Rusty staples or nails (I can't decide)

Saturday night's party revealed on Sunday morning

I've returned to my travels along the towpath with renewed enthusiasm now I feel more rested. I usually draw on weekdays but this time I've ventured out on a Sunday morning and look what I found en route to my destination. The party leftovers are not what I had in mind to draw but they are lying on top of the same wall that I planned to concentrate on.

These rusty objects attracted my attention a few days before

I decided I would try using the candle wax resist again to represent the cement between the bricks and then use an Indian ink wash over the top of it. I was in the mood to experiment and see what happened. I could have been more patient and used more wax so there would have been more of a contrast between the ink wash and the white cement, as it is the result is quite subtle. Then I wanted to include the rusty, naily things and some of the foliage. The finished result reminded me of the paving and mud drawing from earlier on in the series.

My finished sketch where I just wanted to experiment

It was on this occasion that I had something of a breakthrough. This part of the towpath doesn't have a grass verge to sit on so I had to stand by the wall which meant that I was very close to all the foot traffic that was passing back and forth. For the first time ever (I think) I was completely relaxed about people watching what I was doing as they went on their way, happy to chat if they wanted to and just as happy to be ignored as well.

Candle wax resist

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the distance

Since my previous drawing ended up being so dark I thought I would try to take this sketch a stage further and make it even more dark. I like the idea of a sketch which is almost entirely black but it would have to make some kind of visual sense. I did this in my previous sketching project and really liked the result.

Some more canal-side art

I had also decided to try using candle wax as a resist to the Indian ink. I didn't take the trouble to try this out at home in my sketchbook before I left the house so I had to experiment as I went along. I found that if the Indian ink was diluted enough the resist worked well and produced some interesting results. If the ink was straight out of the bottle and very black the wax resist was so subtle it was practically invisible.

When I began this series I thought I would be making conventional drawings but as the sketches are stacking up it seems I am venturing into painting. I have been using, amongst other things, a half inch decorating brush which has loosened up my approach. I'm also enjoying using Indian ink which I have learned was being produced in China as early as the middle of the 3rd millennium BC although the source of the materials to make the carbon pigment was later often traded from India, hence its name.