The Black Box

Katharine was asked to experiment with the delights in Faber-Castell's Black Box - a limited edition treasure trove of materials ranging from watercolour pencils to markers and india inks.

Given complete freedom in the image making, Katharine went about recording their creative potential. She made several options but also worked on images that thrilled her the most -  the moment when pigment hit water. She explains, "All experiments were photographed by myself with a Canon and macro lens on a tripod in order to get the detail I was after as the client had asked for the work to be large enough to fit a shop front...After weeks  of experimentation, Faber-Castell decided to go with an early experiment where I used their water-soluble felt tips on a plastic paper, which created a situation where the pigment could pool and move around when water was added - I have always been fascinated by this scenario, a hidden pleasure that sadly cannot be retained in an artwork unless it is photographed."

This simple but effective artwork was then used to create a promotional video and featured in a booklet containing information on Katharine's process. She continues, "It shows great understanding of the creative process for Faber-Castell to choose the simplicity of this 'water image' over the more complex 'finished' works. A decision that surprised and thrilled me as this area of experimentation had been my main interest during the project."

WATCH the video here.