Drawn From the Wild: Making Natural Art Materials Level Two - 5 Days With Caroline Ross
Dates: 29th June - 3rd July 2026, Times: 10-4pm Monday-Friday
Location: Brentor Village Hall, Brentor, Tavistock, Devon PL19 0LW
Course Fee: £530 (includes all raw materials, lunches, and refreshments)
Capacity: 16 participants
So you want to go further into the wild, time travel some more, go a bit deeper with drawing and painting with Earth?
Caroline has designed this ‘Found and Ground level 2’ course as an in-depth five days on methods and materials close to her heart such as metal point, graphite based drawing tools, conte style tinted pastels, semi-precious pigment processing and paints, artist’s char blacks, plus tannin inks and sketchbook boxes…
It is suitable for anyone but especially those who have experimented even a little with making their own art materials before. For those who have enjoyed her first book, studied online, in person, or privately with natural arts materials teachers before, this course was made especially with you in mind! We’ll be creating bespoke materials of the highest quality to augment your growing natural art kit. All of the topics from her new book Drawn From the Wild will be covered, with the addition of semi-precious stone pigments.
This course offers hands-on experience, with each day dedicated to a different aspect of natural art materials. Caroline will guide you through each step of the process, encouraging creativity and experimentation. By the end of the week, you will be able to confidently source and make your own art materials from natural and urban environments.
The course will include:
An introduction to Caroline’s work and Plants and Colour, the week’s plan, ethics, safety, useful information etc.
Sketchbooks: creating books to use through the week and a concertina style book box to create a bespoke journey through the materials and landscape.
A delve into alternative surfaces to draw on: repurposed, foraged, clothing, leather, etc.
Metal point grounds: making gouache ground (vegan) and traditional rabbit skin glue and bone white grounds (non-vegan but waste stream) on paper and boards, tinted grounds. Preparing a metal point ground sketchbook for plein air drawing.
Pigments: sourcing, foraging, assessment, safety and fine processing.
Semi-precious stone pigments: sourcing, prep, grinding, washing, difference to earth pigments.
Paintmaking: traditional binders, fine paints, trouble-shooting and improvements, watercolours, glue paint, egg paints, vegan paints.
Pastels: conte, soft, experimental, graphite, wax (guest session with Flora!), natural fixatives, holders, cleaning and storage.
Ink: in the background, we will have a pot of wonderful walnut husk ink brewing and other tannin inks during the week. Simple botanical inks with good lightfastness will also be covered alongside the principles of simple dip pens and brushes.
Charcoal making: outdoors, including wood, bone and date stone traditional blacks, and oil charcoal.
Metal point use and preparation of extra grounds. Drawing with found and improvised household metals, as well as professional tools and exploring this superb historical method which can replace the need for disposable permanent mark-making drawing tools.
Using everything… Our final day will be set aside for drawing and painting projects: whether still life, outdoors drawing, improvisation, or taking inspiration from each other’s work, or from poetry. There will also be time to make more of any of the materials you have most loved during the week and to transform materials you have brought with you into paint or pastels. We can make swatches of all of our creations before ending the day with a big giveaway, where all the extras of things we make go on a big table to share with each other.
Resources: A week or two after the course, everyone will receive a specially tailored pdf file with all the recipes and methods from the course as well as links to things we mentioned, a bibliography and more. I appreciate that some people like to take copious notes and others prefer to stay immersed in the making. The course notes are designed to allow you to relax and get into the physical work without fear of missing out on details. Signed copies of both books will be available during the course at a reduced price for participants.
What's Included
All raw materials needed for the course
Vegetarian lunches and refreshments each day
A week or two after the course, you will receive a tailored PDF resource file with all recipes, methods, and additional learning materials to take home.
Who Is This For?
This course is aimed at people who have already been learning and practicing making natural art materials who would like to hone and deepen their skills. This course is ideal for artists, art teachers, and anyone interested in sustainable art practices.
Accessibility:
Car: There is plenty of car parking at the hall.
Train: The nearest train station is Okehampton with an hourly service from Exeter. This is a half hour drive from the hall.
Bus: 118 hourly service will take you from Okehampton, Tavistock, or Gunnislake to Brentor.
There are likely to be some local field trips during the week which will involve driving to one or two different places, we will organise some car-sharing within the group for these excursions.
Local accommodation:
There are many options locally for accommodation. From Airbnbs and hotels to campsites. Here are some of the most affordable options for those on a budget.
Camping & Shephard’s Huts: https://harfordbridge.co.uk/
Camping: https://www.lydfordsite.co.uk/
