INKtober 2026 - Cactus

I do find cacti quite special, and I once wanted to turn a long, deep windowsill into a vast desert filled with cacti. It never came to that, and the main reason is that my home has always been rather cold, and that hasn’t improved over the years. A bit of warmth is needed, though; I’d bought a large cactus that looked a lot like a palm tree, and it turned out to be dead. It was quite an expensive purchase, but according to the seller, it’s quite common for a cactus to still look fine but actually be dead.
I did try to keep a smaller cactus alive afterwards, but unfortunately that didn’t work out either.

The drawing below actually came together quite quickly. I sketched it with a pen and then coloured it in with watercolours. Colouring it in was also a bit less tedious than I’d expected, and certainly not as tedious as using coloured pencils. Generally speaking, I worked from light to dark and, once again, used the ‘wet-on-dry’ technique.
Bamboo paper absorbs moisture quite quickly, so lightening the paint or removing it is not possible… but that’s also an advantage, as it doesn’t smudge when it gets wet.
Here and there I added some details with the pen, such as on the cactus on the right-hand side near the corner.

I’m happy with this piece, or is it a preliminary study?
Let’s just say it was a relaxing, experience, although I am still not a fast painter, and that the sketchbook is certainly going to fill up.

The Process

Materials:

• bamboo paper - A4 - sketchbook
• watercolour cubes (Action)
• round brush - Van Bleiswijck #?
• pen to sketch a few lines

_{4.10.26
Prompt: cactus
#artonsteemit #art #inktober #painting #inktober2026 #steemexclusive}