sites and did some sketching in the field, not easy as I forgot to take my drawing board so I was drawing on grass or even the stones themselves. I tried out some different techniques. These first two drawings at Pentre Ifan are drawn into my small Khadi handmade paper sketchbook that I had pre-coloured with a dark ink wash sploshed on randomly with a sponge. I drew with my Daler Rowney artist’s oil pastels, using white, pale blue and two tones of green. I filled in the negative spaces with the pastels – the dark stones are the ink-washed paper.
Then I tried experimenting with a piece of Fabriano Accademica paper that I had already drawn on some months ago. I visited St. Paul’s catacombs in Malta last Winter and when I came back, I developed some of my sketches into larger drawings with my home-made walnut ink. I didn’t much care for most of them and I’ve been planning on re-using them and this is my first attempt, drawn with carbon and oil pastels, both by Daler Rowney. I like the idea of overlaying an ancient burial chamber onto an ancient burial site, but I’m not sure what I think of the drawing itself. I’ll sleep on it.
scribblah 
These are terrific, in my opinion. That’s a great idea to prepare the paper beforehand, using a colour that works for the subject, and then fill in the negative space. The one on the Fabriano paper is great too: the underlying drawing gives an interesting effect.
Thank you. I don’t like working directly onto white, I get better results when I don’t 😀
Interesting. I might give that a try myself.
I never throw anything away; if I don’t like it I work over it. makes interesting multi-layers.
you are pouring in your artworks the fire of ancient times
Thank you. I am interested in and respectful of my ancestors. They are very real to me.