The idea to make Eurythmy Figures on plywood came from Rudolf Steiner. His collaborator, the sculptor Edith Maryon, had been struggling to represent Eurythmy gestures artistically. Her own inclinations were much more towards naturalism, and so she made a freestanding sculpture in the ancient Greek style, and a few bass reliefs, and even experimented with using cellophane for the Eurythmy veils. It was in reaction to these efforts that Steiner made his sketches.
Steiner’s sketches for the Eurythmy Figures were designed to be two dimensional, and were moderately stylized. And it was Steiner’s idea to use plywood and paint as a medium. It is not clear to me exactly which paints they used, and they likely experimented with several. But judging by the fading, and by Steiner’s dislike of benzene-based chemical dyes and preference for plant-based pigments, I would guess that they used plant-based watercolor paints on the original figures.
For this series I wanted to use something archival quality, that is materials would still hold their color in 100 years. This would require using pigment based art supplies, and I settled on the color inks made by the Dr. Ph. Martin company. These inks behave in many ways like a watercolor paint, with one exception. Unlike watercolors, once they have dried they will not liquefy or blend again. That is, you have one opportunity to lay down the color, with 60 to 90 seconds before it dries. It is much more like working on a fresco than on a watercolor painting. This meant that each layer had to be laid down in one continuous application of color. The outline and the interior space had to be even while wet, and adjacent areas had to be worked in before the initial area dried. Otherwise you ended up laying a second layer of ink down, which would noticeably change the intensity.
If the disadvantage was that you had to work quickly, the advantage is that the inks layer beautifully and blend just like watercolors,. In addition, these India inks and are both permanently colorfast and waterproof. For layering, a light blue over a yellow produces a light green. And using slightly diluted inks maintained most of the color intensity while allowing the grain of the wood to show through.
In a few places it is necessary to use an opaque color over top. This is the case where Steiner called for a lighter highlight color (like yellow) over top of a darker color like a blended blue and green. To accomplish this requires mixing in some of the white ink from the set, as the white is effectively opaque, and when tinted lends an opaque base to the color.