Husb and I spent a few days in North Wales, only the second time we’ve been out of county for over a year, and it was lush. We went to the 13th century Harlech Castle, perched on a steep hill above a large coastal plain. Outside is a 20th century statue by Ivor Roberts-Jones, ofContinue reading “The Tragic Statue In Harlech”
Tag Archives: walnut ink
Big Boughs At Bodnant
Husb and I just had a few days in North Wales, the first time we’ve been away from home since lockdown started over a year ago. It was lovely. Lots of places are still closed because of Covid19, so we packed picnics and took off into the countryside. Our first stop was the beautiful gardensContinue reading “Big Boughs At Bodnant”
Rework Redraw
I do loads of sketches into sketchbooks but I rarely go back and work into them some more. I don’t know why, just something I’ve never thought of doing. So today I was flicking through my landscape Khadi sketchbook to see how many pages I have left and I realised that I had done mostlyContinue reading “Rework Redraw”
Prepping Paper
I’ve got some large rolls of Fabriano Accademica paper hanging around so I thought I’d stretch some of it on the wall, seal it with acrylic gesso and then colour it with some of my home-made walnut ink. And why not? I’ll cut it up and use it for life drawing. I’ve been taking blackContinue reading “Prepping Paper”
Beginning To End
I started with an ink and wash sketch of a snipe (using my homemade walnut ink at Swansea Museum) drawn with brushes. Then, at Kelly Stewart’s screenprinting session at Swansea Print Workshop, I redrew it onto cellophane with brushes and black acrylic paint. These are the transparencies I used to create photoscreens. And thenContinue reading “Beginning To End”
The Grey Mare
Here’s another view of the horse skull I drew yesterday evening at the little Zoology Museum at Swansea University’s Wallace Building. The Mari Lwyd (Grey Mare) tradition in South Wales centres around a horse skull, which is made into a lifesize puppet and decorated with flowers, bells and ribbons. It’s paraded around on theContinue reading “The Grey Mare”
Drawing A Horse’s Head
I spent a great hour or so down at the Zoology Museum in The Wallace Building on the Swansea University Singleton campus this evening. A drawing group meets there twice a month to make the most of the specimens tucked away. I fancied studying a horse’s skull, to tie in with my previous work withContinue reading “Drawing A Horse’s Head”
The Swansea Devil
I popped down to Swansea Museum today to do some sketching. It’s a lovely museum with loads of interesting stuff to draw and it’s served generations of Swansea people. I sketched the Swansea Devil, a local legend. He was recently rehomed to the Museum because after a chequered history he wasContinue reading “The Swansea Devil”
My Geographic Palette #3 – Walnut Ink
About 3 or 4 years now some friends gave me a bag of fresh walnuts – that’s walnut fruit – the nut is in the centre of an apple sized green fruit. I made my own walnut ink from them, please click here if you want to see the technique I used. Continue reading “My Geographic Palette #3 – Walnut Ink”
My Geographic Palette #2 – Bideford Black
So, day 2 of drawing from my geographic palette. This is Bideford Black, an unique oily carbon-based pigment from North Devon, where is sits in the ground next to anthracite coal. It was mined for about 200 years up until the late 1960s but lost out to cheaper competitors and the mines closed. IContinue reading “My Geographic Palette #2 – Bideford Black”
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