Inside Mousa Broch

Watercolour, charcoal, Conté crayon, charcoal pencil

Looking at traditionally Romantic ruins from a recent trip to Shetland. A sense of the contrast between earthy darkness and the light cast from above. Feeling of warm light, created by revealing a subtle watercolour wash underneath, which contrasted well with the gritty texture of the charcoal pencil used to draw stone. I also used vertical hatching with the pencils to suggest the feeling of shadowy space.  Mousa is a very traditionally ‘Romantic’ ruins of Shetland (i.e. windswept, ancient/historical and there’s an interplay between man and nature). This brings to mind Georg Simmel’s ‘The Ruin’. My drawing was influenced by Romantic artist’s such as Samual Palmer.