Moving the Ink Around

There are pros and cons to the way in which these inks migrate and bleed.  The ink used to create the leaf pattern below is only one color, but as it was manipulated and moved using the flat side of a drinking straw in a sawing motion; the various pigments separated out at different rates. 

Alcohol ink manipulated with a drinking straw on YUPO.

The separation patterns make me think of chromatography testing where I was deliberately trying to see which color molecules were the lightest and which were the heaviest.  The testing strips I used were placed vertically in a variety of solutions, with the hope of breaking down the molecules within the ink, paint, pigment, etc. being tested to better see it's components.  The highly fragrant Mr. Sketch markers provided the very best separation show using this chromatography method.  Black, in particular, contained almost every color in the rainbow, and the smallest of the molecules appeared to be tied to the yellow pigment which traveled the farthest distance up the chroma paper.

If I were going to try to achieve the color breakdown results evidenced in the leaves above, I would invest some time to test all of the alcohol inks to see how they deconstruct.  Not only would it be helpful to construct a drying schedule, it would also be beneficial when placing certain colors next to or on top of one another for the purpose of creating new colors.  Once again, it is not likely that I will invest this time in investigation because alcohol inks are not destined to be my medium of choice.

Alcohol ink on YUPO, with additional script brush work added.

While everything was still at least a little wet, I went back in and very quickly added leaf vein lines for some added texture and motion.  The color separation remained, but I was pleased that the vein lines did not bleed out and create multiple blobs on blobs - not sure why that happened.....perhaps the underlying ink was not as wet as I thought.  I am not as familiar with the YUPO so perhaps I assumed it stayed wet longer than it really does because it does NOT appear to be absorbing anything.  Inks "floating" on the surface just sit there and the alcohol evaporates.  It is possible to scrape the pigment off of the surface when it appears to be dry - an important consideration for protection of the finished product.  I also do not know how color-fast the alcohol ink colors are.....I'll see what a little research can uncover.

Alcohol inks on YUPO.  91% alcohol used to create petal veins and pollin.

 I like the layered effect of the magenta petals and the way that the yellow ink (which was applied last,) pushed all of the other colors out of the way..  I used a drinking straw to push all of the ink around, except for the leafy green at the base, and would like to experiment more with that.  I have also been thinking about masking fluid to create more defined edges - not sure that would be a good thing.......