Spirit Bear in Alcohol Ink

I had time over the weekend to work on the free colouring page of the Spirit Bear. If you don’t remember me sharing that last week, you can read about it HERE, and find the original colouring page from Sandy Sandy Art HERE.  The awesome part about these colouring pages – besides being free – is that you can print them out, and colour them with any medium! If you want to use alcohol inks, then trace the image onto the appropriate substrate. Same with watercolours. I use graphite paper and pencil to trace the image.

GRAFIX CRAFT PLASTIC

I think that the finished image by Sandy was done in watercolour paints. I decided to do mine in alcohol inks. First, I downloaded then printed the image file. Next, I used graphite paper and pencil to trace the image onto my base. I’m running low on Yupo, so I decided to try a new substrate that I had received a while ago. It’s Craft Plastic, by Grafix.  Just like it’s name says, it’s a non porous plastic that can be used for alcohol inks, acrylics, markers, oils, and even watercolours and pastels. One great feature about the Grafix Craft Plastic is that it wipes back to white.  That means that if you make a mistake, you can just ‘erase’ the ink by using a bit of alcohol on a paper towel or cloth. No staining! I haven’t tried it with other mediums yet, but I would imagine it would be the same. This craft plastic is available in white and black.

SPIRIT BEAR IN ALCOHOL INK

Once the bear is ready, choose your colours. I chose Ranger inks in Salmon, Sandal, Cloudy Blue, Cool Peri and Sailboat Blue. Work with one colour at a time to start.

Once I finished with the inks, I went over the outline with a black fine point Sharpie pen, to enhance the outline and give it a sketched look. This is my bear, above. Below is Sandy’s bear. You can see that I left the dream catcher off of my bear image.

I love the loose style of Sandy’s painting! I’m not there, yet. But I’m trying.  Of course, our colour selection differs, as well. I do hope that you’ll check out the free colouring pages she offers, as well as her paid courses. I was lucky enough to win her Sketched Sunflower course – you can see my finished watercolour version of that in THIS POST.  I’m looking forward to taking more of her courses! Click HERE to go to her Learn Love Create site & see what she offers.

SUPPLIES

I hope you’ve been inspired by my artistic leap, to try something new yourself! I know I’ll try this Spirit Bear in alcohol ink again – probably in watercolours, as well. If you’re wondering – Spirit Bear is the name given to the Kermode bear by First Nations people. They are actually a subspecies of black bear; it’s a recessive gene that causes their fur to be white or cream colour. There’s some quick facts about the Kermode, or Spirit Bear on THIS wildlife site.

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