Alcohol Ink art has quickly become one of my favourite mediums. I had seen some alcohol ink art on social media but didn’t pay too much attention until my mom pointed it out to me. The more I saw the more curious I got about the process. I tried to create something similar with my liquid watercolours (didn’t have a whole lot of luck with that, not gonna lie) before finally breaking down and buying some proper inks at Christmas. Now I am hooked.
Living in a smaller city (or maybe just not an “art” city) the inks are not that easy to find so I ended up buying mine at Blick in Seattle. Since then Michaels has started selling a small selection of the Tim Holtz brand and nothing makes me happier (amazon does sell them, just not prime, and I am pretty sure more expensive).
The best part about alcohol inks is that you don’t have to be an amazing artist to create something awesome, which is nice because we all know I can’t draw. The inks kind of have a mind of their own so while you can control them bit with the amount of blending solution you use and what you are using to move the inks around the page, you never know what you are going to end up with, which is half the fun. I think this is the easiest, quickest, mindless form of “painting” there is and I love it.
What you need:
Alcohol Ink: I have two brands, Jacquard Piñata Color that I bought at Blick and Tim Holtz, which I bought at Michaels. Both are awesome and seem to work well.
Blending Solution/Rubbing Alcohol: I don’t really notice much of a difference in the finished product between the blending solution and plain old rubbing alcohol. The only difference I can point out is that the blending solution is a stickier and shinier consistency. You may want to test both to see what you prefer but for me both seem to work and the rubbing alcohol is a quarter of the price.
Heat gun: I tried both straws and a hair dryer before decided to get a heat gun. I find it easier to control the ink with the gun whereas with the hair dryer it was shooting the ink everywhere and with the straw it is just a lot slower process.
Eye dropper: I bought a bunch of disposable droppers on amazon (if you only buy the Tim Holtz brand their inks come in jars with a dropper top already on it) You don’t need a ton of ink for a painting so the droppers just helps to control that.
Yupo Paper: I had never heard of or seen Yupo paper until I was in Blick. It is the weirdest/coolest paper I have ever seen. It is made of polypropylene so it has a plastic feel to it and the alcohol inks just sit on top instead of soaking in so it is easier to move them around. If you are using a heat tool though I would recommend getting the heavy paper because I have heard it doesn’t melt whereas the translucent paper I have will start to melt and warp if you hold the heat on it for too long.
I don’t think there is a wrong way to use alcohol inks. Just keep adding blending solution and ink and moving it around the paper till you are happy with the way it looks. I like to dry the ink in between each layer, which is a reason I love using a heat gun. I add blending solution, a couple drops of ink and move it around with the heat gun until it is dry, then I repeat until I am finished. Simple and easy.
There are a lot of other cool things you can do with alcohol ink that I have yet to try and would love to like resin coasters (or resin anything really), coffee mugs, and other such things.
So if you are looking for a simple and easy (though maybe not the cheapest) art project I highly recommend alcohol inks!
