Alcohol Ink Fluid Art for Beginners

1. Alcohol Ink For Beginners - Trailer: Hey, everyone, welcome to my class today. I want to show you a little bit about alcohol inks. This is a beginner class, um, just to get you introduced to the art of using alcohol eggs, What kind of tools you need, The different techniques you conduce go on. Some other cool fun tricks and tips that I have learned while figuring out how to use alcohol inks myself. Here are a few examples of the stuff I've done with alcohol inks. You can check it out on my instagram at stereotypes. Um, they're very kind of dreamy and colorful, and I really enjoy fooling around with them cause you kind of get something different every time. The great thing about alcohol inks is you can totally control what you're doing, so you have to release all that and kind of just go with the flow 2. Alcohol Ink Tools: to get started, I'm gonna show you some supplies that you'll need. First off is the rubbing alcohol. You'll want to make sure you get 91% because the lower percentage has more water in it, which won't give you as great of an effect. He also wants some gloves because this can get very messy and can stain your hands could also use an alcohol blending solution like this one from Tim Holtz. It is similar to rubbing alcohol, however slightly different. It lightens the ink. It kind of, um, fades it out a little bit more, and it doesn't have the strong smell that rubbing alcohol has. So it's great for people who are sensitive, but it is a bit more expensive. I prefer rubbing alcohol, but I will be using both in this course. So next we have all of the in colors so you could buy many different types of Alcohol Inc. This is an example from the Tim Holtz, which is the most easily found at Michael's. I also have this version from co pick. These ones are my favorite. There are so many different shades, and I do find there a little bit higher quality. There's lots of other inks. Jacquard sells them as well. A smother companies. The's Air, a Couple metallics. The 1st 1 is actually from Jacquard from the Pinata collection, and then the other one is from Tim Holtz. I prefer the jacquard metallic to the Tim Holtz, and I'll show you the difference later. I'm also going to be using acrylics, so I'm using the actually the Liquid Tex acrylic ink in white. Ah, this is pretty easy to find in a lot of craft stores, and you also need some tools. I have a dropper and a spray bottle. We will use Thies to put the alcohol onto the paper and add texture as well. I'm sure you can find something around your house that acts like a dropper. Just put some rubbing alcohol onto your paper. I also have some silver foil sitting up there, and I'm gonna use that on the paper to add some duck Scher. This is the paper that will be using. It's not even really paper. It's called you po paper or you pull medium, and it's kind of like a plastic paper that is non porous. You definitely need a non poorest, slick smooth surface to create thes pieces. And you can buy the U PO in pads in light, medium or thick, and you can also get it in giant sheets from art stores and then cut it down to whatever size you'd like. This is much more economical and get to customize what size you use and to write on the alcohol inks. I'm gonna use thes tools, which is the Ma little paint pen and a white gel pen. You also want a paintbrush to create some effects and, of course, a straw, so you can blow the ink around on the page and get it moving. Can also use a heat gun, something that blows air because you can tend to get lightheaded when you're blowing the ink around the page as well as with the alcohol. I also have a tile as an example of a surface that you can use alcohol inks other than U boat paper. And underneath all these tools, I have a vinyl tablecloths to protect my table from the alcohol inks, as well as a brown paper card stock that I'm gonna place over top 3. Application 1 - Straw: Okay, so I'm gonna be showing you four different ways. You can try, Oh, alcohol inks and my first example. I'll be using just a straw and some alcohol, Inc So to get started, I'm putting on my gloves because, as you can tell by the pink on my gloves, it can get very messy, and it can die. Your skin eventually will wash off, but it's a little bit annoying. So for this piece, I'm going to be using some of the inks from the Tim holds collection. This is in the retro package. It comes with three colors. Those two are actually a couple of my favorite colors to use together to get started. I'm using my dropper to put the rubbing alcohol straight onto the you pull paper. The more alcohol you put, the more, um, more ink will spread so you'll get a different look with more or less alcohol. And I've mostly placed it in the middle just because this is the type of composition I'm going for, Um, but you can do it's that it fills the entire paper. So after I've applied the alcohol, I then took my Blue Alcohol Inc and just poured it on top of where the alcohol drops were, and then I'm taking my straw and just gently moving it around. If you create a lot of pressure, you'll get a different look unless you will get a softer look, so you'll see. I just pointed to the edges. They were a bit harsh for me. There wasn't very much alcohol in that area. So I added a little bit to the edges and really quickly went in with my straw and just kind of blew that area so that it wouldn't be totally white, cause when you add alcohol to alcohol inks, it does create kind of like a white dot, but if you move it around enough, then you'll get a really nice effect. So I'm now adding more alcohol to a different section of the page where I'm going to apply the pink ink. It's always good to open your inks off of your page because when the alcohol inks dry up, they can have. They can leave a crusty, dry finish, and so if you open it over your artwork, those bits of crust might fall on your art and ruin it. So right now, I'm blowing the pink, the ready pink color into the blue, and these two colors mix really nicely together. Other colors may not, so you do have to test them. Sometimes it can turn a little muddy. Ah, but these colors turn out very well. And I'm just using a paper towel to Dob where maybe there's a little bit more ink than I wanted. This will just kind of pull the link up with, Ah, the paper towel. And you won't even notice that you use that so again, just kind of creating that airflow wherever I feel like it will look nice. You have Teoh be patient with this and know when to stop and nowhere to continue adding either some ink or alcohol. Um, it's very subjective, and you kind of sometimes never know how it's going to turn out. But you also want to have a little bit of an idea of how and where you want it to go. So I'm just trying to spread this out to the edges of the page here. But I want the edges to be a lot softer and lighter, so I'm not gonna add more ink there. I'm just kind of blowing what's in the center of the page out and then again using my paper towel, if any of the ink pooled at the edges. Yeah, one thing you want to keep in mind when you're using the straw to blow air is that there can be a lot of conversation from your hair, and then it kind of catches at the bottom and then can follow in your artwork. So I tend to always like once in a while, just kind of wipe it on my shirt or on the paper towel just to make sure none of the water gets on the page. And you also want to make sure that you don't breathe in when you have the straw because, ah, the obviously the alcohol fumes can be a little bit intense. So just move away and take a breath and then get back to it so you can see that this has dried a little bit. Now, Um, the center looks a lot different now that it's dried, and I really like the way this is looking. I'm just applying some of the rubbing alcohol to the edges just to soften them up a little bit again. Andi, I'll show you the blend. The alcohol blending solution later on. It's very similar, but it has slightly different effect as it's mixed with another ingredient, which I believe is glycerin. Um, so I do think it lightens up the ink a little bit more, but I think the alcohol might gives some of the softer edges. And if you're unhappy with some of it, around the ends were if something accidentally fell. The great thing is, you can just add some alcohol and rub it off with your paper towel. It's per pretty forgiving in that sense, so I'm just adding a little bit more to the bottom, right, because that white space didn't look great to me. So just to close it up, I'm just adding some more of that turquoise color with some of the rubbing alcohol and again just using the straw to blend that together with everything else that's on the page. So over this piece I used the straw for pretty much everything and, um, just or being alcohol, as well as two different Alcohol Inc colors 4. Application 2 - Heat Gun: Okay, so this is another way of applying your alcohol inks. And this is actually the first way I tried when I first got into alcohol inks. One thing I do recommend for this way of doing it that I actually didn't do in this demonstration. But I would put a lot more of the rubbing alcohol than I am right now, and I'll show you an example of what it looks like when you have more of that alcohol to start with. I When I first did this, I used a lot of alcohol as rubbing on call as well as a lot of ink color. So it really moved around the page nicely. So to create this effect, you will need some sort of heat gun, something that will blow air. So I'm just putting down my first color, which is green, and then I'm going to blow that around with my heat gun. Do you have to be a little bit careful? Because since it's the heat gun, it does apply me, which means it will dry up the alcohol inks, and this means you do need to work quickly so I can tell that I have a lot of white spots and is not moving a whole lot. So I am gonna add more of the rubbing alcohol. But I would have preferred to have done that before hand because then the alcohol inks on top would have sat a bit nicer and then went in to add the yellow alcohol to kind of blend them together and then add more of you will be alcohol and just did a bit of back and forth . You can see this has a very different look to the first piece I showed you. So it is definitely a personal preference. And this is an example of the first piece I did where I used the heat gun and more of the alcohol as well a sinks. 5. Application 3 - Motion: In my third example, I'm going to be moving the paper around to get the ink in motion. I might use this draw here or there, or maybe just blow on the page directly. But mostly I'm going to add a lot of a lot of alcohol and move it around by just holding up the paper and moving it up and down to the left and the right just to get this more fluid. Wavy, dreamy, kind of look. So you want to make sure that you do have a lot of alcohol ink on there, so it has a lot of room to move. Um, so it's not dry, and just keep moving it until you feel like you have something really pretty and some different depths in the piece, and in this example, I'm actually using a dark, cool gray. It's almost like a black, but it's really cool, and when you blow it out, it stays true to its color. You'll notice with some of the inks that when you place it on the page on top of the rubbing alcohol and blow it out, that you'll see a lot of the underlying colors obviously inks are made up of different colors to create the end color, so you might see some of those. And sometimes it looks really pretty because it has thes different shades that it creates. But sometimes you do want just this one color. I do notice with the Tim Holtz black color that when you blow it out, then you start to see, like purples and just different colors that create that black. But I really do like the co pick inks, because I find that they kind of more stay with that singular color. So again, I am just adding some uncle ink to the edges to soften the mop and get them moving a little bit more and also adding a little bit more of that dark gray, which is almost a black. And I'm really gently blowing the ink around just with my breath, my mouth instead of the straw, because I think that the straws a little bit more focused, whereas when you just blow it from straight from your mouth, it's a little bit softer because it goes in kind of everywhere, as opposed to in one focus direction. You can definitely see the difference between the three pieces, this one because it's more wet. I feel like it has a more dreamy feel. The colors blend softly together, and there aren't very many harsh edges. It's kind of like a smoky look. And again, I'm just taking my paper towel to go in and get rid of any of the really strong blobs of ink. I did find that at some points, the ink turn a bit orange, so I just got rid of that. And here's a close up of kind of that smoky look that I was talking about. 6. Application 4 - Pour: okay for this last example. It's similar to the one I just showed you in that it is very wet and fluid, but I'm going to do a little bit of a different application. I am doing more of the poor method where I'm filling these little plastic cups up with some rubbing alcohol and also gonna put in some drops of ink. And I'm doing this all at once instead of going on the paper with rubbing alcohol first and then applying the ink over top. I'm going to add them at the same time to the paper, and it's going to be very what? It's definitely gonna be a different look. And then I'm gonna use my heat tool to move it around, similar to the first example I showed you. I'm also going to be using the snowcapped from Tim Holtz, and it's a White Alcohol Inc and you'll notice that the white plus the Tim Holtz gold and silver these air all mix it so they're quite a thicker and you do have to shake it up. Um, and it goes on the page a little bit differently than the other inks. Since it's thicker, it doesn't move as easily, and it's not as transparent and 70 more opaque. So I'm just gonna mix up the alcohol with the ink and the cops just by staring them around . I'm just gonna grab any color to start with and then just start pouring it from one edge of the page and I move on to the rest. I'm gonna pour some of the weight just through the middle, and then I'm gonna grab my heat gun and move this around. Just a note that you do want to put some sort of, um, like a mat underneath or something that will catch the ink because this one is so wet that it will run off the sides. So I'm using the lid of a plastic container to catch all that ink. What's gonna run off? The white ink kind of got lost in this fluid. Pour it kind of mixed with the blue and the pink. Make lighter instead of actually seeing any white in there. So it's really starting to dry now and you can see that around the edges. This one turned out really light, and that's because I think of the white that was added. So I'm just gonna show you a close up of what this looks like and you can see the difference in the edges when it dries. It definitely has different textures and definitely some different blending going on. And I'm just going to use the leftover in cuts in this lid and just pour it on the sides just so I don't waste it. And I feel like it could probably use a little bit of the blue, although sometimes you should just leave well enough alone thieves. Since I have that weird white space in the end, I'd probably use a paper cutter and trimmed down to size. But here is another close up, and it looks really pretty. An air you like the other one, but it has those kind of harder edges in between the colors. 7. Effects 1 - Metallics: So now we're going to get into the metallics. I have two options here. The pinata as well as the Tim Holtz. They're very different. I'll show you the difference between them, but they both need to be shaken up quite a bit. You'll hear the ball in it once you get it going. And then I'm just gonna use this, uh, bright green and bright pink. It's kind of like a watermelon look. So again, just applying some alcohol ink to the paper to get it started. And then I'm gonna go in with my ink colors and because I've already shown you this technique, I'm just going to speed through it until I get to the metallics. And then I'll walk you through that so usually like to add my gold or metallics to where the alcohol inks have kind of come together to create those lines. I feel like it's the most natural area to do that. So I'm using the pinata first and just applying it in those areas, and you can see when I go over of the straw and try and blow the gold, it doesn't move as nicely as the other alcohol inks so you can add some more of your roomie alcohol or the alcohol blending solution to it, and you'll see now that it does spread a little bit more and a little easier. You can also move the gold around with a paintbrush, Um, just to get it exactly where you like it. It works really nicely for creating that kind of marble look and just putting it along those lines that were created naturally by the alcohol inks mixing together. What I like about this gold is the there is kind of like some flex, um, and some almost like chunks of gold that float to the top, and they have a really nice shiny cool gold look to them. So this is the Tim Holtz goals, and it's actually called a mix. It'd, which is different than their alcohol inks. So, um, it is the same sort of solution where it doesn't move as easily as the alcohol inks. So I am putting in some army alcohol overtop, and you can see how it spreads a lot easier now. But it does have a different look from the pinata. It's a lot warmer, and it doesn't have those gold flecks that I was talking about up close. That was the Tim Molting. And then right now I'm showing you the pinata, Inc. And you can see those little chunks of gold that separated. And that's not really the case for the 2nd 1 I showed you. This is a look where they're side by side. The right one is the Tim Holtz, and the left one is the pinata. You can see the color is very different as well. So in this, um, I'm going to show you how to create Ah, foil A look with foil. I'm going to use the alcohol blending solution just to try something different. Ah, suppose to the alcohol and this is thieve oil I'm using. I just got it from Michael's. So to start, I am using the rubbing alcohol for this pink color. And then after that, I'm gonna use the alcohol blending solution for the green color underneath so you can kind of see a difference. I do think that the blending solution lightened the ink color quite a bit. It's definitely worth trying them both out to see what you prefer. But if you don't want to get the alcohol link blending solution. Ah, rubbing alcohol works just as well and is quite a bit cheaper. And you probably have it in your bathroom medicine cabinet. So I'm just speeding through this process because again, I've already showed it to you. But this time I'm going to add some of the silver foil to add that metallic effect instead of using the metallic alcohol inks. Okay, so again, I'm gonna place it where those inks kind of blended together to create that darker line. And I'm just grabbing some pieces of the foil with my paintbrush and applying them in those areas. And those areas should still be sort of wet. And Alcohol, Inc, even when dry can be very sticky. Which is why when you frame it, you want to have some matting in between the glass and the Alcohol Inc piece because it could stick to the frame. So if this is still a little bit wet, the foil should stick nicely to it. And I'm just going to go and play sees around that edge just a few pieces just to show you and give you the idea of how it will look and they should stay in place. Um, when you actually seal the piece at the end. So if you're gonna, you know, spray it with your sealer and you're or even resin, then it should keep that foil down, and it won't budge. But that's something I will explain towards the end of the course. - So you should be able to see now how it looks with that oil went on top. It's a subtle effect. Um, of course, you can go even stronger with it, but I just wanted to show you how it looks when it's just lightly applied. 8. Effects 2 - Texture: so using the same example piece that we just did for the metallic foil. I'm going to show you some texture effects. I'm just using a paintbrush that I would alcohol on top of the bristles, and I'm just gonna dabbing it on the peace. Um, at first I had too much alcohol on my bristles, So the dots that I had put kind of went together and created more of a blob. So I am going in now with a lot less rubbing alcohol to create a little bit of interest by adding some circles, and it just gives it a little bit of dimension and definitely a lot of interest to the already cool textures that Alcohol Inc provides. So this is a great way of creating this look with a lot of control because you're deciding where these dots are gonna go and the ofcourse, the rubbing alcohol goes through the ink and makes that white area so you can decide how intense they're going to be and where they should go, how big they're going to be, how small they're gonna be because you're applying them with your a brush. But I'm also going to show a different texture after this That does a similar thing but is a lot quicker and it's a little bit more random. I also used my paintbrush to soften some of the edges so you can see I just kind of rubbed the bristles around the edge and kind of pulled out some of the ink so the edge wasn't so sharp. This is another great tool. If you find that you don't really like how the edges looking, you can definitely change it up a little bit with your paintbrush. There's so much you can do with alcohol inks. You can definitely get creative. Okay, so I'm gonna show you another way to create texture. I'm just going to do a new piece for this one. I'm using the Copa cool gray as well is the Tim Holtz ah brown color from the retro palette , you can see when the brown spreads out the colors that were underlying in it. Um, it's very pretty, but you do have to be aware that it will create other colors. So that does need to be considered one creating your peas. So this one is kind of random. I'm just putting it together, I thought the texture that we're gonna do a look really nice against the dark ink colors. You can see this ink I just added now was actually the black ink from Tim holds. And you can see when I am spreading it out with the straw that it has a lot of purple and blue underneath. It's really pretty. But, um, again, you just have to be aware that those effects it has a lot of color mixed in with it, whereas that cool Graco pick is mostly just cool gray. So I'm using this spritz bottle that has rubbing alcohol in it, and I'm gonna sprayed on my the piece that you just made. However, I'm going to cover wherever I don't want it to spray with a piece of paper and then just lately spray on top and you'll see how it creates many of those dots that we created with the paintbrush. So it's pretty cool. It has a lot of interest to the peace, kind of like it reminds me of the ocean a little bit, and I did that a lot softer this time around for that darker brown purple area, and I'm gonna do that as well for the top right area, even softer so you can see it's just lightly around the edges. I really like this effect. I think it just adds another element to an already beautiful piece. 9. Effects 3 - Acrylic Inks: Okay, so I'm going in with my favorite cool grey again, and this time I'm going to add some acrylic ink to it. I'm using the liquid tax acrylic in white because I do find that it is definitely thinner than a regular krilic, so I find I can still move it around easily. But you can also use regular acrylic paint to and let's move around your brush both ways work. And I thought the white would look really nice with this dark black as it will almost be like milky and have this marble kind of effect. So I'm speeding through this cause I've already showed you it. And now I'm going to grab my liquid axe and put a couple drops over top of the Rubbing Alcohol and Alcohol Inc and just do the same thing that I've been doing with my straw and just kind of moving it with the other inks. The other rings are still wet, so it will blend nicely with the Koh Pick Alcohol Inc. Of course, being that it is an acrylic ink, it doesn't move as freely as the Alcohol Inc. But that also adds to the look of it has that nice milky look that is thicker than the rest 10. Effects 4 - Illustrating: Okay, So once you have a new Alcohol Inc piece, you might want to take it even further. If you have some drawing talents, you might want to draw over top of it or incurred, incorporated somehow into, ah, more illustrative piece. So this is a dried piece that I had done previously, and I just took a gel pen, Ah, white gel pin and just drew some kind of abstract geometric shapes over top. I do find that the gel pen sits nicely on top of the Alcohol Inc. So this is the gel pen I have. It's just the signal. Univ. All gel pin. Um, another great pen you could use is the Moloto acrylic paint pen. I found that one sat nicely on top as well. 11. Effects 5 - Masking Fluid: Okay. So in this method, I'm gonna show you how to use masking fluid to draw some artwork on and then cover it with alcohol, Inc. Using the Moloto masking pen and just this image I found from shutter stock. So I'm going to try and replicate that just by drawing it with the masking pen over top of the U boat paper. So I let that dry completely doesn't take too long. And then now I'm gonna go over that area with some alcohol, Inc. I'm gonna use Thedc. Oh, pick dark gray. So just because I went ahead and filled the upper part with some alcohol Incas Well, um, and then I put this aside and let it dry for a few hours before I went in to remove the masking fluid pills. I want to make sure that everything was totally dry. And now I'm gonna removed the masking fluid. I tend to prefer using an eraser to get the messing fluid off from the paper. And then I'll just use my fingertip Teoh, rub the rest off. So I'm just gonna go through and do that for the whole piece and then show you what it looks like at the end. Okay, so now all the masking fluid has been removed and this is the end effect. It's pretty cool. Definitely different, and you can make it very much your own design. 12. Alternate Surfaces: so another way to use your alcohol inks is on tile. It's a different method than on the U boat paper. You can use it for coasters or just putting up as a different way to display your art. When do you use your own feelings the same way you would as you would with the U boat paper to this? Place things on top of the tile with rubbing alcohol and move them around. You will want to seal these because ink can definitely be moved pretty easily when you clean, so you'll want to use a sealant like the triple glaze by Cry Lan, and this will make sure that everything stays in place. I will talk a little bit about the sealers towards the end of the video. So again, I'm just doing the same thing I have done before with the paper and just trying out different techniques, different colors and just moving it around until I find that I like how it looks. However, if you find you don't look how it looks in the end, it's OK because since this is on tile and it's easy to wipe off, you literally just need Teoh, pour some rubbing alcohol over it, wave it off and start all over again 13. Sealing Your Artwork: Okay, so this is what you're gonna need to seal your artwork. There are a few things. I We start with this Kaymer varnish from Crile on, and it's great for a lot of different types Artwork. And, um, it won't make the Alcohol Inc activate and run. Definitely read the directions because it tells you you need to shake this for, like, 2 to 3 minutes and then sprayed about 10 inches away. After that, I used the UV resistant gloss finish from Crile on, and this just adds a UV layer so it protects your or artwork from fading and all the other stuff that happens with age and the sun. So I'm gonna show you how I applied these. I started with the, Came, are and just went over top with a very good coat. It's just one coat, but I kind of went over quickly just to make sure he got all the spots and apologize for the bad light. But I did this in my basement. It is really, really stinky, so make sure you have good ventilation. Cover your floors and surfaces surrounding with plastic because it flies everywhere. You also want to make sure you're not super close to the artwork and give yourself some distance. But don't be too far away, because then you're not gonna get a nice coating with the varnish. It does dry pretty quickly, but I let it dry for an hour or so. And then I went in and did a second coat and let that dry for another hour. I also placed a plastic Tupperware container over top to avoid getting any dust particles on it, because it will stick and it does happen. Unfortunately, so once I've done two coats of that, I now go in with the UV resistant gloss gloss varnish. I shook this up for two minutes again and did pretty much the same thing. Just went over with one coat on. Then a place the Tupperware container back over top and let this drive for a few hours and then place it in a safe spot. Afterwards, there is another UV resistant archival spray from Cry Island that is quite a bit more expensive, and it is gallery, um, professional. And then there's another one from Crile on called the triple thick glaze, and this one will work really well for like that tile that I showed you. It will just help it from any damage when you use it. If you were to use it like as a coaster and put drinks on it, it's just a much thicker glaze to put over top. 14. Displaying Your Artwork: So I let them dry over night, probably actually for 48 hours. And then I wanted to put it in a frame so you can see here the nice, glossy finish that it leaves. It looks really good. It just makes colors all pop a little bit more, so you're gonna put in a frame. You want to make sure that there's matting on the frame because you don't want the artwork to actually touch the glass, it might stick to it and then damage it. You can also buy a frame with UV protectant glass in it and Nala, just add another layer of protection for your artwork. Another way of protecting and displaying your alcoholic artwork is using resin and having this just pour over top. It adds a super thick, super glossy, hard finished your artwork. But it is an advanced technique that I won't be able to show you today, but google it and see what it looks like because it makes it look really, really nice. And the colors pop even more than the gloss finish. I showed 15. Wrap Up + Homework: thanks for watching. I hope that this class was helpful and you learned a little bit about how to get started with alcohol inks. The class project is to use a surface, whether it's you po paper or a tile, and grabs and rubbing alcohol as well as one or two colors of Alcohol Inc and then try and move Inc around and see what your first piece looks like. Once you've had that finished uploaded and let me know what techniques used to create the artwork, any of the ones that I showed you in this class, let me know how they worked out for you and what you think about them if you like to thumb or didn't like them. And if you plan on trying it again in the future again, Thanks for watching. If you have any questions, make sure to leave them in the community section, and I'll be happy to respond