Speed Painting With Ink and Acrylic

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It’s been a long LONG time since I painted anything. And I’ve never used ink before. So I decided to give it a go painting with some Liquitex inks that I bought at Michaels. I tried to grab some fun and vibrant colors, and then I just kind of dropped them onto watercolor paper to see what I got. No plan, no real knowledge of how best to use them. I just wanted to see how they worked, how they blended and such.

Ink and Acrylic painting
A blank canvas is a beautiful thing

The first picture I did kind of reminded me of the aurora borealis, with an abstract sort of flow.

While I knew this was an experiment, I was kind of bummed about how I mixed the colors. They didn’t remain vibrant as I’d hoped, but got kind of muddy as I blended them. It was totally my fault, as I was overzealous. But it was disappointing nonetheless. I still like how it turned out, even if it’s not my best work.

Ink and Acrylic painting

When my kids saw what I was doing, they wanted to be involved. I figured I’d give them something easy to do. In the end, only my three year old was actually interested in learning anything. He said he wanted to draw the sun. I suggested we do a sunset instead. I was actually blow away by how well he did.

Ink and Acrylic painting

Teaching kids about art is actually really amazing. He added some blue to the bottom, which gave it a really cool beachy sort of sunset feel. When it dried, I actually framed it and hung it on the wall above my desk. It looks SO good. He is very proud. And rightfully so.

My next painting was sadly ruined just as it was getting good. I tried something new with the inks, and it was really looking neat. But then my five year old asked to help. I said he could, and as I was explaining exactly what I wanted him to do, he instead dropped a whole bottle of ink on the painting.

I wanted to scream, but then I saw the look on his face, and I knew he was proud of the vibrant color and his part in this project. So I just laughed and told him that one of the important parts of being an artist is not wasting materials.

We shall see where this journey takes us. For now I am just enjoying the process of creativity.

Ink and Acrylic painting

There’s something beautiful about stained hands. It’s like being caught rainbow-handed doing something wonderful. I must have washed my hands thirty times today. My fingernails on one side are permanently discolored (I have dry, brittle nails, and they ink really got stuck in there!). But I love it. Artist’s hands. How I missed them.

My final painting of the day was again a short 20 minute experiment where I was trying to see if there is a technique to getting vibrant colors. Once again, I managed to muddy them up way more than I wanted. But it was a great learning experience.

I made sure to film the whole thing so I could watch it again and figure out how I can improve. I think my problem is that I’m really overzealous.

Anyway, here is the finished painting.

Ink and Acrylic painting

I kind of get a forest fire feeling from it. Odd but fun. I put the video on youtube. See it below.

Any tips from my fellow creators? How can I get rich and vibrant colors?

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