W&N materials used
Artists’ Water Colour,
Cotman Water Colour,
Designers Gouache
About Jan Pickett
Jan writes with both gouache and watercolour for all her calligraphic work, allowing a wonderful array of colours to be used with the confidence that the finely ground pigments will run smoothly through the nib.
It is important that any finished work will be lightfast, particularly if it is to be displayed other than within the confines of a book. As she writes, she loads her nib using a brush, allowing her to gradually feed different colours of either gouache or watercolour, which then mix within the pen, resulting in exciting, interesting effects. Applying the pigment dryly using sponge can produce a totally different background.
Jan Pickett's Work
She often works on detailed illustrations and line drawings, again using gouache, this time applied with her faithful workhorses, the Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes - her two favourite sizes being 0 and 1 as used for the Nursery Rhyme illustration.
Line drawings using brush and gouache seem to have a quality often not achieved with a pen. She believes that pens are for writing and brushes for drawing.
Her typical week is a delightful mix of teaching calligraphy, in order to further interest and keep the artform alive and also working to deadlines within the commercial world, be it lettering or illustrating.
Regular commissions vary from preparing and updating Memorial books, lettering for a variety of formal certificates to commercial work for the UK greetings card industry. With private commissions for all manner of special occasions - weddings, dedications, poetry interpretations - her work is always unexpected and there is never a dull moment.
Jan says, "I feel very lucky to be working with colour, letters and illustration, the fields I have loved since I was a child and that I still find so creative and wide ranging."
For further information on Jan Pickett visit:
www.janpickett.com