I’ve been using acrylic inks for about a year now and the excitement of using them hasn’t yet worn off!
I discovered these while doing Melanie Cormack-Hicks ‘The Art of the Sketchbook’ course. I bought just four colours to start with from the Daler Rodney FW range, indigo, peach pink, yellow ochre and red earth, and when the first cautious trickles dropped onto the paper I was hooked.
The thing about the inks is that they come in a lovely dinky glass bottle with a squeeze pipette. It's quite satisfying to squeeze the dropper and then release it to let the glass tube fill up. There’s just something about the glass clinking together in their tray that feels really special.
It reminds me of being a child and watching my grandfather filling a fountain pen with ink (he refused to use ink cartridges!). Inevitably there was that rogue dribble that he hadn’t noticed, it made a neat round blob on the kitchen table, and I just had to stick my finger into it!
There are so many ways the inks can be used. I discovered that by positioning a thin stick into a line of ink on the paper that I could do a satisfying flick which gave a wonderful splatter pattern across the paper and the wall! A stick is a great implement to trail through the ink as it’s not too predictable, and a dried elderflower head gives amazing multiple markings.
I also like the ink do its own thing to depict natural crevices and gorges of the hillsides in my landscapes. For this I drop the ink onto the paper and then tilt it to encourage the ink to flow. It’s a lovely slow process waiting for the ink to trail here and there. For a more spontaneous effect I use an old hairdryer on full speed! The ink races along the paper and a ‘run’ usually forks off into two or three directions. To say it’s satisfying is an understatement, it really is amazing to see the results. However, sometimes it’s an utter failure (if I’ve been a bit impatient and not let a previous ink run dry) and the two inks merge resulting in muddy streaks!
I also trail the ink across the paper and then use a palette knife to scrape it sideways, this gives a sharp edge which is ideal for a rock face or snowy banks on the side of a mountain. The inks can also be diluted to a watercolour consistency and used as a wash. A very small fine tipped brush can also be dipped into the ink bottle to add fine detail or calligraphy style writing to a painting!
My ‘found by accident tool’ is literally the cat’s whisker! I have a wee friend who likes to inspect what has taken up so much of my time (when it could be better spent fussing over her), and so she left a whisker on my sketchbook. It’s so fine and springy and makes the most delicate of ink lines.
I now have a good collection of colours and I have also concocted some of my own colours in the empty bottles. I’ve yet to try making natural plant inks, but the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh is very close by, and they often run these workshops so I will be looking out for them!
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