Mural by Domenico Ghirlandaio Click for Full Size

Sepia Drawings:

Look under our Painting collection to see a prime example of a sepia sketch for a mural by Domenico Ghirlandaio, a teacher of Michelangelo.  Sepia drawing has been around for thousands of years, going back to the ancient Chinese. The Romans perfected the method of getting ink from squid, and the wonderful, warm, reddish quality made it a popular drawing medium during the Renaissance. Cuttlefish, squid, and octopuses were the sources of the sepia drawing ink used by architects like Inigo Jones and Palladio, and well known artists from Leonardo daVinci to Turner.