A Trip to the Beach

Welcome to Monday – and a hot one it is! We’re having ourselves another little ‘heat wave’ here in B.C., which is okay, except for the humidity. That just makes it all feel ‘ugh’. So this weekend I did a virtual trip to the beach, which I’m sharing with you today.

ALCOHOL INK BEACH SCENE

I’m keeping up my working with alcohol inks. With the heat, I’m finding that it’s difficult to keep my watercolour paints wet enough to work with them. Alcohol inks naturally dry quickly, but I’m used to that. My beach scene is another large one; I used the full 9″ x 12″ Yupo sheet, in a landscape/horizontal perspective.

This beach scene is definitely more ‘moody’ that the current weather outside. But that’s okay – it’s less ‘people-y’, too!

BEACH & WATER DETAILS

Most of this scene is done by pouring the alcohol ink directly onto the Yupo. By that I mean that the ink is poured directly from the bottle onto the Yupo, and the Alcohol Ink Blending Solution added. Next, you tip the paper from side to side, allowing the ink & blending solution to mix, and cover the area. The sky is done with Ranger Stonewashed and Blending Solution. One facet of alcohol inks that I love is how other colours emerge from the ink – they’re not just one solid, flat colour. The blending solution also allows for lighter areas.

After the sky is done, the ocean is poured next. To do this, I poured Pinata Sapphire, Ranger Stream, Oregano and a bit of Citrus, one below the other. Next, add Blending solution, and again tip from side to side, allowing the colours to mix a bit, but keep the ‘layered’ effect. Typically, when you’re looking out at water, it appears darker further away, and lightens as it nears the shore.  I also used a small brush, to pull the colours all the way across the Yupo to each side.

Finally, add the sand by again pouring Ranger Butterscotch & blending solution.

ADDING DETAILS

Add some interest to your beach, by adding rocks in the water & shore. Also add some rock cliffs off in the distant horizon. To add the rocks & cliffs, use alcohol ink markers, first in a dark gray. Next, go over the rocks again in a light tan/beige colour. This gives you highlights, and adds texture to the rocks. By using alcohol markers for the rocks, the ink moves & blends, for a more authentic look, rather than a harsh solid line if you had used, for example, a Sharpie.

Add some waves & whitecaps to  your water by adding Ranger Snowcap Mixative. Keep the Snowcap as ‘dry’ as you can – not adding any Blending Solution. By doing this, the waves have more texture, and don’t blend with the water ink below.  I can’t draw birds, so I stamped them in archival dark gray ink, from a stamp set in my stash.

For this  photo above, I laid a black mat with an 8 1/2″ x 11″ opening, over top of the beach scene.

SUPPLIES

I hope that you enjoyed today’s virtual trip to the beach! If you haven’t already tried alcohol inks, I highly recommend them. Just remember to have patience, and that no 2 pieces are going to look exactly the same! Relax, have fun, and literally ‘go with the flow’ of the inks.  Let me know what you think of my beach scene, and how you like using alcohol inks. Do you prefer ‘realistic’, or ‘abstract’?

Oh – did you notice those tiny little sea shells I scattered around in the first photo? I’ll be using them IN a future project coming up! Stay tuned…

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