52 Weeks of Art: Week 20

Week 20: Alcohol Ink

Welcome to week 20 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?

         Well, it finally happened. I found a medium that I did not like at all. I didn't like anything about this whole process. This week we had alcohol ink. This isn't just something I had laying around the house. I did some research, off to Google! I looked in to buying some inks, but I wasn't about to spend $4 on individual colors. A cheap set of 9 colors was $35. This was something I didn't want to invest a lot of money in because I wasn't even sure I would like using it. Good thing I didn't! I do not like it! So, off to Google again to discover a way to make my own alcohol inks!

     Because Google is amazing, I was able to find out how to make my own. Super simple. Markers + rubbing alcohol. I have a large collection of sharpies, and sharpies were the number one recommended marker for this, so I used sharpies. Now, I read that the more alcohol the less vibrant the color. So, here's what I did:

Sharpie in a small container with a tiny amount of  alcohol.

A rainbow of sharpie colors.

     After hours of the sharpies sitting in the alcohol like this, I decided that wasn't going to work. I pulled them apart and pulled the tip out to soak in the alcohol. After two days of soaking in alcohol this is what I ended up with. Not very concentrated. I was very disappointed.

Here's the sharpie tips soaking in alcohol.

     Here is my attempt at using my homemade alcohol inks. The colors are so very pale. I was actually worried they wouldn't show up in the photos. They did, but just barely. I used photo paper, because alcohol inks work best on no porous surfaces - glass, ceramic, photo paper, etc.

Here's my attempt with homemade inks.

      Since the homemade inks weren't working so well, I colored on the photo paper with the sharpies and dropped some ink onto. That sort of worked. The only problem with coloring on the paper was the fact you could see the lines from coloring.

Using sharpie ON the paper THEN adding the alcohol.

     Then I decided to try coloring with the sharpie so it didn't really LOOK like I colored it. If that even makes sense. I dropped the alcohol on it again. Then I used my finger to try and spread it around. Those colored spots were NOT going anywhere.

     Here's some examples of what REAL alcohol ink looks like:

Found this here.

Found this here.

On to rating alcohol ink...

     Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.

Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.

Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.

Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?

Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium

     So, for alcohol ink, my rating is: 11

Ease of use: 4

  Honestly, I think if the colors were better, this would have been incredibly easy to use. Basically, you drop some ink onto a surface with a small dropper. Done. Super easy.

Affordability: 3

     Alcohol inks are not cheap. You can go the DIY route and save yourself some money if this is something you want to try. However, I can't say the DIY route turned out all that great. I'm sure I must have been doing something wrong, because SO many people out there make their own ink.

Accessibility: 3

     I'm going to say that the supplies are only mostly accessible. If you buy the alcohol inks you'll have to get them from an art store or online. Not every arts and crafts store is going to carry them. However, sharpies and rubbing alcohol are available at your local grocery store.

Fun to Use: 1

    Nope. This was not fun. This was frustrating to me. I think I might have enjoyed it more if the inks had worked out better. Even if they were better, I don't think I would have liked this medium.

     If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...

     If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!