Abstract – Jane Sketching

Experiments with colour: sci-fi landscapes

Yesterday I was experimenting with Daniel Smith watercolours. The aim was to get a really good deep black with just two colours.

The Perinone Orange with Prussian Blue is particularly magic. Two quite pale colours suddenly combine to a carbon black. It’s like watching a chemical process. Although it is, of course, a physical process. These two colours are complementary, and together they absorb all the visible spectrum. Impressive.

I did other experiments:

Then I had a lot of colours left in the mixing tray. I didn’t want to throw them away, they looked so lovely and jewel-like in the mixing tray. So I made some sci-fi landscapes.

The watercolour experiments were in a Khadi sketchbook. The Sci-fi landscapes in a Carnet de Voyages, by Arches.

Stormy Seas, Raft

“Found image”, after wiping an etching plate.
I’m pleased at how the shape of this plate is articulate of a horizontal rectangle, even with no other clues. The black ink round the plate looks to me like the sea. But perhaps that’s just wishful thinking.

Three rectangles

Another “found image”.
This is from cleaning copper plates with Brasso.
I like the way the shapes have become 3-dimensional, and layered, and the colours are strange and interesting.

Brasso and printing ink on newsprint, about A3.
East London Printmakers, 5th Jan 2017.