Work on “The Bird with the Rainbow Tail” is progressing well and I have been taking inspiration from the world of black and white, line art and wood engraving. Most of the work for this project has been executed in pen and ink, using black line drawings as a starting point. I hope to share some of these images soon; in the meantime I would like to share with you the work of Michelle Palmer who draws onto vintage linen. Her work is very detailed and delicate and now I am the proud owner of these little beauties after winning her blog give away, thank you Michelle!
For some time now I have been promising myself that I would try my hand at wood engraving, having admired the work of such luminaries as Clare Leighton, Reynolds Stone and Eric Ravilious, for many years. Thanks to the wonders of the internet I have been able to source materials and view instructions which has enabled me to have a stab myself, in fact that is exactly what I have done, several times, those tools are sharp! I would really like to do a workshop, as it is so hard to try to teach oneself.
After several abortive attempts and many practice pieces I finally managed to produce one engraving which I will try to print, you can see my work in progress above. The wood is end grain boxwood, which is very hard and polished to a very smooth finish; it is also very expensive which makes my many mistakes even harder to bear. Now I know how difficult this craft is it has increased my appreciation for this beautiful art form.
The white foxgloves have finally flowered and are being visited by many bumblebees. I came across this wonderful wood engraving of foxgloves by Andy English, a master engraver; you can see it by following this link
Andy also has a wealth of knowledge which he has very kindly made available on his website.
