Re-wild your art practice, by transforming foraged and found materials into vibrant, sustainable drawing media, from richly pigmented pastels and smoke-black charcoal to deep, lightfast inks.
‘If you love culture, but know in your bones you are also part of nature, like me, you’ll want to make your art practice more ecologically sound and sustainable.’ - Caroline Ross
This stunning, practical book, sequel to the best-selling Found and Ground , contains both ancient and modern techniques for ‘rewilding’ your art practice. With hands-on advice and simple, step-by-step instruction, artist and author Caroline Ross shows you how to create beautiful, useful art supplies from wild and ancient materials whether those materials are foraged, natural, discarded or repurposed.
Inside the book you’ll discover:
Advice on how to forage safely and ethically , as well as tips on scavenging in the urban environment and rewilding your art practice gradually ;
Practical, step-by-step instructions for using lump media, preparing pigments , and creating hard and soft pastels ;
A complete guide to creating charcoal , from assessing different wood types, refining your sticks and then a guide to burning;
A guide to creating tannin, iron gall and botanical inks , plus instructions for making your own quill pen and brush ;
Surfaces on which to work, from found paper, leather and bark , to making your own sewn sketchbook ;
A final section on more permanent and long-lasting materials, such as metalpoint .
Expansive, inclusive and ethically-aware, Caroline illustrates the book with her own inspirational artwork alongside that of other artistic contributors from different cultures and different parts of the world, with their own distinctive materials, approaches and uses of the same core techniques.
Table of Contents Foreword by Stewart Lee 6
Hands on 18
Charcoal 48
Pen and ink 58
Surfaces 90
Permanence 108
Afterword 124
Index 128
Show More +
About Caroline Ross
Caroline Ross uses wild and ancient materials to make artworks from small illustrations to large murals. She also teaches life drawing and shows people how to make the materials she herself uses. Having spent decades indoors in art and recording studios, Caroline spends as much as possible of her life outdoors, immersing herself in nature as she sources her materials, and makes her work. Visit her website www.foundandground.com and follow her on Instagram @foundandground
MA Painting Chelsea School of Art 1996; BA (Hons) Fine Art Kingston University 1995; BTEC General Art and Design Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design 1991
The Artist
If you go down to the woods todayyoure sure of some good supplies. I think its fair to say that only the most dedicated muesli-knitter is likely to source all their materials this way, however... Lets get the elephant out of the room first, shall we? I do not for one moment think that youre going to abandon your local art shop and start combing the forest floor for inks, colours and brushes. Nor should you. However, once upon a time that was exactly what you would have done, and those earth colours you love so much? Well. Drawn from the Wild by Caroline Ross will provide you with all the information youre ever likely to need about making plant-based inks, pastels, pens and brushes, as well as surfaces you can draw and paint on. Do you need, or even want to? I think youll find that, whatever your requirements, these are instructive and worthwhile explorations of the natural world.
