The woods are a Notan
Posted: January 14, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: ink drawing, winter drawing, woods 8 CommentsOn our daily walks in the woods, Alice and I discover different trails. We’ve been taking one lately that is quite magical in winter because of all the bent tree branches. It was especially gorgeous this morning after yesterday’s snowfall — a monochrome wonderland.
I took a few photos of various patterns that the trees make, and when I got back to my studio, I painted this one in ink. No preliminary pencil drawing, just an array of fine brushes dipped first in Noodler’s Black ink for the foreground shapes, and then Noodler’s Lexington Grey ink for the background shapes. It’s a good exercise to try to paint around what you want to leave white.
I used a smooth sketchbook paper for this. If you want to give this a try, don’t use your good watercolour brushes. I have another set that I use for ink that have very good points and are very inexpensive.
I like this! It reminds me of linoleum prints. Very pretty, Shari.
SO Beautiful!
I love the notan! Thanks for sharing the brushes to use with ink. I love ink so this will be a new challenge for me.
Really nice – this work has so much energy!
I like the use of the two tones of ink. Lovely sketch, Shari!
Beautiful sketch! Thanks so much for sharing. Could you please share the brand of the brush you used?
I have just been thinking about painting with ink. This is lovely! Do you ever mix up a watercolor like Paynes’s Grey and fill a water brush (I have Pentel)? I vaguely remember your mentioning it in a post some time ago.
I love this. I can feel the quiet stillness of the woods after a snowfall.