Alcohol Ink Nebula

If you’ve been following my posts for a while, you’ve noticed that I like to try new things! Mediums, techniques; the great thing about art is that it’s difficult to get bored with it! As long as you’re open to trying something new and/or different, you’ll always be amazed, learning and enjoying. Okay – mostly enjoying! There’s always a learning curve to anything new. Right now I’m still in the learning curve with alcohol inks. So today I’m sharing with you one of my latest projects, an alcohol ink Nebula.

ALCOHOL INK NEBULA

You can call it a nebula or a galaxy; I think in the art world they’re pretty interchangeable. In the science world, not so much! I looked up the difference between the two, and found this “Nebula is a cloud of interstellar dust and other ionized gasses particularly helium and hydrogen. A galaxy on the other hand is a huge collection of stars that are held together by gravitational attraction. A galaxy contains star systems, star clusters along with interstellar dust”. Thank you, Google! Since I’m not a scientist or astrophysicist, I’m going to call mine a nebula, since that’s what the course instructor called it.

This is the first one I created. I used Ranger alcohol inks in Amethyst, Sailboat Blue, Snowcap Mixative, and Pinata Mantilla Black. The stars are added last, in Silver mixative. This nebula is done on Yupo paper.

This nebula is done on ceramic tile. I used the same Pinata Mantilla Black alcohol ink. The additional colours are Sailboat Blue and Wild Plum, with the stars in Silver mixative added after the ink had dried.

NEBULA DETAILS

Let me tell you – this isn’t as easy as it looks! I know, you look at this and think “what’s so  hard about dumping a bunch of inks onto tile/paper and calling it done?”  Well – you can’t just dump them on, willy-nilly, and you have to use alcohol blending solution, plus some type of air tool. Plus, the idea is to not have it turn out looking like a hot mess!

That’s where my biggest problem came in – trying to find the right air tool. The blow dryer was too fast, the compressed air from the can was too hard (and dripped condensation when it got too cold). So I ended up using my heat tool, which actually was too hot, and dried the inks too quickly, before I could get the movement I wanted. So – these 2 pieces are practice pieces! There’s a lot wrong with them, but I did learn. Most importantly, I found out WHAT I need to learn, and practice, practice, practice.

WHY I’M SHARING

You’re probably wondering why I shared these obvious failed attempts with you, right? Well – to show you that everyone learns, every piece isn’t perfect, and I too have a bin of projects that didn’t work out! Yes, the learning curve is hard, it’s frustrating, and sometimes I just feel like I’m too thick to ‘get it’. But, overall I do enjoy it – the learning and creating – and that’s why we do, what we do, right?

HAVE FUN, MAKE MISTAKES, AND LEARN!

I hope I’ve inspired you to take a little leap, and try something new! As for me, I’m keeping on with learning the art of alcohol inks, and I hope I’ll have some successful projects to share with you, soon!  If you’re interested in alcohol inks, I’ve added some shopping links below for you, for some of my affiliate businesses, which are also my favourite stores.

Let me know if you have any questions – I’m happy to share my learning with you!

Affiliate  links  are  used,  at  no  extra  cost  to  you.