A brilliant combination

Liquid acrylics make a great base for coloured pencil work, as Liz Seward shows with a lively spring landscape

Liquid acrylics make a great base for coloured pencil work, as Liz Seward shows with a lively spring landscape

After 40 years of painting it’s good to know that there are still some materials that excite me beyond measure. One of these is acrylic ink, or Golden High Flow Liquid Acrylics. Beautiful, intense jewel-like colours combine with a fluidity that is fascinating to watch as it moves and blends on the paper. Then, once the first application is dry, the inks can be used to continue the work or the initial layer of paint can be used as an underpainting for other media.

Firm favourites

I had used inks as a basis for dry media for decades, using them with pastels, pastel pencils and water-soluble wax crayons, then about 20 years ago I decided to try coloured pencils with the inks. I was more than pleased with the result but was dubious about the permanence of the pencils, so I put this particular combination on the back burner. Then some years ago I acquired my first set of Caran d’Ache Luminance 6901, which is one of the most lightfast ranges available. Since then, this particular combination has become a firm favourite, combining as it does the brightness of the inks with the subtlety and accuracy of the pencils.

I am lucky enough to live surrounded by trees and woodland so of course they are a favourite subject of mine, believing as I do that you should paint what you know. I have painted many different types of landscapes over the years, many en plein air, but in my studio I can experiment more and try a different approach with a subject that I know instinctively – especially if it involves more equipment than I am prepared to carry around. I have bookcases full of sketchbooks that I have filled and in one of them I found a fairly comprehensive sketch of a bluebell wood. I’m sure there was a photograph as well but that has been consigned to history; in any case the drawing gives me all the information that I need as I know this subject as well as I know my own face.

The Gate into the Woods, ink and coloured pencil on Fabriano Artistico HP paper 140lb (300gsm), 14319in (25.5348cm). This old gate has been slowly deteriorating for years and certainly will not prevent anyone from walking into the woods. I thought I would record it before it finally disintegrates. Painted with the same palette of liquid acrylics as used for Bluebell Path (pages 40–41) with the addition of burnt sienna, and the same selection of pencils, I had fun with the starkness of the gate and the softness of the undergrowth around it