Spray Ink How to

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Initially I got this idea from a youtube, I can't remember the name, her video was about alternatives to Tattered Angels spray inks. At $9 for a bottle the inks are expensive. I found some walnut spray ink for a 4 or 5 oz bottle for the same price. That's pretty pricey to me. She used an assortment of alternatives, Kool-Aid, ink etc.. What caught my eye was her use of stamp pad refills.

You'll need the following:

  • 1 bottle isopropyl alcohol, I got 91% but you could go 70% ($1)
  • 6 Hand Sanitizer Pocket Spray bottles. Mine are Walgreens brand but any with a removable top will work ($1.50 each) Each container holds .75 ounces of liquid
  • 1 package Posh Impressions Inkabilities 6 pack refill inks ($15) I got the Earthtones set. Adirondack Sells 3 packs for $10 with larger bottles in a greater range, either brand will work. I liked the selection for the price of the Inkabilities
  • PLEASE keep in mind that isopropyl alcohol is FLAMMABLE. It would not be a good idea to have an open flame while using these as the spray will light up. THIS IS A FIRE HAZARD. I Do not take any responsibility if you do something foolish and burn down your house or apartment.

What to do:
First empty out the hand sanitizer spray bottles. I saved mine in an almost empty bottle. I don't use the stuff, but Christie does. Wash the bottle in warm water. I rinsed until I could no longer smell the stink of the sanitizer.
Then I cleaned the sprayer out. To do this I filled one of the bottle with alcohol, and squirted 3 pumps through the spray head. Then I pulled the spray head out and sprayed until it ran dry. Good enough.
Then I filled each container half full of alcohol.
To this I added about 20 to 30 drops of ink to the alcohol*. twist the cap on tightly. Really tight. Shake.
Spray. Check intensity after the ink dries. Add more ink 5 drops at a time to get the desired intensity.
Now spray to your hearts delight.
My intent is to get some spray paint effects and increase my love of hand cut stencils…Tell me in the comments what you think and link to pages where you use it!

Some pics:

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You might be wondering why I'd choose to use a hand sanitizer bottle instead of the Ranger little spray bottles. The hand sanitizer bottles are 2 for $3 regular price. I've seen them on sale at CVS for $1. The Ranger spray bottles are 3 for $5. It's a 16 cent difference to the regular Walgreens price, whcih isn't much. But I also know that the hand sanitizer spray bottles are pretty robust, designed to spray a gel in a very fine mist. That fine mist is what I'm looking for. The Stampington spray bottle I've used spatters, I think it's supposed to but I find the effect annoying. I also wanted to find a new use for something a lot of people might already have around. I know a lot of people use these spray bottles. They are designed to be tossed around in a purse so I know they are sturdy and don't leak as long as the cap is on it. Also as something that is designed to hold something that is alcohol based I know it will stand up to the abuse well. Not everything will tolerate the abuse of alcohol. Also these little hand sanitizer bottles only hold .75 ounces of fluid.

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Also, thought not pictured I mixed a 50/50 mix of alcohol and india ink in a Stampington spray bottle and holy shite it's awesome. Anyway, everyone should try this. the total cost for me was about $25 for 6 colors not including the india ink.

Somethign else that is great that you could get extra spray bottles and mix colors- 10 drops yellow, 20 drops green for yellow green or 10 drops glue and 20 drops green for blue greens. You could create a completely individualized line of colors for your journal. ALSO you can remix fast and easy. It would take a long time to go through those refill.

*Do this step in a place where your floors are an easy clean up, becuase if you are like me and knock over your RED sprayer before you get the cap on it, it makes  a god awful mess. I can't image what it would do to grout. This stuff stains. However as it is alcohol based alcohol and the saved hand sanitizer does a great job of lifting it off hardwood. Trust me I know, it came off my oak floor very well. I'm really glad I have down a vinyl sign as a safety mat for my slobbery.

Backgrounds: A Way to get past that Blank Page Part 1

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Gesso.

It's a basic thing. I don't see it as a necessary start to all pages. Becuase it's just not. If you work with a heavier page you don't need it. It's nice, it stiffens the page and adds some texture. You can get gesso in a lot of colors now- black, clear, white various other colors. You can also mix regular white or clear gesso with colored acrylics to get any shade you want, and I'm going to tell you how to mix it with watercolor crayons later in this post.

I'm working in a great notebook my friend Jen made me for a Facebook craft exchange. It's a salvaged hardy boys mystery cover filled with recycled pages. the paper is a variety of weights- I assume around 18# and 20# bond paper, computer paper and the like Its cot some printed stuff on one side. This paper needs the love of gesso to stand up the the abuse I'm going to put it through.

So the first thing I do is get out my gesso. I use liquitex, its not too heavy and isn't too wet. It works for me. I put it on with a rather soft brush so I get a nice thin coat. The brush I'm using is a soft old watercolor wash brush, a cheap one that I've previously abused the hell out of.

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thin coat done. Easy. I like to work on a bunch of pages at a time. I hate washing brushes. So I separate my pages with freezer paper or waxed if I have it, sheets of plastic, whatever I have on hand. I look at gesso'd and painted pages at this stage as part of the process, something to gain inspiration from.

Moving onto coloring the gesso. I grab my water color crayons and add a thin layer of crayon on, scribble it, no real pattern.

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Here you wet your brush and thin the gesso just slightly, so it will wet the crayon and mix it. Spread it around and add more gesso until you get the color you like and the texture you want.

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Coat a page with gesso, while still wet randomly drop a few drops of liquid latex paint (ore regular), just a few drops. And start brushing wildly around the page. Blend it in until you like it. I like to leave the areas of color unmixed. (I'm using making memories liquid acrylic. I snagged it on clearance with a set of sweet foam stamps. BUT it's not a bad liquid acrylic. and on clearance who can beat that price?)

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All of these pages were done in about a 45 minute stretch of time. Sometimes I force myself to sit down with my jo
urnal and just color pages. It's relaxing and after a tough day at work, I need to unwind but I'm not in the frame of mine to draw, sketch or journal. Something that doesn't require thought like this, it allows me to meditate on relaxation, listen to some good music and really just enjoy a few moments in my own head with out a worry. Because really, how can I f*ck up gesso? (that's a rhetorical question and I had several art professors who were really neurotic about how gesso is applied.)

Next installment: Paint on a page, sandpaper, and watercolor crayons

The Gift

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I'm a big believer in gifting especially when someone does something really good for me, I like to give that back in some way or another. I received a not totally random gift in the mail after doing something really simple. In the package were some not agreed upon previously gifts- including some moo cards (too cool) and a photograph. Very cool, all stuff I love. So I decided to gift that person with a journal. Not only is this person a photographer but they subscribe to the tenets of Everyday Matters- in that everyday you pick up a pen or pencil and draw, no matter how bad it is, you get in there and draw. So I figured what would be better than to send them a cool journal.

I don't know if the person is vegetarian or would be offended by leather, so I decided to go with my current crazy and stitched up a bastiano inspired cover. I received some jewelry in the envelope a few months ago and since I hoard anything packing related- envelopes, bubble wrap tyvek mailers etc to reuse, I found the perfect envelop in my stash. A small 5×9 inch envelop with some handwriting, labels and stamps. I started stitching with black thread. The pattern is like a doodle with the thread. To give it some stiffness I used a miss cut jotter cover. the needle passed through it with flying colors. Inside I stuffed a small jotter block. I trimmed it and added an elastic to hold it all closed. I'm pretty happy with it, I really like the cover but see that it's still just a  riff on the elegant lines of bastiano's covers.

It's a gift and not for sale. If you would like your own check out Bastiano's flickr stream (link below) for some of his super cool books and for links to his etsy site.

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Anyone know what the blue book on the back of the piano is? It's the complete works of a particular band….

One of a Kinds and not for Sales

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So I've been working on some one of a kind books and not for sales. The stitched covers I've been doing are inspired by a journal I purchased. I don't feel right selling them as they have been 100% inspired by Bastiano. Which if you haven't seen his work you should follow that there link and go to his flickr stream and check it out. It's not often I find a book artist whose works stops me dead. I follow most other book artists on flickr through a group. Bastiano and very few other I added to my flickr stream. Yes. I have obsessively followed him since I first saw his work and when I saw Sverige I had to have it. Currently. Sverige (I love that my new note book/ journal has it's own name squeee!) sits on my desk right now, where I just look at it. Yes seriously, right now I'm not ready to use him (it's a he) and I just look. I've got 2 other journals in the works before I even crack the cover.

I am inspired by the cover and the interior. But I don't want to riff on it too much, which is why I'm sticking to making anything similar as gifts, I WILL NOT be the a-hole who buys and reproduces and sells. that isn't cool. What I will do is pimp his stuff here. And I as a general rule don't do that.

The last journal that I was working on- the one made of magazine pages that was pissing me off (shall be named PO for PIssed off) and I had to rebind it? I finished it. The last few pages are like those in every journal I want to finish to rush to my next- rushed and hurried but… Done, completely. Filled to full, brimming with stupid hipster art and color, and shit glued to it's pages. Thanks to the rebinding the spine isn't straining too much and the newly waxed thread sits on the slippery tyvek spine much more easily than before.

Okay so for this weekend:

  • Crappy Pics of the gift journal- they will be here and facebook
  • More pics of the finished journal- most will be here only and NOT all on my flickr stream (video?)
  • Some pics of the Bastiano book
  • Some background photo tutorials 

I may take the evening off though. My allergies have been kicking my head around and I need a good long sleep, I may get home take my friday afternoon, after work nap and then go to bed, depending on how I feel. This weekend is supposed to be cooler and nicer here.

Earth III – Poetic Science – Bookworks by Daniel E. Kelm – Smith College Museum of Art

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Daniel E. Kelm. American, 1951-Photocopy transfer and spattered acrylic on Moriki tissue and Canson paper, with leather, stainless steel wire, paperboard, cloth, thread, and wire edge binding. Collection of the Kohler Art Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Video by Kevin Derose and Jeff Derose, One Match Films.>> problems playing video?

via www.smith.edu

Check out the videos on his other books too. Great ideas for how to add things into an art journal or to create a while new artjournal using hinges and pins

Working on it…

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Last night while toning some pages (that's what I call it after an art teacher who used to call coloring a canvas toning it) I decided to shoot some pictures of my process.

I did a few set ups:

  • plain gesso
  • gesso with watercolor crayons
  • gesso and acrylic
  • acrylic
  • acrylic and watercolor crayon
  • Gesso background with sharpie on top and gesso on sharpie

I'll put up a few posts with the pictures here, the pictures will only be here and NOT on my flickr stream. I"m going to shoot for Saturday to have those posts done and will post them starting then. I"ll do themm split up because they will be so image heavy.

Technique Video- Backgrounds

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I hate working on a plain white page, even when I'm drawing I tend to go through my sketchbooks and tone my pages with watercolor or gouache. I like how it changes the texture of he page and leaves me with something more interesting than plain white or cream. Youtuber ricefz uses ink pads and brushes to create a soft toned background for journaling.

A toned background can also help get you past that scary "white background"syndrome so many of us have. I hate working on a plain page. The white page can be so intimidating, especially if you buy a really nice handmade journal. Last night I was starting on a journal that my friend Jen made for me. (Hardy Boys Salvaged book cover!!!) I was exhausted so I went through the first half of the journal and gesso'd the pages. Gesso is not a must do step for me. I like it but it limits the pens I cna use on the page- I find it's very rough on nibs and ruins them fast. So I stick to sharpies on gesso. I then went through the book with some colored acrylic (making memories brand- purchased on clearance) and added a touch of color to some pages, planned out an entry on one page but really randomly added color to the pages. After taht I added a touch more color to the page with my watercolor crayons. Mostly I added those becuase the acrylic tends to stick if I don't add something a little waxy to the top of them. So now I have a super cool journal about half filled with simply colored pages, ready for me to write and glue and pain in.


Vacations Are Good

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For those of you who don't know, I've been on vacation. Right now I'm sitting in my father's house in 90 degree heat sweating my ass off. After the massive amounts of rain  the coast of Maine and most of the North East have had the heat is nice, just not something any of us are accustomed to feeling this year. Even this August, and the last few days in which I've been visiting have been abnormally cool. I don't mean for this post to become a meditation on the weather but more of a series of thoughts on vacations.

Every year I take a week in August off (from the DayJob) to visit my family and relax. One year we stayed at the camp on the lake without electricity. Another year we spent the time hiking the easier hikes in the area. Still another year I spent my week off working on the blueberry harvest. The last few years I've spent the time split between the farm, hiking and just spending time with my family. My family is aging and we see each other less and less, and the time in which we do spend together is more and more relaxing and less stressful.Also the pace of life in Maine is different, it always has been.

I say that as someone who grew up in Maine and was involved in many after school activities as well as having worked in Maine. The pace of life is different, I don't want to say slow, but it is something like that, but not with the implication of mediocrity that slow gives. There is less going on, because everything is so spread out and to decide to drive 2 hours to the large cinema or to drive 20 minutes to get Dunkin Donuts; it all takes planning. Forethought. Unlike here where I can walk to Dunks or call Papa Gino's and in 30 minutes a guy with pizza will arrive on my porch. No planning, nothing slowing me down, just doing it.

Planning makes you think, "Do I need that pizza?" "Do I want to drive the WHOLE way over to Dunks?" Nah I'll just  make a second cup here. Maine makes me think.'Thinking is good,even when relaxing on vacation. 

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