Today I decided to let go and completely do my own thing so I played around with mixed media 🤩.

I enjoy using a variety of art materials and have found pleasure in combining the ones I love over the years to create art which is new and interesting. Here I've used willow charcoal, charcoal pencil, burnt umber and black drawing ink, a ballpoint pen, white pastel and white Posca pen on A3 acrylic paper. Posca pens are great to use. They're acrylic paint markers so are quick and easy to apply and saves you having to get your paints out when working on something relatively small. 

I swiftly drew in the main structure of the horse in charcoal and then set down the ink mixed with a little water over the top of the charcoal. It's not the most conventional way of working. Usually you'd put the wet media down first followed by the dry. It makes sense doesn't it? I don't like to stick to the rules and wanted to see what would happen 😎. The charcoal ran as the watered down ink reacted with it and created the most gorgeous mottled effect. I dried it with a hairdryer and then went back in with the ballpoint pen and the charcoal to darken some of the areas. The Posca pen was used for any highlights. A variety of techniques were also used such as flicking of ink, spraying of water and scratching into charcoal and wet ink. 

I could've gone further with this and you can see that I was beginning to fall into that detail trap again. However, I think I stopped just at the right time. Phew! I didn't want to lose the energy of the piece so decided it was best to leave it here. Sooo glad I did! 😊