INKtober 2026 - Relic

This time I start with the sketchbook. It lies around idle so...

What on earth is the matter with people? Why do they keep human remains and think this is perfectly normal? Bones, mummies – grave desecration is quite common when it comes to ancient graves. Imagine if I were to go to the cemetery right now, open a grave and remove the remains. I’m quite sure I’d be punished and branded a grave robber.

A relic means nothing more than a remnant. This means that anything left over from something is, in fact, a relic. Religious institutions appear to play a leading role when it comes to collecting the remains of the deceased.

On day one

the prompt was apple; now, on day two, as I write this, I could use the apple peel or the core to represent ‘relic’.

The bone, a thighbone, which was my first thought, is something I buy and feed to my wolves. This now seems less appealing compared to the hand, which can also pick up or hold an apple (or the peel, or the core). The more I think about it, the less my sketch matters. As I write this, I realise that instead of a sketch, a freewrite could also serve as the preliminary work.

Now I’m also wondering whether I should create a painting incorporating all the prompts. Will this then become thirty-one days of painting ideas, culminating in a large painting or a collage, or should I start afresh and see how I can distil all the prompts down to a single subject (the apple)?

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The Relic

Here’s the end result, did I have this in mind? I don’t think so, but as I went along, all sorts of thoughts went through my head and, of course, I wanted to try a few things out as well. The new dip pen arrived, and I’ve tried them out, it was a pleasant, soothing experience. The last time I used a pen like this was years ago. I plan to use it more often this month.

At first, I wasn’t particularly happy with what I’d created, and I didn’t find using watercolour pencils and then wetting them to work very well. I added another layer of paint on top. The hand didn’t quite turn out as I’d imagined either, but in all honesty, I must also say that I did this sketch at work.

I tried making a print using a piece of snakeskin, as I’m still experimenting with tamping. I coated the snakeskin with ink and the result isn’t great; nevertheless, I’m quite pleased with those black smudges. I think they do fit in with the topic and the collage (and this way, the snake Kevin has also been immortalised).
Lucky me, I could rinse the ink of the piece of snakeskin used and now I let it dry so I can use it again. Perhaps tamping with it works better with paint or another method.

Materials collage:

• watercolour canvas - A4 - 300 g/m2
• watercolour pencils
• watercolour cubes
• dip pen
• Chinese ink - black
• round brush - Van Eijck #10

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The Sketchbook

When I started colouring the sketches in the sketchbook, I used the colour chart I’d made a few times. The strange thing is that the colour I’m looking for never seems to be on it. I soon realised that I could easily pick the rifht colours myself (the grades are nearly the same anyway), so I put the chart away.
Unlike the first time I used Chinese ink, I now used a pencil and pen to draw the lines. It’s good enough for a sketch, and you don’t need more than a few colours to bring the sketch to life.

Here too, the ‘wet-on-dry’ technique with watercolour works. The paper gets a bit bumpy, but I don’t care.

I like the hand and the apple would be better if it were green.

Materials used:

• sketchbook: bamboo paper
• pencil HB
• pen
• round brush
• aquarel paint - cubes (Action)

_{2.10.26
Prompt: relic
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