Alcohol Ink Sea Life

Happy Monday, my friend! I hope that you had a great weekend. I spent some time with my alcohol inks over the weekend. I’m thinking of doing a series of alcohol ink sea life, so I played around with painting a jellyfish, and a turtle.

JELLYFISH

For the jellyfish, the alcohol ink is almost strictly on the background. I did add some of the white Snowcap in the oral arms (or what I call ‘the frilly part’).

It’s quite interesting when you research what it is you’re painting! I had no idea what the different parts of a jellyfish were called, except that some parts are called tentacles. The top part of the jellyfish is called the ‘bell’ or ‘hood’.  The other long ‘arms’ are the tentacles.

PAINTING DETAILS

The background is created first, on a 6″ x 9″ piece of Yupo. First, cover the Yupo with isopropyl alcohol or blending solution. Next, drop the alcohol ink onto the Yupo, and tilt the piece to allow the colours to mix. I chose Mermaid, Stream and Stonewashed alcohol ink colours.  Allow the ink to dry thoroughly before drawing your jellyfish.

To draw the jellyfish, use a size 10 white gel pen. For the thinner tentacles, use a size 08. You’ll find that the gel pen ink tends to fade into the alcohol ink, so going over the shape may be necessary.  Next, mix some Snowcap with blending solution in your ink palette. Add this inside the ‘oral arms’, to give some depth and texture. I decided not to completely fill in the oral arm, though in real life, it usually is more opaque.

I thought I’d see how this looked when matted, so I place a black mat over the finished painting. You can see it below.

To create the bubbles around the jellyfish, dot the panel with different sized small brushes that have been dipped in isopropyl alcohol. This lifts the ink, and leaves the lightened bubble behind.

I’m going to order some different sized white Posca paint pens, and paint another jellyfish using them. I think that the gel pens are good for smaller images, but anything of size needs to be a bit more visible.

SUPPLIES

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