Drawn from the Wild

A Practical Guide to Making Your Own Foraged Art Materials

Caroline Ross

$44.99

Paperback

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QTY:

English

Search Press Ltd
13 June 2025

Painting & paintings; Art techniques & principles; Pigments, dyestuffs & paint technology; The natural world, country life & pets

Transform 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.

By: Caroline Ross
Imprint: Search Press Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 280mm, Width: 216mm, Spine: 6mm
Weight: 620g
ISBN: 9781800922594
ISBN 10: 1800922590
Pages: 128
Publication Date: 13 June 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

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

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

Reviews for Drawn from the Wild: A Practical Guide to Making Your Own Foraged Art Materials

If you go down to the woods today…you’re sure of some good supplies. I think it’s fair to say that only the most dedicated muesli-knitter is likely to source all their materials this way, however... Let’s get the elephant out of the room first, shall we? I do not for one moment think that you’re 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 you’re 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 you’ll find that, whatever your requirements, these are instructive and worthwhile explorations of the natural world. -- Henry Malt * The Artist *