Crop circles

One of my ink experiments had Mickey Mouse ears, so I cropped it. Found 4 interesting compositions in it. Always worth working on A2 paper so there's more of a chance of finding things that catch my eye.

Her embrace - ink vs watercolour

Played with ink to explore what came out of the Seeing More Clearly mini-workshop. I do love Pilot's Ina Ho colour, which they don't make anymore and they have nothing that comes close to its colour and range of values and variations as you dilute it. Worked on A2 heavy cartridge paper, with lots of water. When I tried a similar approach in watercolour, I realised that the water was sinking into the paper a lot more, with a result that the paper got damaged when I tried to make marks with a stick. It seems that the ink pulls the water up to the surface more. It's a shame that fountain pen ink in general is not lightfast. Though I have never done a test. I really want to get some similar effects in watercolour! I did get some nice effects with a deep yellow, Bloodstone Genuine and Grey of Grey. Am I going down another rabbit hole? I do jump around, but I'm genuinely interested in where this will go. So it's worth setting other things aside for a little bit in order to play with this idea.

Collage ink on calligraphy paper on top of a watercolour

Remember those ink experiments I did on practice calligraphy paper? Well I decided to experiment with them, by tearing one or two of them up and gluing them to a watercolour piece I wasn't happy about.  I added a bit of soft pastel. It probably needs something more to anchor it. But it will be interesting to see where it goes.

Working in ink to explore those shapes

Played with ink on practise paper for calligraphy, which is really thin! My idea was to explore some of those circular shapes I see in the mountains and the coast on the peninsulas in the West (near Beara Bowl, Caha Mountains, across the bay from Cill Rialaig, e.g.). I got quite carried away with inks, but ended up with lots of pages of interesting marks and colours, which I might glue onto some thicker paper to see what happens. I'm just curious to see how it will behave. I have no idea if this particular paper is acid-free -it's Daiso's calligraphy practise paper. I had stared with Sumi ink, then moved onto Pilot colour inks. Because the paper is so light, the result is really transparent, and I loved looking at it against the window. It was like a stained glass window!

You can see I had fun. I even kept some of the paper I had set down to protect my desk from stains!

Did I need gold inks?

Sometimes I get a notion. But I have no idea what to use these inks for! And I just recently threw out two bottles of masking fluid which I had barely used.

 

More ink - how to translate from a lovely small experiment?

 Sometimes things just don't work out, but I still got some nice colour mixes out of it.

Testing ink on better cartridge paper

A while back, I ordered lots of A2 cartridge paper (something like 200 sheets). But I didn't check the weight of it. And it's too light for what I wanted to used it for, ink and watercolour experiments with a fair amount of water and scribbling. It's really only good for charcoal or light drawing, which I don't do much of. So, it's sitting under my desk, and I'm finding uses for it (the only thing is that it's super sharp, so I have to be careful about paper cuts - and no, I'm not using it to rest my feet!)

So now I've ordered a block of heavy-weight cartridge paper and I experimented with some inks, and I'm much happier with the result.  Even more so after cropping. Now I want to do something like that in watercolour. Will I be able to create the same intensity?

Scribbles and ink sloshes

I knew I had to let go of the past. But not quite sure where to go. Time to play with absolutely no intention. Picked up some Neoart crayons I don't use much and some inks. The paper I was using is that thin cartridge paper, and I used lots of water, not a wise move. The only element I like in the whole lot is the red and dark blue drawing. I closed my eyes and I just drew without thinking.