Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Art Practice with Inks and Watercolor Paints

   We woke up to rain this morning-feels like a cold spring rain. Timing is bad though as we had help driving up to work with Larry on the dock and could finally get all of those Christmas goodies to them. Oh well such is life.

  For a couple days I have been playing with watercolor inks and paints.  The blackberry ink was interesting-ended up with three different colors-thought that was crazy at first, but the ink book arrived and it noted that there will be surprises with botanical inks. So I am just going with it and will have fun making and using these inks. 

   So far the black walnut ink is my favorite, I love the color and seems more stable too opposed to the berry ink. When using the black walnut for dye you don't need to use a mordant so that is probably why the ink is nicer too.

  The section to the right in this practice piece below, is mostly watercolor paint with black walnut ink-inspired by a page from the book I am working with.  

  To the left the flowers are with the blackberry ink. The blue flower on the right was the first one and I used a dip pen. The flower to the left I used a watercolor brush and got a little too much of the ink, as you can see how wet it is on the page


After the flower on the left dried I got this deep purple color
    The stems and leaves are black walnut ink with Winsor Newton green watercolor ink.
   The centers of the two flowers are black walnut ink


a closer look


  The next day I decided to make one more flower and see what color I would get this time haha   I used a glass dip pen for this one, also when I opened up the jar of blackberry ink it had a little film on top-I had forgotten to add the whole clove and wintergreen essential oil as a preservative.
    This is another color for the flower petals not sure if the wintergreen and clove added to the color change or the use of the glass pen made the difference.
  I am liking all three colors-it's just a surprise after they dry.


     Interesting that they were so different.

  I started reading a bit in the Ink book, It is a beautiful book , thick pages, but the type on the pages is very small so a little difficult for me to read. Not sure why they would do that. 

  I was a bit disappointed that there were not more recipes. The turmeric ink for a pretty yellow was made as an alcohol ink which I don't want to do-so will search for a water base recipe instead. There was also a recipe for a gorgeous blue from copper but I don't want to use any toxic chemicals for these inks. The book did have a good basic recipe and discussed different materials to use. Was very thorough for beginners setting up to make ink or dye as well. I have done allot of dyeing with natural materials in the past along with allot of eco dye experience as well-so may have been expecting more for making ink.

     Making ink is much simpler for sure.

   This is a beautiful and well written book. I am learning allot of little things and I am  enjoying the author, but I am glad I didn't pay full price for this book. If you have access to a library I would suggest reading it that way first.

 Happy Mid-Week

UPDATE:  browsing online I found an awesome site-30 days of making botanical inks here  She has 30 recipes for different botanicals and she was inspired by the Ink book I was referring to above. She uses the inks to make abstract art  I should ask her if she has a way to set the color in her paintings.

  When I can't sleep-I read-so I started really reading the Make Ink book tonight-and it's really written very well-like the author is talking to you He gives you the basics to just go out and make ink with a basic recipe-and then you adapt for your needs.

26 comments:

  1. Wow, dear Kathy, those are great experiments! I've never tried to make ink from plants, but it looks fascinating.
    All the best, Traude
    https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2023/01/costa-rica-3-kapitel-was-sollte-man.html

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    1. Good morning thanks so much-always fun to make dye or ink from natural materials

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  2. They came out super-great! It must be fun to experiment like that :-)
    I am still kinda stuck with colored pencils... Sad. Next holiday I might join you (might!) - hugs and I Iook forward to more

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    1. this has been fun, soon the avocado ink and turmeric ink colored pencils are are great to work with-there are watercolor pencils you may have fun with-just add water-like paint. hugs

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  3. Your experiments with ink is interesting. The flowers are pretty. Tumeric ink, I like the idea of that recipe.

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  4. Do you think your inks held up with the watercolor paint Kathy? I love the idea of the blackberry ink printing in 3 colors. It sounds kind of exciting because you wouldn't be sure what happened. The flowers you made look pretty. Hope your week is going well. hugs-Erika

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    1. Hi Erika, I haven't mixed them together yet, but I have outlined with my black walnut ink, let dry, and fill in with the ink-which is water based. I kinda like the surprises too. If interested that link at the end of this post is a good one. The artist read the book ink that I just bought and then she just experimented from there-I copied off her notes and also her 30 ink recipes-she cooks most of them, and does add in gum arabic liquid as a binder-she says it is better for the ink-so I am going to get some of that and do it if for the inks. I do use the whole cloves and wintergreen essential oil as a preservative.
      the berry ink should have had another straining-I will do that next time.
      this is a very fun art project. I did ask that artist if she has a way to preserve her abstract ink paintings-to be lightfast and archival

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  5. And Kathy is off on another adventure!!! You go girl! Your flowers are lovely and interesting with the different shades you achieved! I'm painting dragon eyes tonight... with acrylic on ceramic.. trying to get them done and dusted for the stock show in March.. always so many little things to finish up.. Take care! Send some rain my way! hugs! deb

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    1. I am for sure haha reading more about the ink making, the link to the artist I posted at the end of this post has an amazing blog. we had rain all day today-hope you can get some of it-hugs

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  6. Those flowers look beautiful. (I'd rather have rain than snow. So far I've been lucky where I am, with rain as the form of precipitation, for most of the Winter weather.)

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    1. me too as we get older shoveling snow is a bit much now adays

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  7. I'm glad you are having so much fun with this and the results are amazing. Well done my friend. Enjoy your day.

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  8. Your experience with making the botanical inks is an interesting one and I'm glad you finally found a new reference with lots of recipes, although the other book sounds helpful in other ways. I liked the colors in your drawings.

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  9. It's so cool that you are making your own botanical inks and the results are so beautiful 😊. I love your flowers and the fact the ink dries differently every time, a lovely surprise and the walnut ink looks fabulous too! Enjoy the rest of your week and sending you happy wishes! Hugs Jo x

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  10. What a journey you are on with your inks. Sounds like you are enjoying every minute.
    Cathy

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    1. I am thank you-I did allot of dyeing with natural materials in the past, so this is similar very fun

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  11. Your flower paintings are really pretty. You are really doing well!

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  12. I have been out of pocket for a couple of days, so just now catching up with you. I love your work with inks and watercolors. Your flower paintings make me anxious for spring, but I need to put those thoughts out of mind with snow possible next week.

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    1. Thank you Mary-I think making ink is in my future-smiles wonder if we are getting snow too happy weekend

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  13. You are doing well with your flower paintings, I like them.

    All the best Jan

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