I posted some of these image to Insta awhile back, but wanted to re-post the drawing/painting steps here with a little more color commentary.
We were driving back from Colorado to Moab in Utah and we saw a little road on the map off the beaten path (the 70) – Scenic Hwy 128, just outside of Arches National Park, north of Moab, UT… were like “Hey – that looks like a cool, lonely road on the map… looks like it follows a creek, too” so we pulled off of the 70 onto it… lots of wide open grassy hills started pointing towards a canyon where that creek showed up on the map… turns out, I can pick a good highway, but apparently not read a map exactly as that “creek” was the Colorado River and it was raging when we were coming through… was absolutely ridiculously breathtaking drive for an hour+ as we cut towards Moab for the night; had no idea… anyway… snapped tons of photos of the landscapes as they drifted by… loved this one of the wide open hills with clouds piled overhead and thought this one would be a good one to make an ink drawing from it…
Here’s a not-excellent step by step on the oak gall ink painting I did; hope you dig it!
This is the source image I worked from; I took tons of pix as the landscape drifted by, but this one struck me when I got home and was editing them… felt like a good one to work up a drawing on.
Working from a the photo I took, I pencil in the outlines of the landscape with an H-hardness pencil… H is a nice pencil hardness to work with, but anything in that range – HB, 2B, 2H, etc is fine to work with… you just want something that won’t smear (softness) and something that isn’t too light (hardness) to work over when you start inking it…
Working from a the photo I took, I pencil in the outlines of the landscape with an H-hardness pencil… H is a nice pencil hardness to work with, but anything in that range – HB, 2B, 2H, etc is fine to work with… you just want something that won’t smear (softness) and something that isn’t too light (hardness) to work over when you start inking it…
My little oak gall ink pot with a little inkwell at the ready
Just getting started with the oak gall ink now, laying in a light wash in the hills… I’ve found that you can add about three layers of ink, but after that it starts behaving strangely – it leaves what I would call an efflorescence around the edges of the darker patches of ink, which doesn’t look nice. I think it is related to the gum arabic in the ink that I add that is meant to give the ink some sheen, but I think that glossy effect seals out later layers and the ink… bugs out… anyway – slow and intentional ink layers now ahead of me.
That’s my workspace – dinner table with stuff strewn about… I’ve worked from photos before, but usually after I’ve drawn something at a location… this was different – this time, I worked right from a photo for the finished piece…
The landscape is getting there… just adding details in the shrubs, hillsides and need to wash the skies now with some broad strokes.
The oak gall ink drawing of the landscape is ready for some watercolor work in the clouds now – something I haven’t done yet. You can see a little tryout patch in an upper portion of the clouds; glad it worked, otherwise that would’ve sucked having that patch there…
I’ve got a cheapo set of watercolor paints that I’ve used over the years for other projects, but I’ve never used the watercolors in tandem with one of my oak gall ink projects.
I’m adding the white watercolor to the clouds now, something I’ve never done to an ink drawing… I was really pleased with the way the paint laid out on the paper; felt natural and complemented the oak gall ink.
Wrapped up on the ink drawing of the Utah landscape, circa 2024. The ink tones are grey when they go on, but they mellow to a caramel brown over time, which I just love.
You can see how the color is changing from the greyish tones to the warmer caramels here.
I had used the drawing as part of a staging scene at my Dad’s house that I had for sale in Laguna Beach this past year; it was set out on top of a sketchbook with some brushes nearby as if an artist had recently been at work. It was a good conversation piece as prospective home buyers came through and I was proud of the little scene I had set. My young twin sisters came through for their 50th birthday over the summer and one of my sisters – Maile – said “What. Is. That?” She knew what it was because both of the girls scoop up whatever I draw and paint and I’m always happy to send something home with them – this sis in particular, back to France… I said “Oh, yeah! Happy birthday! I made that for you! ;)” She laughed and hugged it and said “OK, OK, OK!!!! I can’t believe I got this before Malia did!!” I told her I didn’t have any good pictures of it and to pose with it before I never saw it again. She obliged; love you, sis! <3
