My latest illustrations for the Navaliya Women’s Weekly found me focused on the eco-friendly culinary utensils and habits of Sri Lankans in the past. As in other countries blessed with coconut palms, Sri Lankans have been using various parts of the palms in their daily lives for millennia. One place in households where this is evident even today is the kitchen. For it is a rare house where one would not find at least a spoon or two made out of coconut shells, not to mention brooms made of coconut coir. What’s more, if there is a garden, a broom made of ekels is a must for sweeping leaves.

However, what sets apart those who lived 50 or 60 years ago is that the majority of them made their own utensils. This was the aspect which the author (my mother) had written about in one of the stories which I illustrated. Her story not only draws attention to the consummate skill of the average villager of a bygone era but also describes eloquently how nothing was wasted. 

​An excellent example of this ‘waste not, want not attitude’ which I illustrated was a container for salt crystals. In former times, salt used to be sold only in crystal form. Whenever one needed fine grains of salt, a few crystals would be ground and used, whereas the rest was kept stored. It was a common practice to use a cleaned half-coconut shell for this purpose. It was after all, quick and easy, plus replaceable. However, in my mother’s extended family, her paternal grandfather took a more considered and refined approach in making a salt container for his daughter-in-law.

Not only was the appearance more elegant and health-conscious but also a prize example of not wasting a natural resource. The container was made out of a tender coconut which would sometimes get plucked by mistake. The flesh of such a coconut being not mature enough for use in making 

​So bearing those factors in mind I used a cold pressed watercolour paper. Before beginning to apply the watercolours I used an embossing tool made by Derwent to score the ridged lines (see it in the bird’s illustration in my sketchbook). I also ran the tool over the outlines of my drawing, something which really helped in the final outcome as I will describe eventually.

When I began to spread a light wash of yellow I could sense the subject matter coming through. I was thrilled, especially since watercolours are hardly renowned for behaving as artists would like. At the same time it proved that marking the outlines of the illustration with the embossing tool was a good idea, as it prevented the colours from running beyond the boundaries of the illustration. Along with that, the ridges began to appear just as I wanted them. This is a technique I learned from that wonderful book by Claudia Nice titled Painting with Watercolor, Pen and Ink.

The indentations of the watercolour paper’s rough surface also worked well with the grains of rice which I painted, enabling me to dab bits of brown here and there, leaving the rest white. Not only did it create a realistic look but saved me lots of time as well.

By illustrating these facets of the lifestyle of a past era I try to draw the attention of the ladies reading my mother’s stories to natural and cheap resources we have at hand. At a time when the world’s resources are limited, back-to-basics thinking is becoming a must. I am happy to state that our efforts have been commended by readers. In fact, several have told my mother that they have literally thrown out various artificial products in favour of eco-friendly alternatives suggested by her. Now what could be more rewarding than that?

When Henry Ford famously said, “You can have any colour you like as long as it’s black” referring to the Model T Ford, he probably did not know much about black. Last week’s illustration work for the newspaper series made me consider what a complex colour black can be—depending on what one is illustrating. 

By some strange coincidence, both the illustrations for my mother’s recollections of a childhood pilgrimage had to be rendered in black. One was a statue of a demon whilst the other was a much more ‘cute’ subject in the form of a Malabar Pied Hornbill.

Drawing the statue of the demon was not exactly easy as I had to rely on several sources and combine them. I have seen many statues of demons at both Buddhist temples and Hindu shrines. However, the demon which is described in the story is a mechanical type of statue.

​According to my mother’s narrative, the statue was actually a till. It was designed in such a way that the ‘demon’ held one palm open upwards, whilst the mouth was also open. When a coin was placed on the palm and a lever fixed behind the statue was pulled down, the ‘demon’ would pop the coin into its mouth. Needless to say, my mother and her siblings were delighted by the novel sight, referring to the statue as the ‘money-swallowing demon’.

My mother told me that the statue had a rough appearance and finish, unlike the statues commonly seen today. So I decided to use a cold pressed water colour paper with mainly charcoal to produce the darker shades. I began by using a medium-grade Derwent water soluble graphite pencil to colour the areas of the drawing which had to be light. Thereafter I used a slightly damp waterbrush to obtain a washed effect as I felt the statue should reflect a somewhat weather-beaten look. For the darker areas I used charcoal.

Having got the demon to resemble what my mother described I added a shadow effect in Photoshop Elements. This added a 3 D look to the illustration as you can see in the image below:

The rough surface of the cold pressed watercolour paper is not very conducive for drawing smooth lines. I foresaw this problem before
​I began the illustration. However I was not particularly worried about crooked lines as I used an erasable black pen. Planning what media and tools to use before illustrating can save a lot of frustration and time—especially when deadlines are looming.

The second illustration which was of a Malabar Pied Hornbill got me thinking on the different instances of black in nature. Having watched several YouTube videos of these eccentric-looking birds I wanted to reproduce the rich fluffiness of their black feathers.

After considering several media, including black drawing ink I finally decided to use my black Derwent Inktense block. I am glad I did as it helped me to achieve the vibrancy I wanted without the mess which can happen when using ink. The rest of the illustration was a mix of water soluble brown charcoal as well as Inktense and watercolours.  

You can see the above illustration in progress in my sketchbooks. I should also mention that I used Artifolk’s cartridge paper for this mixed media illustration. 

When I began these illustrations I was somewhat worried as to how the different values of black would be reproduced on newsprint. I need not have worried, though. The illustrations were reproduced very well, proving there is more to black than what caught Mr.Ford’s eye...