Fluid Art: Create Alcohol Ink on Yupo Paper Abstract Paintings in your Colors and Style

1. Introduction: Hi, I'm Jenny Guarino and I'm an artist working out of my studio in Houston, except when I'm traveling, that's why my tag is @Jennyswalkabout. So the idea is in this class, I'll teach you how to make your own unique piece of artwork using alcohol in on up paper. What's great about alcohol on Yupo paper is that you just need a few supplies. You really just need the alcohol ink, Yupo paper and some alcohol. And you can make some beautiful pieces of work that you can give away as gifts or decorate your home or work space. This process is simple and fun, with no experience required. Just come and join me on the Next up the project, what will you create? 2. Project: Hi. In this class I'm excited because you'll be able to create a number of small pieces with the materials you buy. And the project is just to create an artwork. So you'll make a few, just choose one and post it on the Skillshare project board for us all to look at. You'll be doing it in your own colors, in your own style. I'll show you a whole lot of different techniques. You can find extra ones on Youtube as well, whatever you want. But really what I help you do is give you the confidence to go ahead and create something that's going to be beautiful. Honestly, you can't go wrong. And if you do, just start again with another one. In this class, like all my classes, I'll take you through a number of steps. The first one is I'll go over the materials that you need. And then we're going to create a couple of simple artworks with just two or three colors. We're also going to play with metallics. I'm going to play with gold, but you can choose any metallic color you like. Then we will do a color test of the inks that you've purchased in order to understand the colors and how they interact together. Then I encourage you to choose an inspiration, photo or image. And we'll use the color test to pick your inks to create another artwork. Then we'll create some artwork and what to do if you're not quite happy with the artwork as it relates back to your inspiration. I'll show you how to rework and artwork using Copic markers. We'll learn how to protect your artwork from UV and damage and put it in a frame or in some sort of mode that you want to display it. Of course, you post your work to skills so that we can all see what wonderful works you've created. Next up materials, I'll go through what materials you need to purchase to make these beautiful artworks. 3. Materials: In this lesson, we'll go through materials. It's really quite simple, paper, alcohol, ink and some alcohol. I'll be specific about that. And then it's just like you need to protect your hands because alcohol ink does stain and it's hard to get off and your work surface and have somewhere for your artwork to dry. But I'll take you through that now. These are the refills that I use for most of my process. I do use some other brands and I'll show you them in a minute. But the reason I use these was I went on a workshop in Australia and they have the most amazing colors. The latest design of these is very good because it comes with a dropper. You can just control the amount of ink that comes out. They already come in a really nice container for creating beautiful alcohol in works of art. This is an old container, the old style as you can see. And I'm not going to open it now because I'll make a mess all over my hands. But it's a beautiful color olive which comes in the new style as well. It's something like this i'm not sure i can find it right now, they come in so many amazing colors. Just make sure that you're getting the alcohol ink refill, you're not using a pen. These alcohol ink refills from Copic, they come in all shades. I've got shades of blues. I've got the lilacs, I've got the oranges and the yellows. Of course, the bright greens are my favorite colors. There's lots of them. You can see that there's also beautiful pastels in the newer range. Now over the years, I've managed to build up quite the collection. You'll need to choose about three to four alcohol inks. You can buy other types of alcoholics from Jerry's Artarama, Michael's, Hobby Lobby. And they come in all sorts of brands and colors. The interesting thing about these is that there's plenty of metallics and interesting effects as well. So the textured, there's a sparkly, rainbowy one, and a beautiful gold and some silver. I've had a few that don't work, that haven't worked well. That's why I always do a color test of all these different new brands to make sure that they're going to behave as I think they are. We'll cover color tests in a later lesson. Also, if you want finer drops of ink, these little containers you can buy online and they allow you to get smaller dots. They come with different tips if you're using other products. Depending on the size and the shape of the bottle, you might want to use them. I use them for a little while, but now I mostly use the Copic refills. Next, you're going to need some alcohol to dilute the alcohol ink and to make it run and flow as fluid art. I use isopropyl alcohol and I also do put it in a little spritzer bottle to allow me to spray smaller quantities. Now, materials, paper. There's a few different types and sizes of papers. There's heavy, medium, and translucent paper. They come in different sizes the pads are large or small. If we look at the translucent, you can see through it. It gives a different effect than the heavy duty one. Which, Heavy duty is good if you're going to apply heat, I often do heat. It warps the paper. And then the medium one is the workhorse. You can also buy in rolls which are very large, or you can buy sheets of paper. For your project here you'll need some five by seven sheets of paper to set up your workspace. I usually work in boxes, but in this case I had a plastic tray left over from a platter that I bought, put a bit of parchment paper that I've cut up into a square on it. And it just allows the ink to flow and make a mess on the parchment paper. It's good for easy clean up, but also good for me to move around out of my way once it's done without messing up my art. The other option, if you don't have a tray, is a board. I've just got a piece of wood that I use. Anything that you can use to protect the surface and not get the ink on the surface that you're working on. I'm just using regular parchment paper that you buy for the kitchen. In one of the lessons, we'll do a color test to test how your alcohol inks blend and dilute together and mix together. If you want to do a grid, you'll need some painters tape to create that nice structured grid. Otherwise, if you don't have any painters tape, you can just drop some drops of your alcohol ink on paper and write the name of the color next to each of the drops. I'll give you a few options and you can just decide what works for you. Really need to put the gloves on. This ink makes a mess, you can get it off. And I have forgotten to wear my gloves and you just get your alcohol and rub it off. I also should do a safety message about the alcohol because you need to make sure you're in a well ventilated room when you use alcohol. Other things that you can use, these are optional other spray bottle that I talked about for the alcohol and also to blow things around. You can use straws. Really, You need to look at what's best for you. I have this mini blow dryer which turns on and off like that, which is for delicate work. A hair dryer, if you're using larger pieces of paper or you want the alcohol to move around more and then a heat gun is also an option. Make sure you use it on heavy paper because it will warp the paper. Another option to move the alcohol ink around is to use some brushes. Being a painter, I like to use brushes. You'll see me using them quite a lot. I don't use anything fancy, just cheap ones from Walmart or Kmart. And rinse them out with alcohol after I finished with them. I also have a dropper and you can put droplets of alcohol or alcohol ink onto your work. And then some stirrers, either Kraft sticks or plastic spoons or knives, then they allow you to mix the diluted alcohol ink or different colors together. Then if you're wanting to dilute or mix colors, then you really need to have a couple of little plastic cups for mixing and diluting. I will show you how to use them later. Then finally, once you've got your piece of art and it's dry, you'll use a fixative. You need to have a UV resistant coating because they will fade and a varnish and I just use the Krylon brand. There are other brands and there are all in one brands. But this is what I use. Next up, let's create the artwork. 4. Create Simple 2 Color Art: In this lesson we're going to create a new artwork. In this one, I really just decided if I choose a light and a dark color and let's just mess around with it and see what happens for this piece. You need one or two alcohol ink colors. I'm using Copic refills, some Yupo paper, alcohol, a small cup and a brush. Now we're just going to go with the flow. I've got my parchment paper set up with a bit of five x seven Yupo paper. I'm choosing two colors. One is dull lavender, BV 20. And I put a drop of it, I'm not doing a color test. And then the other color is slate, which is BV 29. And I'll put another drop of it on my parchment paper as well. I'm going to put a bit of alcohol in a small cup. I do like to splash around a bit first with some alcohol because otherwise you do get hard edges. I can use my spritzer. Maybe I'll give that a go too. Let me get my spritzer. I just spray a little bit on to cover the paper with a light spray of alcohol. Now, I'm going to get my dark color and I'll start with a dark and just put drops of it across. It still feels like it's quite dark. I'm going to get my brush and push around a bit because I'm starting to get.. You can see those edges and some stains and you might like that you can leave it. Otherwise, grab your brush and move it around. You can see me dip my brush into some alcohol just to make sure that it helps move and push it around. You could have spritzed over the top too, that's your choice. I enjoy using the brush, pushing and doing swirls and moving the ink around in a random pattern. I'm just getting to know the picture at the moment, but it's a bit dark and I want to do the contrast. So I'm going to add some of that lighter slate color as well, so that I get some flow through. In contrast, I'm going to dilute it. Oops, see how those splashes created these beautiful dots and cells on the side. I like that, so I'm going to keep on adding even more splashes. I like how this is looking at the moment. Keep on observing and watching what you're doing. Don't mess with areas that you like. If you like them, you can leave some areas white if you want to just have to decide I'm going to use.. I've got that alcohol that's got a slight color in it from clean the brush, so it's a pretty diluted color. I'm going to push some of that around. You can also dab into those colors that you had at the side if you want to strengthen up some areas. It's just a matter of you thinking as you're going and what looks interesting. Please just have a play because it becomes interesting the more and more you work it. I'm liking the way this is looking. Oops, a little dot, but that's okay. Keep on going. These two colors are working pretty well together. I rather like them looking at it. I think I need to strengthen up some color. Let me add some gray to the alcohol to get a nice, pretty shade. And I'm going to remove a bit of the white and put some gray over it, but it's still a pretty light color. I keep on studying it and I'm looking at it trying to decide what I can. But I'm just enjoying playing as well. I think I need to add a drop of color there. Let me do that a bit of a drop. And then because I've added the drop, I'm going to break it up again with the brush. I like how it's looking. I just dropped the brush. Let me see. But I like that line. And I'm just going to go with that as well and just break it up a bit more. But it's part of the composition now. Even if you like it, you can keep on working and adding extra layers of interest and intensity. You can use the spray in the spritz and drops and you can see, I'm just going to keep on playing and enjoying it and dabbing the colors, pulling a bit of the dark out a bit further than it was before, Just playing with it. I can change the shape. There's lots of options of things to do here. Then I can get the spritzer and spray and add a bit of alcohol as well towards the edge, just in a contained area. Once again, I can drop back bits of alcohol and vary it as well. You just got to be careful because you can change it totally overnight. It can just change in a heartbeat. Now I've got to add a bit more of the dark back in that I lost when I diluted, when I put a little bit too much alcohol on. Just remember, I do encourage playing and to fiddle around. And if you have to wipe it out an area and you lose a bit, that's fine. But if you really do like an area, just leave that area alone when you're working with it. And just play with the other area or put the piece of art work aside. This lesson is just about having fun and not being scared. I've been rinsing my brush off in the alcohol, so it's a bit wet. So this time I'm going to dry it off with a bit of paper toweling and use more of a dry brush to leave some brush marks into that alcohol ink. So just layer it and keep on looking at what's happening in front of you. Looking at the dark, I've got enough dark. Now, rule of thumb. Is a third dark, a third medium, a third light. But obviously that varies. Just a guideline for you to follow, look at the drops. I could just make artwork out of the drops! Now I'm going to strengthen the mid level color because I've got the darks right and I'm leaving the light. So just that beautiful slate color. And I'm going to blow it round with the mini blow dryer. Just move it around a bit. Lift it up. Lifting it up gives you another effect. As the paint dries, you get the tiny little ridges. And as we move it around, we can control that with the blow dryer isn't looking terrific. See the pale colors and the pinky glow of the background. It's looking really interesting and the colors are quite pretty. I can't wait to see the colors you've chosen and what you create. If you don't want the ink to move around as much, then hold the mini blow dryer further away and you can control that. so it just moves a little bit, not as much. Dab off excess ink with paper toweling as you go. Actually, the paper toweling makes a lovely effect if you want something different. Now, I'm just going to spritz it a bit more with some alcohol and then strengthen back those colors again. I'm just working on the layers, adding them over and over again to get an interesting effect. Just remember when you're creating your art work that you've got your own colors and you're looking at it and you're doing what you like and what you think looks pretty. I'm just trying to give you some ideas of how to do that. Just keep on playing with it. And you can see the layers are building up really nicely, just repeating that process of adding more ink. And this time I'm going to move it by tilting and lifting up the paper and moving it around. You can see I've got that roughly third dark, third middle, and third light as a balance for my painting. You can see in this close up some of the delicate colors in the right top corner which are very pretty. I'm using the blow dryer from a distance just to slowly move some of the ink around, Cleaning any mop ups or edges that I don't like with the paper toweling. This is fun, isn't it? It's amazing what you can do just with two colors. It's close to finished. I'm just cleaning up around the different edges. I'm looking at the whole painting and which areas need to be cleaned up because it is going to go in a frame and I want every piece to be interesting. It's interesting how it evolves from the very beginning. Look at that! There's such a beautiful blue underneath as well. It's amazing the way the colors, just two colors can be so interesting and look so good. I think it's got a good balance of light and dark now, and I like it! I think I'll call it done. Let's let it sit and dry. If you're having trouble deciding whether it's finished, rotate the piece in all directions to make sure it looks interesting from all directions. Also, you can sit back and take a photo and check it that way. Here's the finished piece in a mat board. Doesn't look wonderful. Framed. In our next lesson, we're going to play with metallic alcohol inks. 5. Create Art using Metallic Alcohol Ink: In this lesson, we'll do a quick play around with some metallics and some alcoholic. In this example, I want to show you some non copy alcohol inks. I've got the rose gold, a mixed of rose gold, mixed of gold and a pistachio. The main color is going to be the pistachio. And these are ranger colors, which is a brand that works well. And I want to show you how the golds work because they sit a bit heavier and don't move around as much. So we start with the main color and then we'll add the metallics later. So the paper I'm going to use is a translucent paper so it's see through, so it'll be interesting and give some different effects. Softer effects, spray with alcohol. And then we're going to add the main color, which is the pistachio green. This time for a change, I'm going to just run it down the middle. If you don't want to use a brush, you can use your fingers as long as you've got that plastic glove on, and you can see I'm smoshing it around. Just to show you, you don't have to have a brush. It's once again, it's personal choice. I'm just tilting it. I just want to tilt it and let it move around. And I'll try and maybe keep the sides white, the left and right, but we'll see you can also drop and break things up with a dropper. So you can see just straight into that alcohol. I've got quite a fluid flowing painting here. Adding some more, I want to, I think I'll add a little bit more pistachio and move it around. I've got a bit of paper toweling underneath to catch the drops this time because I've got quite a lot of fluid, that's another option for you. Isn't it looking interesting already? Within a few minutes, you've got something that's moving and it's just developing as we go. As I'm creating it, I start to see, I imagine a sky and hills and I can see that, that little bit looks like a hill. I'm going to have trouble, I think keeping one end empty. Let me add some green down the bottom there and spray and blend it in. Look at how the green sprayed with alcohol splits out a beautiful yellow color as well. Now it's time to add the gold. Shake it up first shake, shake that gold. It's quite heavy and you'll see to keep it intense, you put it directly on quite thickly with the drops. As you add it there, it really just sits there. I'm going to get my brush and move it around a little bit, but if I want the intensity of the gold, I need to keep it relatively thick or it'll soften up and look a bit gray. Actually, not as gold really. With the gold, it's like a feature or a highlight. And I just decide to add it just in a couple of places as a highlight. And you can see how I've got quite a bit of the gold and it's just moving slowly within the boundaries of that pistachio. Aren't the metallics pretty? They just add a bit of glitter and glam to the painting. Even though I'm focusing on the gold at the moment and adding more gold. I'm also looking at the edges and softening those green edges as they move around as well. And I'm just going to keep on working it a bit more. Let me try the rose gold now and add that and see what it does. I like the drops as they're going in. It's just a little pinkier and adds a bit of brightness and a slight change in color tone from the actual gold. Oh, aren't metallics pretty? They're just so fun. But you can see that's just sitting there. It's a matter of blending it in so it's part of the composition. You can see it still does move a little bit. In this example, I'm just using my hands to move. I'm not really using a blow dryer or anything like that, I'm just keeping it simple. As long as you have your gloves on, you can use your finger to move the paint around. You don't have to have a brush. I'm going to just wet this all up and it helps to soften some of those edges from being too hard. I also will break up the edges with my finger instead of using a brush. But looking at this looks geographic. It's starting to look geographic. I think that I'll fill in that corner with the green. So I'm just going to put a bit of extra green in as I fill it in. It's looking very interesting. All my work is generally geographic because I draw all those drawings, that's just what naturally happens when I create something. I'm making those shapes that I've seen from the aeroplane window. I'm going to balance it with a little bit of extra gold. So a little dab in the corner so that your eye can move around across the painting from one Erea to the other. Rather there just being one point of interest in the center of the painting there looking at it. I'll add some more pistachio over here. And I think I'll finish by continuing with the pistachio as a stronger element On the left hand side, just one little corner that has the clear, white, translucent through it now as before, splash with a bit of alcohol to blend it in and make it move like the rest of the painting. It's just a matter of having fun and balancing it as you go along. See how I fiddle with the gold a bit, but I need to make sure I don't make it muddy. Put back over the top some more gold just to highlight as a last touch Before I finish it that gold, I want it to stand out a few little minor touches and I'll call that finished. Wasn't that quick and easy. Just a couple of colors and some paper and you've got a beautiful piece of artwork. Here's the finished piece. Doesn't look beautiful. You can see the flex of gold flowing through it. Next up, we're going to do a color test. You bought some new colors. Let's see how they behave when they interact together or just on their own. There's a few options here. I'll show you a few different ways of doing it. Some neat, Some quick, some slow, some tidy. Whatever you want to do, you can decide. 6. Create Color Test: Hi, in this lesson, let me do a color test. Now, firstly, I'm going to show you a few different ways that I've done it. I'll take you through with a quick video of one method, which is to do a grid. Another method, you just drop the drops on a piece of paper of all the different colors you have. Another one is that just for this piece, if you've just chosen colors, you just drop them next to the image of whatever your inspiration is. Many ways to do it, here's a few ideas, but the key is to just get comfortable with your colors and understand what they're doing. Important to note with the Copic colors the lid on top because it's, it's an acrylic paint, it's not going to be the same as the exact same matches the ink inside. And that's where you've got to be careful and that's why it's a good idea to play around first. Depending on the color test you create, you'll need at least the alcohol ink, and some form of paper. And there's a few other things. If you choose the other options, the simplest method is to just put the drops of the colors that you're going to use for the picture that you're making on your sketchbook. And then write their names next to them. Make sure your paper is thick enough that the ink doesn't go through. The next option is to put all the colors that you have and drop them on a bit of Yupo paper and then write the names after them. And maybe just put a bit of alcohol to wash them around and see what they look like diluted. This color test is a color test of just single colors on the Yupo paper. So it's just a grid and for each square there's one color and a bit of a spritz of alcohol to see how it dilutes. There will be some mixing underneath the tape when you pull the tape off, so you do get a little bit of idea of how they blend together as well. If you want to create a grid of all your colors and how they interact. In this example, I'm creating a grid of all my non Copic inks. I've put them all up the left hand side and then right across on the rows, I'm going to spread that, say the blue color, the red color, right across to the other side. Then I'm just going to, mix across with the columns, I'm going to mix the other colors. I get a full grid of each color and how it reacts with all the other colors. It's not the neatest or tidiest result, but I really do use these grids a lot in my selection of colors. I'll show you in the next lesson how I do that. Also, make sure you leave some room at the top to write the actual names of the paints later. From these examples, decide which color test you want to do for your alcohol inks, Create a color test, also find some inspiration for an artwork. In the next lesson, we'll use the color test and your inspiration to choose the colors for your artwork. 7. Using Inspiration Image & Color Test to Choose Colors: In this lesson, you'll use the color test you created in the last lesson and your inspiration image to select your alcohol links. I'll show you what to do. Plan on choosing three to four colors for this painting. I'd like you to find a inspiration image, even though we're working abstract. It will help with the composition and color choices. It can be a photo, a drawing, a painting you love, a color, watch, anything works. The main thing is it's an image that will inspire you to create a beautiful artwork. My inspiration is one of my drawings. It's a sunset drawing that I did on my Ipad and printed. And I love the orange and the purple and the green. Because I've done a little sample, I can see roughly the colors that I would want to match up. It would be one of these orange colors. And I don't have to do it exactly, but this color, which is a lilac or a blue violet, looks good. And then over here we've got a canary yellow. They're probably three colors. This color here is diluted, so it would be the lilacy color that's diluted. Let me see. I can go back to my reference here and, you know, I've got a lot of colors. I just want to check some lilac. I have this color here and I have a darker color, and I can hold them up against it as well. That's why I create these charts, is they're slightly different than the color that you see. Also, when they mix with alcohol, they create other pretty colors. Sometimes they dissolve into a bit of pink and blue. Let me see. I think I'll stick with the lilac even though it does look a bit different. I do like that color. Then we've got a green, and this one is called Verde green, so I'm going to choose that one. And then a yellow. And I've got honey and golden yellow. Canary yellow is this one here. Actually, although I've got these few colors, I think I'll stick with this is a nice bright yellow. Goes nicely with the lilac, although it's a bit lighter. I think this green, because it's more mellow green, will blend. They're not exactly the same colors as I've just got here. But I'm playing today a bit. But this is still a good guide and you can match it exactly if you want to. This one here is this green, which isn't quite as bright as that one. If I did want to have it brighter, I really would choose the apple green, which is one of my favorite colors. I might put the apple green as well. Okay, now I'm happy with that because this will tone it down and not be quite as bright. But this apple green is closer to the color I'm looking for. These are the four colors. Now I'll document my selection in my notebook adding drops of the inks. I can do this because my notebook paper is quite thick and I'll write down what their names are. Here's the book with the color names written in it as well. Next up, let's create the artwork. 8. Create Art with 3 to 4 Colors: Okay, in this lesson, we're going to actually create the artwork. You have, your inspiration piece, you've used your color test to choose three or four colors for this piece. Just need some Yupo paper, alcohol, and a few other things, and you can go ahead and create your own artwork. I will show you a few techniques. You decide which ones you want to use for your artwork. My inspiration is a sunset. To create this piece, I have my workbook and inspiration to the left hand side. My workspace is a board, this time with parchment paper. The Yupo paper that I'm using is heavy duty because I want to apply some heat later on. So make sure you choose the heavy one. If you're going to use heat, I'm going to put my alcohol in a small cup. Because this is a small piece of artwork, I will just pour a bit from there. If I'm creating a large piece, I will usually pour it straight from the bottle. First step is to really drizzle some alcohol and moisten up that bit of paper. Like we did in the color tests, I used a spritz from the color test. Here, I'm just pouring it straight on, referring back to my inspirational left hand side. You can see it's in a line, so it's like stripes almost of the color. What I'm going to do is start with the lilac color. I'll use some of that in a straight line along the page. Just to start it, I'm going to just roughly start with a composition, roughly like what my inspiration is as we did in the color test. I'm going to mush and move that around with my brush. As I keep on saying I'm a painter, so I do like to use a brush. You may see some brush works in the final result and that adds a little bit of interest. I'm adding the yellow now across the top, the bright yellow. This is a side view to show you just how it looks from the side as well. I'm just working through with it, adding the green and adding the different colors. Looking over to the left at my inspiration piece as I work through it, what I'm doing here is quite simple, really adding the colors and blending them together with my paint brush. It's exciting to see how the alcohol inks flow into each other and the colors change and blend. You can always use your finger if you want to as an option. If you don't want to use a brush, as long as you've got that plastic glove on your hand to protect it. For the top layer, I'm going to dilute some lilac with some alcohol. You can also mix colors in the cups as well, if you want to do that mixing in the cup rather than on the Yupo paper. I'm going to dilute it a bit with the alcohol just to get a slightly paler color for that sky. Now, if you've got gloves on, you can lift it up and move it around. And also that's why you want to use the parchment paper to protect it. But look as it moves around with all that alcohol. There's blending and exciting and unexpected things happening. I just enjoy the spontaneity and unexpected. It's not repeatable. This playing around with alcohol and Yupo paper. You're really just experimenting and trying to get to an end result that you feel happy with. At this stage. you could stop now and just leave it. Should I stop now? knowing me, Probably not. It looks pretty. It could dry quite beautifully, just like that and be a beautiful artwork. But I'm going to continue. If you're going to leave it, make sure you keep it level as your composition will literally slide off the paper. If you move it on an angle, accidentally. I'm just changing my gloves because they're dirty. I don't want to mark my painting accidentally. Have some paper toweling handy for the blow dryer so that you can clean up any messes as you go because it is going to blow some alcohol and ink off the page. I'm going to get the blow dryer out now. Make sure from a setting point of view, from a speed, you've got it on low or you will blow your composition off the paper. Also on the heat side high because you've got heavy paper. And turn it down a bit if you haven't or hold it away, hold it away from the Yupo paper if it's on a high setting. Now I've got my hair dryer on on low speed and high heat, and I'm being careful to start with, holding it a fair distance away from the paper, just seeing how it starts to move the alcohol ink and the alcohol around on the page. Going in from the edges, you can go in from any direction. I'm just moving it around. I've got a side angle view so that here you can see it a bit better. As the fluid moves across the page, it starts to create some interesting textures and darker lines where the two colors meet. And I really like that effect. It's unusual. So I'll keep on going and keep on moving it backwards and forwards. And watching those lines and where they end up as part of the process as well. Here's a close up to show you what it's like close up and you can see how fluid and how much alcohol there is sitting on the surface that I'm moving around using the blow dryer. And the alcohol inks has meant that some of the ink has separated into little flecks. Sometimes I leave it there because I do like texture. But in the interest of showing you what you can do if you don't like it is it's just a matter of getting a bit of paper towel and dabbing it off. I'm just dabbing a little bit off at the moment and leaving a few flecks behind. You choose what works for you. I'm going to dry it off a little bit more with the blow dryer. It's looking much paler. Now, I'm going to show you how to wash it off with a bit of alcohol, a few drops of alcohol, or you can splash it onto the piece and then grab your paper toweling and dab it off, or rub it off. I've got my paper toweling out and I'm wiping it clean. I've got those drops of alcohol and I'm getting a nice textured background. That's what I'm going with at the moment. The painting is evolving as I go. It's an evolution. We'll need to keep on working it back. We've got a pretty, I love that little line that looks like a hill across, like a yellow sky at the moment, if you feel lost at this stage, you can look back at your inspiration image for ideas, or you can move in a totally different direction. Looking at it, I see a beautiful soft blue coming from the diluted green, which is really interesting. I see a beautiful background at this stage that needs more layers and more work to make it more interesting. When I compare it back to my original inspiration, it looks nothing like it. But that's okay. This painting is evolving. As I go, I'm going to come back with more color. Once again, referencing back to my inspiration and pulling those colors back in that I had before. But enjoying the fact that I've got extra layers of depth underneath the new colors that I'm putting over the top. Using the inspiration image helps guide the composition and the colors that I'm using. At the moment, it's time to move things around. With the mini blower going to push the colors around, push the lilac, pushing the lilac into the yellow. I have a little bit more control with the mini blower and can get closer to the ink. Here's a side view to show you the movement from a different direction. For more movement and control, I'm lifting up the bit of paper as well to get it closer to where I am with the mini blow dryer. This version is looking much brighter and closer to the colors that I've chosen in the inspiration. I'm going to spritz it with the alcohol, a bit of alcohol to get some cells. Once again, do it into your hand first. And then you can see I've got some tiny little dots there that are interesting. I'm constantly studying it and trying to decide where I want to add something. I'll add some olive green up here. Just drop a couple of drops in. I'm continuing to layer and add color just to make it interesting. So I've got the green down the bottom, so I want to balance that with a bit of green up the top as well. I'm using the dropper to dilute it a little bit and the mini blow dry just because it's fun way of moving things around. I do like the edges, but I break some of the edges up with my brush because I'm a painter, as I keep on saying, I like to get my brush out. I'm going to rotate it because sometimes it's a good idea if you've been working one way to turn it another way and have a look at it. It looks really interesting this way as well. A good abstract piece of art should look good in every direction, so it's a good idea to do that rotation. Let me drop a few drops of alcohol in there. You get the circular pattern that you get. Then let's brighten it up with a bit of the bright green. I rather like how it is now I've got the area of green and a sunset area as well to the right. It's tempting to fill in the lighter bit down the bottom, but it adds a good contrast, so I'm going to try and let that be. It's a good negative, pale space. I'd like to get the mini blow dryer out to just to do a last little movement of the paint. But at this point, we have to start thinking it might be time to stop. Should I stop now? It's getting pretty close. I could play with this forever. I just keep studying it. If it's a bit too wet. I can also, I'm using the paper towel just to drop off a bit of the wetness as well, and that brings a bit of the color off it too. And you can see the blue showing underneath the green, which is quite pretty. But I also want to show you how to use a straw as another option to blow. If you don't have a blow dryer or a mini blow dryer, a straw is quite a good way of moving the paint around. I'm going to use a little bit of diluted lilac and I'm going to try and touch just a corner in the bottom left here to balance out that lilac over the other side. You can see I'm just gently trying to drop some out of the cup. You could use a dropper for more precision if you want to. I add the lilac and using the straw give a few puffs to push that paint around. The straw is very close and it's just like I'm giving it a tint. It's a bit muddy, so I'm going to add a bit more color to it to brighten it up. That lilac is really a gorgeous color. Just a note on the straws. I've had these straws forever. You can use an eco friendly straw that's currently available when you create your art. As usual, I'll pull out my brush and break up the edges with the brush. If your brush is getting dirty. If you're using a brush, make sure you just clean it with that alcohol. Wash out that paint. If there's too much alcohol, then just off with your paper toweling. Keep it away from the areas that you like in your painting. The alcohol does flow. You really want to contain it to the area that you're working on. If you have a bit of paper towel handy, you can mop it off as it's happening. The pink looks a bit blobby, so I'm going to break it up with my brush. You can also spritz it once again, being careful not to spritz the area that I already like. That will also break it up. You can see that the lilac has brought through a beautiful blue as well underneath. It's making a really interesting color there too. Because I'm almost finished. I'm making sure that I keep that brush clean so I'm dropping it into some pure alcohol just to clean it off and get rid of the muddy color. Once again, I'm just taking back a few of those edges that make it look like a round blob that I've dropped on there. I'm making it more deliberate and more geographic, which is what I like to do. Brush marks are another interesting thing to get left behind when you do this. I'm thinking now I've got a good balance composition and a range of colors. I've got some light and dark, and lots of layers. It's an interesting painting. Well, it looks nothing like I imagined, but I do like it. So I think with that we're done. I'll leave it in a safe place to dry, which for me means usually overnight. Here's the finished piece. Once it's dry, it's beautiful, but the colors don't exactly line up with what I'd imagine. The next lesson is how to rework the piece with Copic markers. 9. Reworking with Copic Markers: This lesson, I'm going to show you how to rework a piece. I did this piece for you earlier to show you in the last lesson. Probably it would have been just fine. But then looking at it and sitting around after it dried, I thought, oh no, I want to rework it. I reworked it with actually Copic markers. You can reworks, well, you can go over things with acrylic, et cetera, spray a fixative first and then work over the top if you don't want to damage what's underneath. The reason why I really wanted to rework this artwork was because I really wasn't happy with how, the actual composition is pretty, but it doesn't reflect the colors that I wanted. I've grabbed a Copic, actually a marker this time There's a thin end and a thick end. I want to use the thick end and I'm just going to add some of this deeper, orangey color over the top with the ink marker. Just gradually and having fun in a relaxed way, just working my way along the line of that lilacy color in between the lilac and the yellow. So I'm really just warming it up a bit because I really want it to look a bit brighter and more bold and with deeper and more intense colors. I haven't used a fixative, so the pen will mix with the colors around it. On the side to the left, I'm just putting a bit of alcohol so I can dip my brush in it and I can actually do what we're doing in the other lessons and spread that ink around because the marker is ink, still too as you know, because we use the refills. And I can just push it around and have a bit of fun just working on the areas. I'm going to change and leaving the others alone. And I'm going to keep on breaking it up with the colors and the alcohol. It's just a matter of keeping on changing. You can work into the lilac I'm breaking up, so it's not a solid lilac. I'm mixing some of the other color through it to break that up and make it more interesting. Up the top there. I think I'll use the thicker brush and break it even more because this marker has got some alcohol in it. It's able to break up some of the hard lines, if you don't want a hard line all the way through, but as you see, you can also go back in with the pin and a little bit of alcohol as well. It's quite satisfying. It's quite fun if you have some markers. Give this a try. You can also do this with a brush and your alcohol inks. Just drop them on the side and use your brush and keep on working the piece like that as well. Once again, I've had fun and I think that's finished. The colors are much warmer and I really like it a lot, the finished piece. Now, doesn't that look pretty? In the next lesson, we'll talk about how to protect your artwork and what are your options for putting it in a frame and finishing off the piece of artwork for display. 10. Finishing: Finishing is very important because with alcohol ink, you need to put something over the top of your work A varnish to make sure that if you get a drop of some more alcohol or something, it doesn't disrupt the whole pattern. And then also a UV light protector, because it does fade if you've got it in the sun. Usually when I spray mine with the varnish, I spray it en mass. I think one of them I forgot. And I wondered, well, why did this fade? And it was because I missed a bit. Just be careful and make sure you cover the coat. That's why I like to do a couple of coats because if I have missed a bit on one, the second coat will cover it. It's a good idea to do at least two coats, make sure you do it safely. I have a little tent that I do it. I sit it outside and I throw my pieces in and I spray in the tent. And I wear masks. I don't breathe it in. The smell is just not nice and probably not good for you. Then just let it dry before you do the next coat. Follow the directions of the can of course. There's also products that combine the varnish and the UV and one, you just have to do one spray. That's your choice as well. You can look for a separate product for varnish and then UV. Or you can have one that's combined together. Make sure you do the varnish first and set it because the UV coat disrupts the surface. And we'll make it all run and make a mess of your artwork. I have done that, of course. Okay. So you finish your artworks, you've got all these pieces, and then you've just got to decide. They look great on their own, so you can just put them in the pinboard or the fridge as they are. Here's a few examples of what I've done with different pieces of artwork. You can buy all sorts of frames from Target and Kmart, and Hobby Lobby. If I'm wandering around in a shop and I see a frame on special, often, I'll just buy it and hold it aside for one of my pieces of art. I even put a mat board around one of my color tests, and it's a great piece of art in itself. That leads us to the question, after you've made your artwork, what are your other ideas? What new things are you going to create? In the next lesson, we'll talk about what's next. 11. What Next?: Well, this class is over now. And wasn't it fun? I love fluid art because as you know, I do drawings, I get inspiration for colors and I play around, use the fluid art, use the ink that flows with the alcohol. Amazing things happen if I stick at it and work it out. I get mesmerized by it, almost. I've created some beautiful pieces of work, even in the middle, often I'm thinking, oh no, this is just a disaster. But staying calm and keeping on working on it and thinking about it and reflecting on it. I'll have something finished come back the next day, and although I didn't like it on the day I created, I love it. So just make sure you take the time to stop and think about a piece before you absolutely destroy it. Or throw it out because it might have some value. Yet. Other things you can do, you can work in this larger format. So you can buy the large sheets of Yupo paper. It also comes in rolls. And so you can create these large pieces of work. Obviously you need more alcohol and more ink, and make sure you work in ventilated space. You can also go really small and you can actually cut and collage the Yupo paper with other materials and create some sort of mixed media format. I've done all of this, It's a lot of fun. So enjoy, I hope you enjoy it and I hope you expand your horizons and do more in this medium. Once again, if you do anything exciting post on our project board or let me know and tag me on Instagram or whatever, let me know what you've been doing with your alcohol ink on Yupo Paper until next time, I encourage you to keep doing your art and keep trying and remember you can work over things or just trash things. It's all a learning experience that's all about is having fun, seeing what exciting things can happen, especially in fluid art where it's just so spontaneous. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what you post in the project gallery. I love going through this process with you and I look forward to seeing you in my next class.