You’d have thought I would have learnt from a previous sketch that using heavy applications of a drawing ink that contains shellac could end up with the ink bleeding through the paper, glueing a number of pages together. My ink experiments on the other side of this gouache leaf sketch involved running together big blobs of ink in an attempt to get some interesting colour blends and ink effects (which didn’t really work).

I thought I would get away with it this time as I was using good quality watercolour paper (Fabriano Artistico HP 200gsm) in this homemade sketchbook. However, the large quantities of pooled ink I was using resulted in it soaking through the paper and glueing the leaf to the opposite page.

Of course I couldn’t use water to help separate the pages, so I carefully prised them apart with a plastic ruler, but the paper still ripped slightly and had to be glued back down. I tried to cover the ink stain with white gouache with only limited success; it was impossible to restore the natural tone of the untouched paper.

The pictures above, both painted in gouache from life instead of the usual photo, were taken before the ink farce.