Monday, November 9, 2015

NEW TOOLS/TOYS



I missed the September program of the Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society when the member, Louise Allen, demonstrated how she works with alcohol inks.  So...it got me thinking about them and I've seen some online folks use them.  Looks messy and uncontrollable and worth a further exploration.



So I bought a book that teaches you the techniques (Pigments of Your Imagination by Cathy Taylor).
And I bought some alcohol inks from Cheap Joes.
And I was ready to go...

The colors are intense and saturated and people mostly use them on slick Yupo or TerreStone "paper" to play with the uncontrollable aspect of them.  The colors are prettily named like:  Mermaid, Clover, Sailboat Blue, Sunshine Yellow, etc.  You are supposed to mix, water down, and work with them along with rubbing alcohol (the book says 95% although the regular stuff you get in the drugstore is 75%).  And make sure you aren't standing over your workspace breathing in the fumes - this is stuff that can harm your lungs if you don't get enough air circulating around you.

I'll share some explorations later...I'm going to try them on glossy photo paper, Yupo, TerraSkin and hotpress watercolor paper.  Since these are teeny tiny bottles, I hope a little goes a long way!





1 comment:

http://carolking.wordpress.com said...

Can't wait to see how you do with these paints. I've seem some videos, but like you said, the colors are strong and you don't want to breathe them in.