Travel Journal: Sketching with Walnut Ink

Florence Duomo sketch, Molly Hashimoto

The Duomo in Florence seemed a great subject for trying out more walnut ink sketching techniques. I was explaining to the friendly people that I met yesterday at the Daniel Smith demonstration in advance of my January 27th workshop that I find walnut ink a really wonderful medium for drawing. First of all, it flows so nicely from the pen (which is why calligraphers love it). It also can be mixed up in various saturations and loaded into a waterbrush.  So it really can be quite portable and makes great little values sketches. And for some subjects it seems to be just the right color, like the beautiful churches and civic structures in Italy. The color hearkens back to Old Masters drawings; in our minds we carry around a set of artistic archetypes--these colors speak to me of the Renaissance both early and late, Leonardo, Michelangelo, even later artists like Tiepolo who excelled at the brown wash, chalk and bistre drawings.  These artists are so worthy of our imitation!

Related articles

More Student Sketches with Walnut Ink

Travel Journal Workshop at Daniel Smith

Comments

[Simona]

I really like the color of walnut ink. It reminds me of sepia photos, which I also like. Very nice sketch.

[jeanne]

can i mix walnut crystals to make different shades of ink?

[Molly Hashimoto]

I mix 1 part crystals to 3 parts water for a very dark saturation. I lighten the value of that mixture by adding water once I apply it to the paper,or by just putting some in a palette well and adding water. If you use waterbrushes you could mix 2 different saturations and load each brush with one darker, one lighter.