Charting Browns & Studies in Blue

My ink mixing madness has continued & I have lots of miniature pots of ink all neatly labelled as is my wont. An alchemy of siennas & umbers & ochre, all in various proportions with hints of Indian Black. It hasn’t stopped with ink either, I’ve branched out and now have pots of ground chalky pastels too. Tea is brewed and mixed as needed & yes, teas do vary in colour.

I have a little Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook, which I use to document my various experiments. I also make notes of tea combinations & create my own little colour charts of what the inks in my pots actually look like.

I have so many shades of ‘brown’ that I’d be lost without my notes and charts. I like to refer to them when making studio studies for final pieces, so I know which combinations I have used.

But it’s not just the ‘browns’ but the ‘blues’ too that can be distressed & altered in some way. The combination of Prussian Blue hues mixed with tea & smeared with charcoal can be quite spectacular…. Well to me anyway.