Before we had all these beautiful coloured inks and watercolors, the old masters used Bister, or Bistre. It was made out of ground shells of walnuts.
'Bistre' is French for brown, hazelnut color, or chocolate brown.
I had never heard of this until my mother-in-law talked about it. She uses it in the art group she attends weekly. I got curious and bought a few bottles, that looked like medicine bottles from long, long ago. Then Of course, I tried it. By taking some of the grains out, and dilluting them with water, you can paint with it. Just like with watercolor you can use it wit a lot of water, or just a little. Pretty cool! So that's the drawing on the right hand side of this journal spread.
On the left, with my ususal watercolours, I made a selfie the day before. Just because.
Labels: journal, self portrait, Sharing inspiration, watercolour
