Alcohol Ink Painting

I have been working on my portfolio with the hope that I will be accepted into grad school for an art degree.  I have been playing around with ideas of healing, nature, therapy and also the power within the building blocks of nature.  The cell structure is fascinating.  Was I the only nerd in biology class who actually thought the slides we looked at under a microscope were beautiful?

I have been playing with different mediums for this venture and thought that alcohol inks, because of their randomness at times, could actually look really cool if the whole cell slide thing were the inspiration.  Here is one I like, mostly because of the colors.

This is not going in my portfolio, it is all part of the process.  If you would like to check out the rest of my portfolio process (it is still in the planning stages), my portfolio is located at drawinglineseverywhere.blogspot.com  Any input or criticism is welcome.  

Flowers and landscapes with alcohol inks

Right now, I am so in love with alcohol ink painting. I am plodding away with the medium, learning new ways to control the unpredictable beast.  And learning to letting it be free when I need, as well.   I am planning on getting prints made of a couple of my favorites, and matte them, and possible make some into card sets to sell on etsy.
Today is Gustav Klimt's 150th birthday.  I love his work, and the Art Nouveau movement as a whole, and his work has influenced my style.  And as far as style, I mean in everything....interior decorating, clothing style, and painting.  His colors, unusual usage of metals, and his flowery, whimsical, sometimes brutish style.  I love it.  I need to write soon about him and perhaps his painting Tree of Life.

Here are some recent pieces...

Exploring Alcohol Ink Painting

This medium is so much fun.  I went out and bought a bunch of colors yesterday, I still need some more green, but Rose and I had a ball playing with colors.  It is really difficult to predict or control the inks... they spread unpredictably depending on the surrounding dyes.
I have to find my camera card, because my dslr takes much better photos of stuff like this, but here is my first landscape...

My attempt at a peacock feather.  I added some micron pen for detail lines.

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And Rose, once again, creates a masterpiece with effortless energy.  I think its partly because she is not trying too hard, she lets it happen.  I will work on that, less control..

Alcohol Ink Painting

My daughter and I went to my friend's studio today and we created some alcohol ink paintings.  This technique is sooo much fun and it is so gratifying watching how  the ink reacts with alcohol and the other colors.  We used Yupo paper, which is basically a thin plastic watercolor paper.

Here is one my daughter did.  She has a natural instinct with color, and her contrasting values came out very nicely.