Quink!

Last week I was reminded of a technique by something I saw on a tv programme. A girl drew some trees using a thin nib & Quink black ink, then washed over them with water to separate the pigments of the ink and create a cloudy effect. Quink ink separates into blue and a coppery brown when wet.  Today I finally remembered to buy some of this ink and had a bit of a play.  I used a photo I took in the Blackwood Forest in the summer as a reference and drew the main branches only of the trees, then inked them in. In some places I just inked the sides of the trunk and added water to make the ink run into the middle & create a shaded effect.

Then I used a fine water spray to mist over the paper where I wanted leaves & dropped ink gently into the patches of water with a paint brush.  Where there was a lot of water, the ink ran beautifully and when dry, looked like sunlight coming through the leaves.  Once the leaves had dried, I had to go over the trunks again as they had faded in places - perhaps next time I would do the leaves first.  I also re-applied the water spray and ink in places to make parts of the leaves darker.

For a first attempt, I am really pleased with this and can see lots of potential for future pictures.