I'm still in love with these inks and I did something entirely different this week. I watchd a video (down the rabbit hole again) by Debra Lyn Rosenbach on a very loose way of painting with the inks. Best to watch the video, but I will try to explain a little.
This method uses way less alcohol and the inks get moved around with a paint brush dipped in Isopropyl alcohol. No hair dryer, compressor gun or any blowing at all. When you apply the alcohol dipped brush onto a blob of the inks, you can get many different looks. I was aiming for flowers, as was the video.
I watched the video all the way thru, a little over an hour and then I went back and tried to work along with her. She is a professional watercolor artist and many of the metholds are the same. What I like about this method is that you can fix your mistakes, by adding more alcohol and moving the colors around OR you can totally erase a mistake. When finished I noticed that all of my flowers were round with centers in the middle and so I made another, without lookng at the video, but still aiming for flowers in a vase.
So here is my second attempt. I REALLY like working this way and will definitely make more. These two were done on the reverse side of photo paper, 8 1/2 by 11. I want to try working on stretched canvas, which can be done if you thoroughly seal the canvas to make it impenetrable. I will use KillZ 2, as suggested by other artists. This way the inks will sit on top of the canvas and not sink in.
I tried for more flowers that were not round, maybe hyacinths or hydrangeas or lilacs. The fun and unpredictable part of this method is that the ink moves as you brush on it and then moves some more as the alcohol and inks move around and dry. What you may have thought was perfect, may look very different in minutes. BUT you can always go back and try again.
As many videos have told me, there are fumes and you should wear a mask, preferably a respirator mask. Oh, joy here goes another big expense, but much to my delight and surprise they are very affordable. Mine was only $17 and they were all around that price, unless you went for a heavy duty professional one. I think mine will be just fine. It arrived today and I haven't used it yet. I hope my Amazon delivery guy doesn't think I am up to nefarious deeds!
