We invited Frances and Ronni to reimagine notebooks from Winsor & Newton's historic archive. First published between 1850 and 1890, these 'shilling books' offered guidance on various traditional art techniques. In their contemporary reinterpretations, the artists blend the past and present by using modern day Winsor & Newton colours and materials.
Frances Knee is a London-based designer, illustrator and a graduate of Central Saint Martins and Royal College of Art. She specialises in custom set and mural design for creative businesses, alongside playful personal work inspired by everyday moments. She is also the founder of Gloria tattoo studio.
Ronni Winkler is a tattoo artist, specialising in expressive ink work. Alongside tattooing, she hosts experimental drawing and collage workshops, guiding participants through bold, image-led creative sessions.
We chose a graphic technical ink drawing of what appears to be an Edwardian drawing room of sorts. We were also drawn to the antique Winsor & Newton colour palette collections.
The Winsor & Newton Archive was full of some interesting works to choose from, but the room stood out to us with a lot of interesting potential. We both come from illustration backgrounds and although the style of drawing of the room is far more technical than anything either of us create ourselves, the historical aspect caught our eye from a social, artistic, and aesthetic point of view. The little details in the room stood out to us bringing up questions around the human story behind the room, its objects and aesthetic choices.
We began by having conversations and brainstorming. Frances came up with an initial idea to recreate and modernise the room, bringing it forward to 2026 by taking each element and giving it a new place and story in the room. Ronni was interested in the idea of taking the illustration off the 2D page and at first there were conversations about animation. With the time limits in mind Ronnie had an idea to create the room in a model pop up form and from there we began to research each aspect and object of the room. We decided to recreate a dreamscape in which we would both love to create and spend time in real life.
Time was of the essence for this project as we had just one week to complete everything. We made sure to stay connected about our progress as the week went on to ensure we were on track. We knew we wanted to work with mixed media as texture, pattern, and colour were very important to us when recreating the room. There was a sense of excited nerves bringing all the elements together at the end and a few technical things we had to play with on the day of the set build, but we figured everything out.
The materials we chose were a mixture of things we use daily, like the fineliners and pencils. Some we chose for their colour range and what we knew would bring eclectic but complimentary textures to the set. As avid fineliner users, it was such a treat to use such good quality fineliners. The 0.05 was perfect for all the miniscule details. The Cotman Watercolours were absolutely gorgeous to use and the process of creating our colour palette with them was dreamy.
The Iridescent medium we used with the watercolours was quite flexible when it came to the effects we wanted to achieve. We figured out it gave a very subtle hint of iridescence when mixed with the watercolours, but if layered on top of a dried layer of watercolour, the effect was more of a startling glittering layer. When it came to the pastels, it was interesting how many more textures and shades could be created with the excess dust whilst drawing. Some beautiful effects can be created when rubbing and smudging the dust with your fingers or a brush.
We created four new custom colours for the palette of our artwork using the following colours from the Cotman Watercolour Studio Set.
Reverent Rascal's Red - Indian Red and Alizarin Crimson.
When The Frost Glitters Blue - Chinese White, Ultramarine, and Indigo.
In Flow-Fortified Pink - Chinese White, Rose Madder Hue, and Payne's Grey.
Zenith Gaze Green - Chinese White, Hooker's Green, and Payne's Grey
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