Floating Ink

I'm currently staying at a Marriott hotel a bit outside of Chicago. I was hoping to get a bit of sightseeing done, but its extremely cold outside and I have been stuck in bed with a high fever for most of the week. However, I did spend some time playing around with some colored inks in the bathroom sink.

There is nothing new about taking pictures of ink in water, but I was quite surprised at the results I was able to achieve under bad lighting in the bathroom with one hand holding the camera and the other the ink.

Ink floating in water

Later I fetched a couple of buckets of ice to try taking some pictures of ice with ink dripped on it. I was hoping the ink would flow smoothly around the ice, creating a stunning visual of colors being reflected and refracted in the ice. Instead, the porous surface of the ice from the machine here at the hotel, made the ink collect itself in little lumps giving it an almost dirty look.

Ink dripped on ice

The inks I used for these experiments are from Sennelier. I suspect you could get similar result with just about any kind of inks, however the higher the viscosity of the ink, the more easier it will probably be to get good pictures of it before it completely blends with the water. You might also successfully be able to add some thickening agent to the water before adding the ink :-)

The Big Sellout!

I have never been unwilling to sell my art, but I haven't exactly tried to sell it either. Somehow, it has always felt like it wasn't quite ready. Lately however, I have been focusing very hard on a single style based on ink and watercolors. I have become so happy with the results that I have decided to start actively selling them.

There are many places on the web that will allow you to sell your art in an easy way. I ended up choosing etsy.com which is a super easy to use system for setting up your own store to sell handmade products. You can find my store at pamandkasper.etsy.com. Currently the store features a little selection of my paintings along with some cheaper aceo cards and a variety of handmade products by my wife. If there is any thing specific you would be interested in seing in the store, drop me an email at kapper@narcissisme.dk.

Ink and watercolor pastels

I have been playing around with a combination of dip pen ink and water soluble pastels for the past couple of months. It's very close to the process I used for plain ink and watercolor, but I have really come to like the more dirty colors I can achieve with the pastels. I will be writing more about the process in the future, but for now I have uploaded a small video of me painting a picture using this technique.... enjoy :-)