not much...

not much to show in the way of creative work this week

tomorrow I leave for a month in the Yukon and there's been little to no studio time but after last week's post I was itching to get started on some small samples so took an afternoon off from the unending yard work and tried a few things

working with cloth and stitch takes time, at least for me, and time was in short supply but I had a few ideas of things I wanted to do with coloured pencils and ink

I thought about what format to use for the sampling and remembered some sample-work I did a while back where I used circle shapes

loving that look, I worked out four circles to a page in the current sketchbook where all the Japan-inspired work is going

and then had a little play

acrylic ink on a very soft paper with a lot of texture

the one below was done with Derwent Inktense and Tinted Charcoal pencils with a Sakura Pigma pen in black

Golden Fibre Paste on the bottom portion to add texture and more Inktense and Tinted Charcoal pencils in the upper portion

(I do love Fibre Paste - I use it on paper beneath watercolour for interesting effects and have also painted it on cheesecloth to create a very interesting textured fabric)

all of these are inspired by the pottery of past and present Japanese artists

there is such subtlety in the colours and textures of the glazes they develop and use, almost always with a strong connection to the land

sampling in this way helps me work out how to achieve similarities in texture on paper which makes it possible for me to create larger versions of my own ideas that I can then use in my own work

and when I get back from trip I'm also going to have a go at working with pigment-painted cloth to get similar visual textures

slowly but surely the stockpile is building