Sketchbook Revival - All Messed Up

Another gem from the Sketchbook Revival 2020 videos - Karen Stamper's "Wild Garden" in black and white.  I was particularly looking forward to this as I had found Karen's contribution last year inspiring and freeing.

Materials and techniques suggested were graphite, charcoal, candle wax, wax crayons, glue stick, torn paper stencils, leaf prints, ink (for drawing, spraying and wash), biro, markers, collage, etc.  The idea was to start with random graphite and charcoal, loose scribbles, areas of denser black with rubbed in crushed charcoal, resist marks with wax and glue stick, more charcoal, leaf shapes erased or sprayed through stencils, real leaf prints (directly on the page or collaged), finer lines with biro, inked lines with stick pen, etc.  All really wildly messy, but great fun.

I should probably have left more white areas - I did use white acrylic and then some gesso, but neither covered the charcoal as much as I would have liked.

The Tangled Hedge - mixed media in watercolour Moleskine 

Detail

Re-worked ink resist painting

Earlier this year I attempted a gouache and ink resist painting using one of my urban sketches as reference.

Radnor Street Chapel - approx. 10" x 7"
- gouache, Indian ink, watercolour

It was relegated to the unresolved pile as the trees looked stilted and the background messy.  A couple of months later I decided to use my limited supply of pastels to see if I could make any improvement.

The sky, trees and the background were the main areas altered, with some final flicks of pastel in the foreground.  It still doesn't make the grade, but it gave me a chance to try out my neglected pastels without being too worried about the final outcome.

Recent gouache and ink resist painting

This painting has been languishing in my "unresolved" folder for over a month.  The original plein air sketch was done in November 2017, then earlier this year I followed it up with a postcard size sketch which prompted me to try an ink resist version.  I am still trying to decide if I want to take it any further.

Postcard size pen and wash sketch

Drawing and watercolour washes on Arches 140 lb paper

I forgot to take photos of the intermediate stages of applying the gouache and then covering the entire painting with Indian ink (this process is explained here).

The Indian ink and gouache have been washed off

Further watercolour washes have been applied
Approx. 10" x 7"

Norwegian Fisherman's Hut

This is an Indian ink and gouache resist painting I did after a trip to Norway some time ago.  On this occasion my reference was one of my photos - we were on a guided tour, so there was little time to stop and sketch.  Although it was a fairly grey day, the red painted hut with its turf roof captured my attention as we headed towards the Saltstraumen, one of the world's strongest tidal currents.  Here the incoming tide from the sea, clashes with the water in a narrow channel of the Skerstad Fjord, forming a whirlpool which can be as much as 1 metre below the level of the surrounding water.  The current wasn't too ferocious on the day we were there, but I wouldn't have wanted to be one of the group of tourists being driven through it on a rather flimsy looking inflatable craft.

Fisherman's Hut, Norway

You can see more of my ink resist paintings on my Gallery page.

More mini collages

A few more mini collages on the Hahnemuhle 3" x 4" sample paper.  These are great to make when I only have a limited amount of time in my art space or have no larger art project on the go.  Again, scraps of hand printed tissue, book pages, lino prints, odd sketchbook drawings, postage stamps, fabric oddments, texture paste, gesso, acrylic paint, coloured pencil, gel pens.  Anything goes!

Another sample sheet from Hahnemuhle - Akademie watercolour paper "Britannia" - on which I have tried out watercolour paints, watercolour markers and a couple of small ink and gouache resist images. These all worked well and I was particularly pleased that the latter came out so well - I have tried this technique on Bockingford paper, but when I washed off the gouache all the ink went as well and I was left with almost blank piece of paper - all that work down the drain!

Collage and ink resist continued ...

Following on from my last post, the Indian ink was washed off under running water and stretched onto a board.  The first surprise was that the gouache had not protected the white gesso stamped pattern on the left, in fact the ink had soaked into the gesso making that area rather dark.

"The reveal" after a visit to the sink

Next, I tried out various painted papers to see which would be suitable for the collage elements.  I took quite a few photos during the whole process so it was possible to compare the different layouts on my computer screen.  In addition, I started to repaint the work as much of the original watercolour gets lost during the washing process.

One of the trial runs with collage

The collage on the fruit bowl and the border behind it has been decided and most of the repainting completed (below).  In an attempt to tone down the patterned left hand side I overpainted with white gouache, but this did nothing to improve matters.

Trying to tone down the lefthand side

After letting things sit overnight I felt I had to wash off the gouache and try something else.  In my paper stash I found a piece of peach coloured printed tissue and this served to act as a veil over the offending pattern. With the addition of another couple of small collage elements, I think that's as far as I will go with this particular piece, but it might be worth exploring this style further.

The collage papers used are shown on the right hand side

The Ridgefield Pot - watercolour, gouache, ink and collage
Approx 8" x 8" on Arches not 140lb 

Collage and ink resist

For quite a while I have had a notion to try and combine the ink resist technique with collage.  I searched my reject pile and pulled out a failed watercolour with which to experiment.

Watercolour with some background printing with gesso - definitely not a very good effort

Overlay of white gouache

I wasn't keen on the printed pattern on the left, so covered that and isolated a few smaller rectangles. It's looking much better now (perhaps I should have left it at this stage!).

Now it is covered in India ink - not much to see here! 

In the next post we'll see what happens when this is washed off under running water.  It could be a complete disaster, but worth a try.

The Gamekeeper's Cottage

Finally finished, I think.  Time to get it mounted and framed in the New Year, ready for its new owner.

Indian ink, gouache and watercolour - approx 11" x 7"

Ink resist progress

I have managed to get a bit further with my latest "ink resist" painting (started here).

The white gouache resist has been completed

Once the gouache is completely dry, Indian ink is brushed over the image

The Indian ink has now been washed off

The ink was washed off under running water and the paper stretched onto a board, awaiting the final washes of watercolour to bring it to life.

Another ink and gouache resist

Taking a break from bookmarks and Christmas card production, I have started another small ink and gouache resist painting.

This little sketch was done after a wander round the forest paths on the Longleat estate in Wiltshire some 5 years ago.  I call it The Gamekeeper's Cottage - I am not sure if that is correct, but there seemed to be dozens of pheasants strutting around in the vicinity.

Pen and wash - approx 4" x 3"

Pencil and watercolour under-wash - 10" x 6.5"

Part way through adding white gouache

I can already see that I will have to reinforce some areas of gouache to ensure the subsequent Indian ink wash doesn't dirty the areas I need to keep the lightest.

(See the final image here.)