Drawn from the Wild

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.

Book Contents

Foreword by Stewart Lee 6
Introduction 8
Foraging 14

Hands on 18
Lump media 20
Pastels 30
Making soft pastels 32
Making hard pastels 36

Charcoal 48
Wood, vine and bone 50
Making charcoal 52

Pen and ink 58
Drawn to the dark 60
Inks 64
Making tannin inks 64
Making botanical inks 72
Pens and brushes 76
Making a quill pen 86
Making brushes 104

Surfaces 90
Bark, leaves and more 92
Sketchbooks 100
Making sketchbooks 101
Making your mark 106

Permanence 108
Making grounds for metalpoint 112
Making oil charcoal 122

Afterword 124
Recommended reading 126
Contributors and featured artists 126

Index 128