iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

Spent yesterday deciding how to print the new Rubha Hunish engraving. That's 9 blocks, 2 shades/block, accurately spaced and aligned on a single sheet of expensive paper, printed lots of times. Free of errors too, because every mistake costs time and money. I […] [Original post on mastodon.online]

Accidental abstract on paper in coloured inks from removing excess ink from rollers and wood engraving blocks. The stonework of old building through a screen of red and orange 'curtains'.

Accidental abstract on paper in coloured inks from removing excess ink from rollers and wood engraving blocks. Hidden mountains.

000

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

Since many of you liked the loosely painted 'monochrome' watercolour of Ilkley Moor I posted, here's another in similar style. A snowstorm bursting over Beinn Alligin and Liathach in Torridon, NW Scotland, two of my favourite mountains. Inspired by a photograph taken by @lynnhenni.bsky.social.

The main text says it already but - watercolour, monochrome, mountains, snow, snowfall, clouds, chaos.

032

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

Summer Isles, NW Scotland. On a dreich early summer day. Watercolour

Watercolour. An archipelago of small, dark islands in a silver grey sea under a brooding gunmetal blue sky.

023

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026

Rubha Hunish, Skye. A mixed media project in the making? Progress: all nine wood blocks are engraved. Next - test print the blocks - any final changes? Then - a lot of faffing about to develop methods and workflows that minimise the effort and error involved […] [Original post on mastodon.online]

A walnut ink sketch of sea cliffs running towards the horizon, left and right. Above, nine engraved and aligned woodblocks, detailing the cliffs and ready for test printing.

136

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

An ink sketch turns into a wood engraving project. Lots of variations possible, but first a lot of engraving to finish. Basalt cliffs of Rubha Hunish, Isle of Skye, Scotland. #WoodEngraving #printmaking #art #landscape #Scotland #geology

Panoramic, 75cm wide walnut ink drawing of basalt sea cliffs.

Equally spaced segments of the drawing transferred to nine lemonwood blocks, the central three being twice the size of the others. A work in progress, the blocks are only partially engraved. NB - the engravings are reversed, so that on printing the image will be the right way round.

112

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

Disturbed by K gardening - Silver Y, Autographa gamma. It had vibrated its flight muscles to operating temperature and flown before I could catch its handsome profile.

Moth at rest showing of its intricate patterning of rich and varied browns with a striking gold y-shaped marking on each forewing

000

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026

It rained heavily overnight and the River Wharfe is higher than we've seen it since the winter. Lots of flocks of small birds, but no sign of our winter visitors yet.

View through riverbank vegetation to an old stone bridge across the river in the middle distance. Dark late summer greens overhang both banks.

010

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026

I've updated my website this evening. I've added new engravings and watercolours and ink sketches that span almost the full decade I've been dabbling in art. www.johnaltringham.co.uk #art #WoodEngraving #printmaking #watercolour #sketching #landscape #mountains #nature

Art website title page with examples of work, rocks and mountains

137

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026

I never tire of sketching mountains and hills. On the left, Quinag in the far NW of Scotland, an ancient sandstone mountain that sits on a bed of Lewisian gneiss more than half as old as the Earth. On the right, Great Close Hill near my home in Yorkshire, a […] [Original post on mastodon.online]

Watercolour and ink sketch of a lop-sided conical mountain with deep gullies on its flanks.

Watercolour sketch of a low, symmetrical, shield-shaped hill on a dark winter day, with a light dusting of snow.

011

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026

Walnut ink sketch from a montage of photos taken in Coire Làgan in the Skye Cuillin. Sadly, both fail to capture the immense presence of the black gabbro cliffs that surround you. I think you have to be there. A great place to see the hard gabbro shaped and […] [Original post on mastodon.online]

Panorama of mountain coire (corrie/cirque/cwm) from roughly aligned photos.n Rough, dark, gabbro cliffs, foreshortened by viewpoint.

Photo. Rugged, bare mountains are a backdrop to rock sculpted and polished by glacier ice flowing out of the coire during the last ice age.

Smooth and rounded rock covered with shallow parallel scars caused by debris-filled glacier ice that flowed out of the coire behind.

003

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 08/09/2026

The view from Sahale Mountain - Forbidden Peak centre ground, Eldorado Peak back left, emerging from the Eldorado and Inspiration Glaciers. Cascades, Washington State. Watercolour.

An 'alpine' landscape of rocky peaks and arêtes, small glaciers and spring snow under a blue sky.

032

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 07/09/2026

Putting some new multimedia sketchbooks through their paces - rough sketch in walnut and acrylic inks with watercolours and acrylic paint. St Kilda, after an etching by the great Norman Ackroyd.

Rocky islands in a rough sea with gulls. Sketch on gray-blue paper, in walnut ink, acrylic ink, acrylic paint and watercolour paint.

001

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 06/09/2026

Another great weekend in Edinburgh. Earth Matters, an art celebration at the botanic garden of geologist James Hutton's 300th birthday. Outstanding food and atmosphere at The Timberyard. Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags scarred black by summer 'wild' fires.

Meandering 'river' of crushed rock/clay on a long table, grading from large, rough masses at one end to fine dust at the other, ending in a sphere of finely burnished, shining clay.

Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags, the rocky core of Edinburgh, the slopes blackened in places by the summer 'wild' fires.

001

Reposted by John Altringham

Julian Brasington @julianbrasington.toot.wales.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026

We Have Begun. Charcoal on paper. 42 x 29.7 cm New work from an ongoing series. Drawn in willow charcoal and compressed charcoal. The lines are incised marks made with an etching needle and my fingernails. I rub, or do not rub, charcoal into them. #drawing

A portrait format charcoal drawing in black charcoal and red and yellow compressed charcoal. Two central figures stand with their backs towards us. A central figure in white appears between them. The forms of the figures merge into or grow out of the ground beneath them, in which in a hollow is a form that could be a world, a stone, a figure.

124

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026

Rubha Hunish, the northern tip of Skye. Synthetic walnut ink - behaves like the real thing but light stable and acid-free. The ink is still wet but I've been kicked back into the world. 75 x 20 cm. #Scotland #Skye #art #landscape #sketching

75cm wide ink sketch in walnut ink (warm brown) of a long coastal cliff from a narrow peninsula beneath it. The cliff of columnar basalt recedes to the distant horizon on both sides of the sketch.

0212

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 27/08/2026

After a little practice, using masks to print a grey background to an otherwise black print is proving to be an easier than expected way to increase the sense of depth (aerial perspective) to engravings. Forcan Ridge, NW #Scotland. #WoodEngraving #mountains #art #landscape

Wood engraving print of a rocky, narrow mountain ridge printed in grey and black ink.

0712

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 24/08/2026

Experiments in wood engraving and printing. No, I have no idea where I am going with this.

Relief printing inks rolled out on a glass plate with streaks of more ink on top, ready to be rolled.

Wood engraving print of wave breaking along a cliff. The cliff is an irregular mix of the browns and chalky greens in the previous picture.

100

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 22/08/2026

More watercolours of the dippers on the R Wharfe. A grey wagtail because I was bored with sketching dippers (never bored of the dippers themselves). A small, speedy kingfisher sketch because I have to clear my work table for a new project.

Watercolour sketches of birds that live along our local river. Mainly sketches of dippers with a grey wagtail and a hastily done kingfisher to finish.

019

Reposted by John Altringham

Alex Boyd @alexanderboyd.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

For those in Scotland, this excellent exhibition will be opening at Dalkeith Palace. It's a celebration of 200 years of the Royal Scottish Academy and photography - and I'll be showing one of my collodion works from the Isle of Skye. @royalscottishacad.bsky.social

An image of the Old Man of Storr on a poster advertising Photo Dalkeith - an exhibition in Scotland to be held at Dalkeith Palace.

0133

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 20/08/2026

Dipper on my local stretch of the River Wharfe, sketched yesterday afternoon as I listened to test match cricket online. I may do it again today.

Watercolour of a dipper on a rock. Dippers are small, dumpy birds with dark brown back and wings, chestnut abdomen and white breast and throat. They forage on aquatic invertebrates on the bottom of shallow, fast flowing, rocky streams and rivers.

Dipper foraging in shallow water, the chestnut brown of its head glowing in low sunlight.

033

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 17/08/2026

Welcome rain, light but persistent, all day. Watching the garden drip and sketching swifts from the many mediocre photographs I took this summer. I had not really taken on board how blue/black the juveniles are until recently.

Watercolour sketches of swifts in flight, rolling, banking, stall turning, diving...

023

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 13/08/2026

After a long break, watercolour. The Water Cycle in action.

Watercolour. Blues. Mountains, dark clouds, sea, mist, sunlight and shadow.

071

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 16/06/2026

Watercolour sketches started yesterday and finished this morning. Changing light over the Sound of Sleat from Isleornsay, Skye. #watercolour #landscape #mountains #Scotland #art

Watercolour in blues. Early mist and cloud are clearing from mountains seen across a sea passage. The sea is deep blue under a band of heavy cloud but for a bright, sunlit patch in the centre.

Watercolour in blues. Low mist obscures the meeting of mountains and sea across the centre of the picture. The sea is almost calm and reflects the mountains and sky.

11218

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 13/06/2026

Trying out a new watercolour brush. It may well become a favourite.

Watercolour. Summer storm over mountains, across the sea. Below a band of cloud, it is dark and rain is falling on mountains. Above, the sky is clear blue.

0101

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 10/06/2026

In the garden in June: wood mouse, zebra jumping spider, young robin and azure damselfly.

Alert wood mouse in a flower bed, front paws resting on a crinkly bronze leaf.

Tiny jumping spider sat on a leaf, looking directly at the camera with it's two central large eyes.

Young robin, sat on a wooden fence, head tilted to one side.

Damselfly, strongly patterned in black and very pale green, perched on a gravel path.

126

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 02/06/2026

The geologist James Hutton was born in Edinburgh 300 years ago tomorrow. Two slices of Scottish geology I (an ecologist) have enjoyed studying. The Moine Thrust Mylonites at Faraid Head, Balnakeil Bay and lichens on a basalt dyke in Lewisian gneiss, Raasay.

watercolour of dipping rock planes on a beach with numerous bedding planes and faults at right angles to each other. And a distinctive horizontal tide mark of barnacles and other lifeforms.

watercolour - a basalt dyke, richly coated in colourful lichens cuts through grey Lewisian gneiss with its own grey, lichen community.

0309

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 27/05/2026

1/4 Multi-block/colour wood engraving and printing First steps, stumbles and plan changes - as they happen Lots of interest, thanks. I will try to make it useful. I have spread this introduction over several posts. You will find it, expanded in places, as […] [Original post on mastodon.online]

Two-colour wood engraving print, but not yet multi-block...

010

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 27/05/2026

Clearing my workspace for the next wood engraving project. Away with the chaos created by painting. Watercolour sketch - looking west to Skye from mainland Scotland.

Watercolour - dark blue sea under a dark blue, broken, cloudy sky. With headlands and islands.

024

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 15/05/2026

First attempt at printing a wood engraving with two colours grading into each other on the block, using two rollers, wet on wet. Far from perfect execution, but effective nevertheless.

Wood engraving print of a ruined castle on a headland under a stormy sky. Waves roll and break on a beach in the foreground, the wind rips spray backwards off the wave tops. Printed with a colour gradient from blue-black sky and headband to a mid-blue with a hint of green sea.

010

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 12/05/2026

A short walk around some of Ilkley Moor's Bronze Age carved stones and other monuments. Map, GPS track, description and photos. Plus four extra photos: 12 Apostles Circle, Badger Stone, Pepperpot and Barmishaw Stone […] [Original post on mastodon.online]

Photo - part of a prehistoric stone circle on moorland under a bright sun.

Bronze Age carvings on large boulder on moorland at sunrise. Misty valley beyond.

Rounded boulder with lots of Bronze Age 'cups' cut into its surface.

Flat boulder bearing Bronze Age carvings: cups, concentric rings and ladders

006

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 08/05/2026

I have just replaced my dilapidated old website with a shiny new one. If you like wood engraving prints it may be worth a visit. I’d be very grateful for boosts, a small increase in traffic on the site might persuade me that my time was well spent! I will now […] [Original post on mastodon.online]

Print of wood engraving in dark blue ink of a gnarly old Scots pine tree on a mountain slope under a starry sky.

Print of a wood engraving in black ink of a woodland path with tree-root ‘steps’ leading to a stile out of the wood.

02120

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 04/05/2026

Signs of spring abundance on the River Wharfe this afternoon: a field of dandelion and buttercup, hawthorn blossom, foraging sand martins, and young alder trees on a disturbed area of bank.

A field of dandelion and buttercup, flowers and seed heads

001

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 22/04/2026

An afternoon walk in the woods on #EarthDay, bluebells and greater stitchwort at their best, a tawny owl hooting.

Dense patch of bluebells and greater stitchwort in dappled sunlight on a woodland floor.

Bluebells carpet a woodland floor in dappled sunshine. Trees are coming into fresh green leaf.

011

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 21/04/2026

#WorldCurlewDay, a day when the curlew stands for all species caught in the climate and biodiversity crisis. I will take a walk on the moor after lunch and be grateful for their presence.

Curlew standing on drystone wall, above, another curlew in flight, wings and primaries spread.

047

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 07/04/2026

Putting on a show in the garden today, two member of the lily family, snake's head fritillary and dog's tooth lily (also fawn/trout lily). Details in ALT text.

Dropping from a slender stem, the white/purple checkerboard flower of snake's head fritillary, Fritillaria meleagris.

Hanging white/pale green, five-petalled flowers of Erythronium californium 'white beauty'. The nearest we can grow in our garden to the avalanche lilies of the Cascades of the Pacific North West.

002

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 04/04/2026

The second print of the day, a 15x5 cm lemonwood engraving of Liathach, Torridon, NW Scotland. Almost everything in view is 1,000 M year old Torridonian red sandstone, the deep beds tilting gently down to the left. From photos taken on a hot afternoon in May […] [Original post on mastodon.online]

Wood engraving print in black ink of a long mountain ridge. The view is from the north and all the deep corries are in shadow. The mountain and the terrain in front of it are composed of thick beds of hard sandstone, tilted gently down to the left.

Monochrome source photo for the engraving.

013

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 04/04/2026

Rievaulx Abbey, N. Yorkshire, England. A print from a 10x10 cm engraving on lemonwood. #WoodEngraving #art #printmaking #history #architecture

Print in black ink from a 10x10 cm wood engraving. The partially ruined wall of a mediaeval abbey. Above a doorway flanked by blind arcades three tall windows with pointed arches are lit by the sun from the right. Grass grows on the broken top of the wall and through the windows you can see a wooded valley side.

044

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 20/03/2026

Oak trees throwing shapes in the hazy afternoon sunshine.

Photo. Three shapely, leafless oaks on the crest of a grassy slope in weak, hazy sunshine.

003

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 01/03/2026

Warm light in a cold, winter sunset at Byland Abbey in N Yorkshire, England, January 2025. A year later, a wood engraving in progress, the first test print made this morning. Byland Abbey is one of several mediaeval monastic ruins in the area built in […] [Original post on mastodon.online]

Doorway of ruined mediaeval monastery photographed in 'warm' winter sunset light.

Wood engraving print, 100x65mm, in black ink, with pencil and engraving tool for scale. An ornate stone arch in a ruined, mediaeval monastery framing a distant arched window. First test print, work in progress.

0210

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 13/02/2026

Wood engraving. Black Beck, Ilkley Moor. 120x60mm. Less is more?

Print of wood engraving of stream tumbling down a rocky ravine. Backlit, minimal detail, emphasising light, rocks and water falls and splashes.

As last but with profusion of plant life.

005

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 12/02/2026

A palimpsest of a wall... the sort of painting you start when there's another long, wet day ahead of you. Watercolour based on a photo taken by @thisismyglasgow

Watercolour. The side of a colourful stone building with a history. Most of it is dressed sandstone but at the base is a more rubbly section. Some windows still in use (with satellite tv dishes) , most are bricked up, but with different materials, probably at different times, because another building was once attached to the wall. The line of the gable is still obvious due to differential weathering.

113

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 03/02/2026

A rapid sketch in walnut ink of what the moor might have looked like the last time I was up there if it hadn't been enveloped in rain and cloud.

Rough sketch in walnut (brown) ink of a wet and misty moorland edge.

002

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 28/01/2026

Watercolour islands in a sea of rough, handmade Two Rivers watercolour paper.

Watercolour, greys. Islands from the air on rough watercolour paper.

002

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 18/01/2026

Wood engraving loose ends - practice blocks, doodlings, explorations, bookmarks, etc.

Prints in black ink of small wood engravings, irregular shapes no more than a few cm long or high. Island lighthouses, coasts, castles, mountains.

Prints in black ink of small wood engravings, irregular shapes no more than a few cm long or high. Bat, barnacles, tree, curlew, puffin and great northern diver.

000

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 15/01/2026

First proof print from the finished block. The columnar basalt cliffs of Rubha Hunish on the northern tip of Skye. 75x75mm wood engraving. To the right, the engraving in a lemonwood block, after printing.

Wood engraving print in black ink of columnar basalt cliffs of Rubha Hunish on the northern tip of Skye. A steep rocky path descends from a break between the two buttresses and two tiny figures give the scene scale. Two engraving tools lie alongside.

The engraving in a lemonwood block after printing. In cleaning the block after printing a little thinned ink may be wiped into the cuts obscuring some detail. This does not affect the quality of subsequent prints once the block has dried.

012

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 11/01/2026

I had hoped to print the new Rubha Hunish engraving today but a test print shows I need to make a few more changes to the block. So here's another work in progress - a sparrowhawk based on a male that spent 10 min eating his freshly caught lunch right outside our sitting room window.

Print in black ink from a wood engraving. A sparrowhawk sits alert on a tree stump, with a winter tree above. Below is a walled garden with a partially opened door in the wall. A pencil and engraver are shown for scale.

021

John Altringham @johnaltringham.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 04/01/2026

On this bright and frosty morning - an Edinburgh panorama in walnut ink.

A panoramic sketch in walnut ink (rich brown) of the Arthur's Seat skyline, Edinburgh. From Whinny Hill to Salisbury Crag, viewed from just east of Holyrood.

003