This week we were prompted to experiment with colour in our sketchbooks, I decided to work with charcoal as well as coffee and tea to stain my pages and use more consideration and restraint than I normally would.  I worked in A5 from photos I had taken around the house that showed remnants of human presence, just quick shots as I went about my day and took the moment to consider the space and possible compositions.

The above is a page I used to set my jars of coffee and tea stain while I worked which left behind their own mark, another sense of presence and that someone had been there.

I also used coloured ink just to add a pop, instead of using lots of colour I did the muted background with mark making and focused the attention of the centred jam jar with the red ink.

In preparation for aquatint I also experimented with tone using indian ink in my notebook then on two of my proofs from printing last week. I went quite light with just enough difference for nice distinction between the different areas, I didn’t want it to be heavy but tried the polka dots to see.