Walnut ink is a classic ink for many artists. We’re introduced to it in high school or college. It’s a deep warm brown color and available in liquid or crystalized form. It’s considered staining but not waterproof and is considered to be pretty lightfast. That is to say that the color is resistant to fading and color shifting when exposed to sunlight. It’s also an easy ink to make.

I want to acknowledge that walnuts are also a very traditional dye source and I gained a lot of info about making this ink from reading blogs and watching videos about making dye.

Also, the nuts have an odor. It’s not unpleasant but it is distinct. It’s vaguely medicinal, herbaceous, woody and nutty. It’s not unpleasant, to me, but it is strong. As I gathered my nuts I could smell it emanating from the bag. When I got home and opened up my pannier the smell hit me in my face. It was INTENSE. It was also intense when I was removing the husks.

Next thing to acknowledge- Black walnuts are probably the best bang for effort when making ink. My first batch used only 15 walnuts and produced about a cup of ink. That’s huge when compared to acorn caps. In terms of effort, it can be done with minimal effort as well. My second batch used about 40 walnuts and used cold soaking only and heat to reduce it and has produced even more ink. This does not adequately show how stained my fingers are from using the WRONG gloves.

​Let’s get into the process.

Materials needed:

• Rubber gloves
• Plastic bags
• Pot to cook in
• Something to stir with
• Essential oil with antifungal properties like clove or lavender
• ​Storage container
• Old clothes you don’t mind getting stained

Gather your nuts. Black walnuts are bright green when they drop to the ground and are about the size of a tennis ball. They are a native species of tree in much of the US. In my area they grow well and are prolific. There is some range in size but personally I’d skip the smaller nuts as the husks are hard to remove the husk. Gather them in a plastic bag. The husks start to release tannins and juices as soon as they are crushed and will stain everything and anything they touch. Crush them directly before dehusking.

Note: Probably 75% of my nuts had black walnut fly larvae in the husk. While a bit gross they do get caught in the strainer and are not in the ink or dye.

Remove the husks. Place your nuts on the ground* in a loosely tied plastic bag. Walk on them or figure out a way to give them a big of a crush. Put on rubber gloves. While wearing gloves remove the husks from the nut. While doing this break the husks up into smaller pieces. This aides in leeching off the tannins. I put my nuts into a large container with a lid and added water and then shook them to get any residual pulp off of them. I used this pulpy water as part of my water for steeping.

Steeping. Place husks into a pot and cover with water, then add in more water. I added about double the amount of water by volume as there are nuts. Example- For every cup of husks I added 2 cups of water. Bring this up to a boil. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes with a lid on. Let steep for at least an hour or overnight with a lid on. I let mine steep until it was cool enough for me to handle- about 2 hours.

Straining. Pour the liquid and sludge into a paint strainer bag, or several layers of cheese cloth or piece of old sheet. Squeeze out all liquid. Pour more water over the sludge to pull out all the good liquid. At this point I believe this liquid would get through a coffee filter. (I did NOT get a photo of this step as I was covered in juice and had on gloves.)

The steep and straining phase is where I think a lot of artists go wrong while making ink. In many of the blog posts and videos I reviewed, artists started the reduction process as part of the steeping process. The resulting thick liquid is harder to strain and clogs filters due to sugars and starches making the liquid very thick. In my testing I had really good results with straining before I reduced the liquid. So the steep and cook are suggested to do with a lid on. If you accidentally reduce the liquid down, add more water.

Yes, this increases the end cooking and reduction time but I think is worth it. My inks from this process has very few chunks and lumps.

Reduction. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Let it simmer until it is reduced down by half and then start testing the color of the ink. I use a brush on paper rather than dipping strips of paper. The brush gives me a better idea of how the ink will look on paper when in a brush pen better than dipping. Test. cook. test. When the ink is reduce to about 1/3rd of the original volume watch it closely and keep adjusting the heat. Keep it at a gentle simmer! This is where things get tricky for me. I am always tempted to increase the heat or go do something else. The last 1/3rd is where things start to go faster. I test every few minutes. Test. Simmer. Test.

If you are sensitive to the odor of the walnuts when you are processing the husks, do this cooking stage outside. The medicinal odor decreases and gives way to something that is fruity, woody, and tea like. It is still very strong.

The consistency goes from watery to syrupy at this stage. The bubbles that form hold on longer and spatter when they burst. The foam is a deep rich brown almost black in color. The swatched color is deep and brown and lovely.

​I let my ink reduce substantially, opting for something stronger that I can thin out with water if I want. The ink is dark and intense and I’m in love with it.

Additions. At this point you can add some alcohol which acts as an anti fungal but also changes the flow of the ink. Most recipes call for up to 10% alcohol. This will also impact how much ink is absorbed into paper or canvas as well as decreasing dry time.

Another addition is essential oil. I use lemongrass essential oil but clove or lavender or thyme is a good choice. These all have antifungal qualities that reduce the chances of mold. Mold will happen if you do not use an essential oil or alcohol as part of your recipe.

Finally is the addition of gum arabic. I believe that gum arabic is not totally necessary for this ink, I did use it in my recipe, but the walnut husks seem to have a fair amount of their own starches or pectin which do contribute to the thickness of the ink at the end. The starches could be crashed out of the solution with some bentonite clay, enzymes or other tool used in wine making for clarity. I decided to not attempt these but might in a future batch.

Some notes: I believe that a gentle simmer increases the quality of the ink and reduces the clumping that occurs at a high rolling boil. I strained my ink once- through a paint strainer. I did not need to strain it again. Not reducing the ink during the steep stage made my straining easier and more effective.

You can create an iron gall style ink by putting something rusty into the pot while cooking it down. The tannins react with the rust and create a black liquid and turns the rust into a hard black shell, very interesting. I did not do that with this ink yet. I really like the dark brown color. I have more nuts and easy access to them if I want to test out another batch with some rusty things.

Fermentation. I have noticed that a lot of the fiber artists who make walnut and other dyes have a long steep stage where the husks and nuts sit in the water for up to a month. I am pretty confident that this causes some fermentation to occur and reduces the amount of sugars in the resulting dye/ink. I may attempt a fermentation stage with another batch. While I don’t mind the sheen that sugars and starches give to my drawings I would like to see if I can reduce that. Sugars also increase the ability to rewet the ink when drawing, making layers and layer ink more difficult. The ink with a lot of sugars acts more like a liquid watercolor rather than ink.

*The amount of nut jokes i have made in my head while writing this up is not small.

Poke weed grows wildly across my area and is considered an annoying weed. All of the plant is quite poisonous- with the berries and roots being the most poisonous. The leaves when prepared properly are edible, but it requires work. That said, I’ve heard it’s delicious. There are other native edibles that are easy to prepare and I’d rather forage those. I watched a video on dyeing with these berries that sparked the idea to make ink.

The berries look black on the plant and the plant has pretty little flowers that bees and other pollinators love. Birds love the seeds and after consuming them leave brilliantly purple poops on my car that can stain the clear coat. Gross.

I don’t generally care about poke weed but leave it around my yard for pollinators and the birds, despite the staining poop. This year I decided to harvest some of the berries and attempt to make an ink. I knew the ink would be purple or pinkish but also hopefully worth the effort.

I picked about a cup of berries, I didn’t want to go too far into it as I wasn’t sure how the ink would or would not work. I added in the same amount of water and then some to really cook the berries down. I brought the berries and water to a rolling boil and then lowered the temp to a gentle simmer. I let them simmer for roughly a half hour. I wish I had done this outside as the smell of the berries was quite unpleasant. Bitter and herbaceous in an unpleasant way. I am not a fan.

After the simmer I allowed the mixture to cool off and then I strained it through a mesh strainer for paint. I squeezed the liquid from the seeds and pulp which I added into my compost pile.

I then returned this to the burner and brought it back up to a gentle simmer. I checked it every 15 minutes and then when it reduced down to about 1/3 the original volume I checked it every 5 minutes. I brought it to about a quarter cup of liquid. I allowed this to cool before decanting into a vinegar cruet. I added about a teaspoon of gum arabic powder and shook it well. I then added in a drop of lemongrass essential oil.

The resulting ink is a brilliant magenta. I have no doubt that this color is fugitive and will change color over time and eventually disappear. The color does seem to react with some papers and turn a bit blueish in tone. That said my intent with this ink is sketchbooks only.

Some notes- Again I believe this has a fair amount of sugar content. It’s not visible in the image but there is sheen in the areas where the ink pooled even in small layers. I believe a fermentation stage would reduce the sugars. I know some makers of homemade ink use vodka or other alcohols for preservation and to inhibit molding, but that impacts how the ink moves on the page- it acts as a flow agent and causes the ink to soak into the paper more. I’ll experiment with it at some point. I need to check and see if the poke berry pigment is PH reactive, I suspect from the blueish-ness on one paper that it is. If I make this one again I will boil this ink down a lot more.

It is extremely important that the poke berries are prepared in a container that will not be used for food. The berries are quite poisonous. In the future I will cook this sort of ink outside as the smell was quite gross to me.

One of my goals for my vacation this past week* was to complete several finished art works. Which I’m happy to say I achieved**. I’m currently working to complete another but I thought I’d go deep on the process for this here blog. This is the first few steps in detail.

The process for this piece started with a hike at West Quoddy Head. Here I took a few pictures of the scenery. The image below struck me as having potential.

The path leading to the rest of the trail with the lighthouse behind me. The grouping of spruce and pines seemingly block the rail  but just there in the midst of them, the bend in the trail.

The sun is bright with clear skies. We’ll make the sky more interesting later.

The next step is to make thumbnails. I went through my various pictures and made thumbnail in roughly the same aspect ratio as the photos- 4:3, 9×12, 12×16 etc… These are kept small in my sketchbook and made with lines and pencil then brush marker in a somewhat Notan style.

These aren’t detailed. They are made to just capture the essence of a scene and help me figure out composition. The next step is a larger study. In this case I’d spent a lot of time thinking about the image. It can be done pretty boring.

In this case I realized that the space at the bottom of the page pushes the central part of the image up and into the very center of the image. This can be combated with value and color later in the image, but in this case it’s a fine line for the image. If I start out with everything centered on the page I have a lot more work to do later with color to pull the composition out of boringness.

Instead I make a line roughly an inch up from the bottom of the image, cutting off a lot of the open space and directionality of the trail. The plan is to extend the sky up for the rest of the image.

It is important to note here that this larger sketch or study is done in the same size ratio as the final piece will be. This sketch is 5×7 inches while the final work will be on 10×14 inch paper.

I then use a soft pencils*** to transfer my sketch to the watercolor paper. I’m using an OLD Cheap Joe’s 100% cotton 10×14 block with about 3/4 of an inch taped off on each side.

The next step is to start layering on watercolors. I start with a VERY pale wash to block in the sky, water, and trail.

These are the lightest areas and darker colors will be built up. I come back in and add in another layer with additional colors.

I want to add in the next layer of darks and the clusters of trees. You will note that I’m not being too controlled by the initial photo, rather I’m letting the image guide me, as I build up the layers of this image. At this point I’m adding in my darkest darks in the trees- a blend of Hooker’s Green and Indigo a hint of sepia and red oxide.

The trees have come to life. Here they are still partially damp, so I’ll come back with a another layer of darks to really deepen the dark areas and show how dark these trees are in person. I also want to keep them looking dark green not black. That’s something the photo doesn’t capture- that the darkest darks here are actually still very green with a hint of deep blue.

The next step is that final layer of watercolors. then I’ll start layering on chalk pastels. I also see in these image where I want to change things- the ocean and grass on the left side of the image aren’t quite where I want them. I need to increate the volume of the grasses and bring up the angle of the row of grass, which will hide more of the ocean view.

The pastels usually go on in 2 or 3 layers.

Continue reading →

The thing that I really love about en plein air or urban sketching is how it captures the feel of a place and of a moment. It’s immediate. It’s about sensation not just the view.

I posted a few sketches I did while I was out for a bike ride. It was my longest ride since my knee injury and I ended the ride with a quick loop around Winter Island and then out to Juniper Point.  There’s a spot on the way into Juniper Point where the community has placed a series of benches to look over the water, back toward Winter Island and Marblehead. It’s a nice view.

I did a couple of sketches of the backside of the boat sales and repair place. A place that on the street side has a tall privacy fence. The backside is a view of quanset huts and a variety of sheds. 

These sketches were intended to use as the basis of a final piece. (this has been a goal for this week- to take a sketch and use it to create a final mixed media piece.)  I liked the layout but wanted more sky. I turned my watercolor sheet to portrait instead of landscape and kept most of the image toward the bottom of the page.

I used these two sketches to keep the light and shadows where they belong.

I think I did a good job on this one and really like how the blues and purples and browns make the dark darks while the sunlight is warm. The sky could have been more dramatic, but ah well, it was a simple bright sunny day.

Apparently when I was in Artist & Craftsman Supply a single Pentel Pocket Brush Pen (PPBP) in sepia fell into my basket.

Okay it didn’t fall, I put it into my grubby little hands.

You may or may not know that these are one of my favorite sketching tools. The extra fine lines to fat wet lines are just perfect for all sorts of sketching. The PPBP is a superior drawing tool, particularly if you like noodley fun line work.

I already have a few, maybe 3 of them at home. Only one is filled with black ink.

Sigh.

I forgot that I had bought it when I wrote my previous post.

That said it’s spectacular. The new brush tip is super fine and springy and really quite delightful. The sepia ink is almost black but has a warm undertone that is fantastic, with a bit of water it’s got that sepia color that I love.

Hot damn this is a nice color and of course the PPBP does not disappoint.

​The ink is waterproof once dry. Awesome. It just gets better.

Anyway, this is my confession.

When I first started out on YouTube there were a lot of folx who posted nasty comments. I’ve written about the comments about my weight, hair, teeth, and clothing that were unkind before so I won’t go into them here. One of the things that I haven’t written about before is the technique comments.

Sometimes, these comments initially come across as helpful, but when you read them more closely, they are backhanded, or rudely written know-it-all garbage.

In art there are few absolute right ways of doing things. there are things that are safer- keep your hands out of the line of your cuts when you are carving wood as an example. Or rules that help to keep your paintings looking good for longer- use lightfast and archival materials. Or paint fat over lean so your oil paintings don’t crack. Or paint oils over acrylics but not the opposite, because the acrylic won’t stick to the oils.

And so on.

Recently YouTube started to feed me videos by this creator. She’s got good vibes, but whoa her comment section is a minefield of wallet wagging you-have-to-do-this kinda comments. Watercolors are like that. They attract people who are precise meticulous kinds of artists.

When I started to post my “automatic” drawings that combined ink drawings with watercolors- done loose and flowy every video told me I was using watercolors wrong.

Too much water!

Too little water!

What a waste of paint!

Use better paper!

Are those student grade?

That’s NOT what an automatic drawing is.

All comments from accounts with no videos. A bit of searching revealed that some of the folx posting these comments hadn’t picked up a brush in years and years. Their whole purpose was to tear people down. Trolls.

​That sucks.

Anyway, now that I’m older I’m not getting the same kind of hate that I used to on YouTube and generally online. I’ve learned to be liberal with that hide and block button. I report nasty comments for review on YouTube even if it’s not on my channel.

I suspect that years and years of blocking, muting, hiding, and reporting has left me with fewer trolls who troll art pages than the average person.

I posted my first video on YouTube in 2009, but joined in 2006 (I think) and that’s given me a lot of blocks, hides and reports.

All that said, I think it sucks that these people are still out there with their hate.

I love to sketch on site, I don’t think there is anything quite as nice as plein air painting. I find it relaxing and rewarding. that said, this winter I learned that a quick photo shoot can save my finger tips from painful cold.

My philosophy of vibes over realism allows me to work from photos and alter the view to capture a vibe or the feeling of the place. I also don’t mind working from photos. There is plenty of debate online about working from photos, and I basically ignore the naysayers and let myself like what I like.

anyway, I did a few small drawings while I was at West Quoddy Head. My phone kept screaming at me that I was in Canada and that I would not have an accurate map reading. Fun. I’ll post the drawings later.

​What I did do was take a lot of interesting photos. Some may end up as art some may not. West Quoddy Head is a gorgeous, short, and easy hike. I should have taken a few photos of the actual lighthouse but IMO that is the least interesting thing in the area. The great thing about this spot in particular is that you can look out to sea. A clear day really captures just how vast the ocean is, especially when a large lobster boat moves past you.

Some pics: