Month: September 2023

Posted on

Lessons learned, part 1: Alcohol Ink

This post was intended to be a review of the product, instead Ive decided to start a new series of posts called “Lessons learned”. I guess one could say that life in general is littered with mistakes, big and small. This one was of the messy sort that could have had a big impact on my furniture.

The good thing about making mistakes and about all of these mistakes in particular is that it worked out fine. Nothing was ruined beyond repair.

I came across a sale at a bookstore that had these great packs of alcohol ink from a reputable maker. Ive never tried this product before. After seeing other people making beautiful things with alcohol ink, Ive been dying to test it out.

My mistake was: I didn’t read up on the product before i opened the package.

I have experiences with alcohol ink in the form of markers. So, when I found two boxes of Marabu Alcohol Ink in a sale at bookstore I was super excited, but really unprepared for what type of product this is.

I live in an apartment with mostly white furniture, these bottles of ink contain highly pigmented liquid that is difficult to remove. I put down my drawing board on the white, living room table. Tried to open the bottle with scissors. Luckily for me. The bottle of purple ink was difficult to cut open. This was also the time i decided to move my operation into the kitchen sink. XD

Lesson learned: Read up on new and unfamiliar products before use. Youtube is a great place to learn from people who do have experience. Observe the type of set up they use when working with a product or material that is unfamiliar to you.

I placed my six bottles of highly pigmented ink in the sink and continued to cut open a bottle of a bright pink.

The result was pink ink in the drain, on the sides of the sink and on my hands

All of it had to be removed using nail-polish remover.

I still finished what I set out to do. I used the special, non absorbent paper that came with the box to make color tests.

A drop of each color was more than enough to make some nice, colorful blotches on the paper.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the maker of this product in any way, shape or form. This is not an ad and I have not been asked to test the product, to write a review or received any type of compensation.

Posted on

Fleeting adventures

When I started drawing using stippling as a technique I started drawing hot air balloons. Ive never been in one, but seeing them in real life, in pictures, in clips: They are pretty cool, aesthetically beautiful and work great as a vehicle for aesthetic purposes.

When I made these two in 2021, all I wanted to do was dot and create something aesthetically nice to look at. I also wanted to test other ways of making the balloon. Until I made these, I typically made other choices regarding the balloon. I had never used stippling as a way to create texture for the balloon itself. I started working on them after Id finished “Into the Galaxy”.In a way, I enjoy the contrast of the sets. One in black and white, one in color.

I’m pretty happy with the results.

Posted on

Into the galaxy

I live in a city and as with most cities we experience light pollution. If I was to make a written bucket list seeing the Milky Way at night would be featured at the very top of it. On a starry night, we can see the stars, but only the strongest ones. There are of course places you can go to heighten your chance of seeing the Milky Way. Im not gonna lie, all of that sounds like a lot of work and planing.

Luckily I create pictures using myself as a character and I can send her on whatever adventure I feel like. This is how the two part series “Into the Galaxy” came to be. Poxy is in a balloon. Floating around in a star-covered scenery.

Posted on

Challenge accepted

Earlier this year I saw a Swedish stationary store announce a challenge/competition they were hosting. It sounded really intriguing. Hard to pas up. It was a pay-to-enter. The rules were fairly simple. You had to get a pen-pack. The pack contained 8 pens. You had to use all of the pens for your project.

I started the challenge by doing swatches of all the products involved. I also started drawing out some ideas so I could get familiar with the different types of pens I had to use. This took me on a creative ride that was pretty fun.

I also feel the images that came out of this is such a good example of a creative journey. How you might start with a color pallet and an idea, but by the time you finish some central elements might have changed. When I post on Instagram its often stuff I’m super happy with, that feels worthy of showing off. The mistakes, the bloopers and the stuff I’m not that happy with is often not put on display. (I know I’m definitely not alone in this).

Here Ive failed to add the paint-marker from pilot. It was a beautiful baby blue. Underneath is the final image that was submitted to the competition (I did not win, nor make a top 10 placement).

It is pretty fun to look at the different types of ideas and pictures I made before I landed on that final image. It started pretty rough. I was curious to see what would happen if I used a blue sharpie to make the sky. I have to admit that this is not my best work. Trail and error is an important part of the learning process tho.

While making the first image I did kind of fall for the idea of the hot air balloon being fueled by a lighter. The second image I created centered around that idea.

The same went for the third and the forth pictures. At the same time I also narrowed my idea down further.

This is not the best picture I could possibly take of the final result, but Im pretty happy with what I landed on.

Choosing to do the sky in this was also inspired me to do several other pieces with the same background.

Dotting in the sky with a 05 sakura pigma micron pen was enjoyable to say the least and also very relaxing.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the pen store in any way, shape or form. This is not an ad for the company or their competition. I’m simply sharing my experience.