With the sunshine out and new #jherbin inks arrived, I was itching to take them onto Hergest Ridge to explore sketching with these new gorgeous colours. A few weeks ago Josephine Birch (Artist), pulled out a bottle of Cacao du Bresil from her bag. As soon as I saw it in her sketchbook I had to have a go. I paired it with some Vert Olive green. With me, I also had my usual kit wrapped up in my Pegandawl mini art roll, and also some acrylics. I had primed a wooden board the night before and without considering the permanence of the ink on the board, I naturally went for the inks and sketched the landscape, like I had always been using them.

I didn’t have a preconceived idea where I would stop and how I would sketch today, I just went with my creativity. Using the inks I went for a more abstract approach to capturing in the landscape before me. I loved how the colours went together. I added some water to some green ink and mixed in my palette to produce this light colour for the background hills. I wasn’t completely happy until I had added some coloured pencil detail, for a mixed media piece.

A couple with a dog passed by, but otherwise I was alone to focus on my sketching. I had found a stone to sit by and I enjoyed listening to the skylarks above me. Creativity outdoors and connecting with the landscape is so good for you.

It’s so exciting completing a sketch on wood using inks out in the hills and then carrying the completed piece back as it drys in the wind.

The Walking Sketchbook