Sequoia National Park

—and Creating Art Using Walnut Ink

This week I’m going to take you on a virtual road trip to one of my favorite places on Earth—Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks in California—and explore how I used walnut ink to create art of subjects in these parks.

I’ve been in love with Sequoia National Park ever since I visited the park on a family vacation when I was 9 years old. 😍 Sequoia National Park was established in 1890 (as America’s second national park!) and was created to protect the giant Sequoia trees from logging. Sequoias are the largest living things on Earth measured by volume and while they’re not the world’s oldest trees, some Sequoias have been known to live 3,400 years.

Walnut Ink

Walnut ink is a water-based ink made from walnut husks. I like its sepia tone for natural subjects and the way it looks with black pen. Here’s art I created of a Sequoia seed and cone, using walnut ink.

Sequoia Seed and Cone (pen & walnut ink)

I was delighted to find Black Morel Mushrooms growing next to one of the trails I was hiking in these parks—I’d never seen these mushrooms in the wild before.

Black Morel Mushroom (pen & walnut ink)

As you may know, I like to keep notes on my art processes. Here’s how I used walnut ink to create my art of a Black Morel Mushroom.

🎨 My Process for Creating Black Morel Mushroom

1. Sketch the layout in pencil.

2. Add waterproof pen for the mushroom, text, and border.

3. Erase my pencil sketch.

4. Paint the entire page with diluted walnut ink (the paper was originally white).

5. “Paint” the mushroom stem with water (to re-wet the paper and the walnut ink) and then blot off the walnut ink with a paper towel until the stem is white.

6. Paint more walnut ink on the mushroom cap to darken it.

You can see more of my art of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (created using different media) on my website.

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"Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees."

- John Muir

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