DLP Week 17: Playing With Inks...

The week 17 Documented Life Project challenge was to use inks. I have a good collection of acrylic inks, spray inks, Tsukineko inks, Posh Rainbow Inks by Ranger, Inktense pencils (love these!!!), India inks...you get the idea...so this week's challenge was just about pulling out the media and playing. 

Yoshi and Wafer were most interested as I added the final doodles while enjoying the beautiful evening out on the deck.


Here are a few close ups, followed by the full page spread.  

Happy Mother's Day! 

Writing With Ink

This was a fun page.  I started by playing around with inks, as per Joanne's lesson 21, and one thing led to another. I had these 'Posh Rainbow Inks' by Ranger in my stash and they've got a very fine tip so you can write with them by just very gently squeezing the bottle as you go.



After using the butterscotch to write the words, I echoed them using cranberry.  I drew the flowers in the same way.  I ended up cutting them out because they just needed an interesting layered background to allow them to pop.

I started by using a lace doily and spraying with green Dylusions ink. I then layered on some blue and purple acrylic paint, using an old gift card and my fingers.  I stamped over that layer with Traci Bautista's 'creativity flows' grafitti stamp.  It was a fabulous surprise to see that some of the green Dylusions spray somehow bled through so that the stamped letters had a green caste in some places.  That's one of my favourite things about those sprays...you never know what added bonus you'll get that you could never hope to achieve on purpose!

I followed that stamping with some found object stamping to create some circles here and there and then I glued the original words and flowers I had made in place.  The final step was to do a bit of journalling and doodling using my white Signo.

Finger Painting and Some Inky Text

When I was first watching Joanne's lesson 18 video, I was laughing...yup Joanne, I was one of the ones you were threatening to send to the principal's office. LOL However, seeing as I seldom keep my fingers out of the paint when I do play with acrylics, I thought why not do lettering with my fingers.  And it was fun.  I like the thick rich texture I could achieve.

In another couple of lessons, we were exploring different mark making tools.  I used the little Gum dental soft picks as my 'pen' for the page on the left.  I just dipped it into the India ink as needed while I wrote.  It like the control I had with it so that I could write fairly easily while still getting a looser looking text that with a regular pen.

The page on the right was done using the dropper in the India ink bottle.  That was a bit harder to write with, but again it gives an interesting, loose text.

Judging by the watercolour background of the second page, I think I'm finally beginning to get a better feel for leaving some white space as I paint.  I'll need to keep working on that...

Mother's Love

 For one of my gifts for my mom on Mother's Day, I decided to make a special framed piece of art to tell my mom just how special she is to me.


I started by using ink spray and a stencil to create a background and then I wrote the message over top using Pitt pens and added a bit of accent colour with my Copic markers.

I especially like the way the heart came out, especially considering the message says, "Mom, the ribbons of your love are woven around my heart."

  

Messy 'Play' Day

Today has been a wonderfully messy art day.  I was up in my studio playing with a variety of homemade spray inks to create some backgrounds for my journalling.  Joanne from Letter Love 101 gave us a fabulous assignment of playing with colour and texture to create some backgrounds.

She 'required' us to do 5 or more and laughed at herself because she knew once we got started we wouldn't be able to stop!  I've done this sort of thing before, but I really had fun trying a few different ideas that I hadn't done before, and the more I played the more I wanted to do!

I used bristol board, watercolour paper, mixed-media paper and some old pages that were left over from an altered book.  I did have two colours of Ranger 'Colour Wash', but I made other spray inks by mixing a variety of India inks with water (about 1 part ink to 10 parts water).  I also experimented with some silk paints (also 1 to 10 ratio) and Ranger alcohol inks.  I love the vibrant colours I got with the silk paints and the alcohol inks.  As you can see, I had a lot of fun letting the ink run down the page.  I imagine myself journaling on those grid lines later!

I also used some stencils and sequin waste in my play today.  Aren't the numbers wonderful?!

Do you see the heart.  Don't you just love happy accidents!

On this page I used some of the left over pages from my altered book to tear strips for a resist.  I think I'll play with this another day and create more jagged edges with the torn pages.

 These look like a whole bunch of helium balloons that have been released into the air.  Can't wait to journal on this page!!!

 The rest of these are the smaller pages in my mixed media journal.  These were drops of alcohol ink that were allowed to run.  Notice that they don't run as much as the other inks.  The alcohol evaporates so quickly that they're dry a lot faster.

I love this page.  I had put white gesso on the page first and there are some brush strokes that give it a really neat texture.  I spritzed on the ink while the gesso was still wet.  Love everything about this page!

Check out these wonderfully bright little drips.  I let the alcohol ink drip on the page and then dabbed them with a cloth to pick up the excess.

 And now for the bonuses that resulted from today.  Look at these wonderful bits of coloured papers I'll be able to incorporate in my journalling.  I had used these bits as resists by now I'll be able to up-cycle them into another piece of art.

 And then there are the wonderful wipe up clothes.  I can't wait to use these in some fibre art. I have an idea blooming already so check back soon to see the art quilts that are forming in my mind as I type this.  Maybe that's what I'll do tomorrow...

 Needless to say, no studio time can go by without Inspector Cat (aka Arbour) checking it out.

 

Did I mention it was a messy day in the studio today?  :0)