More Fun With Inks!
I am having so much fun playing with my Liquitex acrylic inks that I bought at Michaels a while back. I bought them because I was interested in learning about marbling, but I never actually got around to trying them out for that. Instead, I started playing with them and seeing what happened.
I don’t have any particular technique for using them. I’ve never been very into acrylics, preferring watercolor back in my hardcore art days. But nowadays, I don’t get a lot of time to paint. So I have simply been using these inks on watercolor paper slightly dampened with a wet paper towel.
The results have been mixed. I shared some of my early works last month, and I actually have a couple of those paintings framed and hanging above my desk. But since then, I’ve been kind of exploring the many uses of the inks to try and paint less abstract works.
I love this painting of a feather I did. I saw several similar paintings on Pinterest, and I just kind of copies them freehand with my inks and a tiny paintbrush. It’s not nearly as good as the ones I was inspired by, but it was just fun to doodle like that.
I then did a quick pencil sketch using a stock model off of DeviantArt and then used the inks to kind of color. My skills are sadly very out of date, and since acrylics don’t work the same way as my watercolors, I’ll admit this isn’t the best painting. But again, I just wanted to see what I could do. My favorite part is her lips.
I have to say, though, that my five year old son HATES this painting. He thinks it’s the worst thing ever, which I have to admit makes me a little sad. I used pinks and purples because I knew they are his favorites, and I thought he’d be more impressed. Ah, the joys of kids!
By far my favorite painting I’ve probably EVER done is this super cool silhouette that I did. I basically used a pencil to quickly sketch the outline, and then I used a large paintbrush and plain water to wet the paper inside the lines. Then I dropped various colors of ink into the water (I left a few areas wetter than others) and let them mix. I continued alternating plain water and various colors to try and get a better spread.
At times, I had to use a smaller paintbrush to guide the colors toward one another. And there were a couple of bits that I accidentally smudged (behind her neck and under her nose if you hadn’t seen them already), which was so frustrating. But in the end, I was very pleased.
I think she looks kind of like a heatmap, as if you were looking at someone through special high-tech night vision goggles or something.
I’ve got to say, there’s nothing more relaxing than watching paint swirl into other paint. Seriously, you should try it.
