Experimenting With Colour & Form.
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with layered colour washes over my typically monochrome ink pieces. After a long stretch of working solely in black ink, reintroducing colour has been both exciting and challenging. Each wash transforms the depth and tone of a scene in unexpected ways, inviting me to reimagine my approach to familiar landscapes.
In this latest series of sketches, I began by introducing a subtle wash of purple as a base layer, followed by my usual black ink sketches. Once the ink layer was complete, I applied a final wash in a secondary colour - such as blue or pink - a combination I hadn’t tried before. In my earlier work with colour washes, I always kept to a single shade, but I’ve discovered that layering two hues adds new dimensions to the piece, enhancing the sense of atmosphere and movement. This layered approach feels particularly fitting for my exploration of cianalas, a deep sense of longing and nostalgia, which I aim to evoke in my art through layering, shading, and the soft play of shadows.
It’s fascinating to observe how these colours interact with the ink, softening or intensifying details in ways that you don’t always get with black and white alone. Colour, in this context, brings a different energy to each sketch. These muted hues add a quiet dynamism, a sense of shifting moods and light that feels different to my typically monochrome sketches.
Alongside colour, I’ve been experimenting with proportion. For this series of three sketches, I chose narrower, elongated compositions - a shape that invites a vertical flow and lends itself particularly well to elements like tall trees or expansive skies. This proportion naturally pulls the viewer’s gaze along a slower, more deliberate journey up and down the scene, allowing the details to emerge gradually. It’s a new way of guiding the eye, allowing me to explore the imposing nature some of these landscape have that I can’t always achieve with a traditional landscape composition.
Broader canvases have often given my work a sense of openness, yet these elongated forms feel contained, focusing attention while making each element feel more pronounced. The trees, for instance, appear taller and more dramatic, as if reaching beyond the canvas itself, while clouds and subtle textures become more intimate. This approach to proportion is something I’m eager to explore on a larger scale, pushing these compositions to see how they translate in more expansive works.
These experiments in colour and form go beyond aesthetic choices; they’re helping to reshape how I think about my process as a whole. Working with colour asks me to find new ways to balance layers, to approach the page with a lighter touch in some areas. It feels a bit like unlearning old habits, noticing details in new ways and adding nuance that I hadn’t considered in monochrome.
While black ink captures the essence of a landscape, colour brings forward its emotions in a different way. It’s a different kind of storytelling, one that makes me consider the mood of each piece and how these hues can amplify or soften that story. I’m unsure if this approach will ever fully replace my preference for monochrome sketches, but it’s a shift that feels meaningful, encouraging me to explore both techniques side by side.
As I continue with this series, I’m looking forward to refining these techniques and learning where colour can best enhance the narrative of each piece - or whether, at times, the simplicity of a single ink colour is more impactful. Whether I keep this exploration subtle or lean further into it remains to be seen, but this process reminds me of the power of experimentation. Sometimes, it’s the smallest changes that reveal the most unexpected insights.
