In near real-time – I went from my vision of this to be a lilac bouquet to….loose floppy flowers! These inks have a mind of their own but I’m still trying to wrangle them.
That’s about all I have to say about that! Hope you have an awesome day!
Supplies
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I recently saw that someone used a blending solution I’d never heard of…. Combining that with the recent availability of isopropyl alcohol at drug stores and pharmacies (CVS, RiteAid, Walmart carry different ones in different percentages), I thought I’d finally get around to comparing them all!
Supplies for this project are linked at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links may be used at no cost to you.
You can do this same “gravity” technique with multiple colors, too; create a swoosh in one color, get it fully dried – then add a swoosh of another color. Eventually I’ll do a video showing how to do that, but the best way to learn, as I always say, is to play!
Video
This simple one color technique which I’m dubbing the Gravity Technique seemed a good test: same paper, same amount of blending solution, same number of drops, all on the back side of photo paper, which behaves somewhat like Yupo. Time each one to see how long they dry without anything other than swirling of the color and the air in the room!
New Alcohol Ink Class
The new class is finally posted after months of work on it – and I hope you’ll find it’s a lot of fun! Some may find Terrestrial Alcohol Ink Jumpstart way easier than the Ethereal Alcohol Ink Jumpstart! Ethereal is light, airy, and wispy – whereas Terrestrial is textured, rich, and full of contrast – and a whole bunch of the pieces look like topography maps to me!
I’m listing the new class as a Level 2 – but you don’t need the Ethereal class first. It’s got double the lessons so it’s a more expansive class techniquewise…I’ll talk about some art principles, too so you’ll learn to create movement and contrast, balance and focal points. All with only three ink colors! Lots of techniques just use gravity but there are ones for folks with airbrushes that you wouldn’t expect to work, and sprays used in creative ways too!
Credit to April Bahl, one of my patrons, for suggesting the name for the class. I was STUMPED! And after lots of brainstorming, April won this class for free by suggesting the chosen name. You too can become a patron HERE.
The cards
The sample cards were made simply by layering black cardstock underneath on a pink card base – and a simple stamped sentiment.
70% Isopropyl Alcohol
This first one is the 70 % alcohol – It leaves a bit of a granulated texture, but boy does it take forever to dry without help. Over 27 minutes! It does do some interesting texture things in the class, though, so don’t discount it – I found a cool way to move the color that works best with 70%.
91% Isopropyl Alcohol
This one dried lots faster – 10 minutes instead of 27. I’m making the assumption it’s because of lots less water in the alcohol.
99% Isopropyl Alcohol
I wasn’t sure if the hygiene/makeup kind of 99% would be different than medical grade, so I tested both. This dried in 7-1/2 minutes, and was much easier to control and flow around on the paper/
99% Isopropyl Alcohol, medical grade
The medical grade behaved the same as nonmedical, so I think for art, the difference would be minimal. Though it might be good to let hospitals have all the medical grade. I did take the opportunity with a second 99 to try to keep two areas white to create one swoosh across the middle. With focus and perseverance it worked!
Denatured Alcohol
This was in my hardware store in the paint aisle, over where they kept paint thinners. Having it say “FUEL” on the outside scares me! Be super careful with this stuff, store it according to instructions, and keep a lid on all your solvents in the studio!
Ranger Alcohol Blending Solution
I should have known Ranger’s solution would have had a bigger difference; I’m not sure where it falls in the % scale, but it does brighten and intensify the colors! This pink even has a little of the warmth emanate from the pink color – almost a yellowish tone. Pretty amazing, as this ink color (Gumball) is pretty much a purpleish color. I left mine in the bottle rather than putting it in a jar – it’s going to be more expensive per ounce than isopropyl alcohol.
Supplies
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
I spent a little time recently doing some playing around with alcohol inks….just having fun with textures, using a bunch of different little techniques, watching to see what would happen. If you make cards you could chop something like this up for card backgrounds….or frame the whole thing!
Supplies for this project are linked at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links may be used at no cost to you.
I picked 2 blues – it felt like a wintry kind of set of colors….chill out and enjoy!
Video
I hope this inspires you to get out your alcohol inks and just goof around!
Supplies
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
Have you had trouble with alcohol ink projects being “sticky” after they’re done? Me too! Not all of them but some – I can’t even figure out consistently what causes it….it seems like it should be thick sections of dark color. Or maybe particular color combos. But nope, it seems to be somewhat random.
I have found that the back side of the photo paper does it less than the front side, along with the color moving better on the back. (The Epson linked at the end of this post doesn’t have the big HP grey logo on the paper I’m still using up – so if you’re looking for logoless, that works!)
Supplies for this project are linked at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links may be used at no cost to you.
The solution to the sticky is so simple: powder! Check it out:
My card designs for these rest on just the beauty of the ink – just popping the panel on a card base with dimensional adhesive. Easy!
SUPPLIES
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
Flower Power class is no longer available for new students. Those who signed up can take the class anytime!
Some folks think I never totally botch art projects – and that couldn’t be further from the truth! But one thing I do that could be different from YOUR approach to messes: I don’t give up.
Supplies for this project are linked at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links may be used at no cost to you.
The dark purple flower is the one that had to go through a million transformations…the end result isn’t my favorite card but it’s still very pretty!
The light purple flower did totally different things than I thought, but I love this look!
The leftover circle of Neenah scrap needed just a little embellishing – and I chose a vellum butterfly so I could see the color through it!
Supplies
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
Mondo Chrysanthemum, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps — Dies
