Wild Ink Challenge / Week 3
Week 3
Now it’s time to PAINT! It’s finally time to get down and CREATE. I love every step of this process but my most favorite is putting ink to paper and seeing what happens:) What I have found with working with inks is that less really is more. I don’t work the inks too much- when that happens I usually end with a pile of brown poo. The beauty of this process is really in the leting go. Letting go was so freaking hard for me when I started. I wanted to control EVERYTHING in this process. But the more I worked the inks, the more I manipulated where they went, the more I forced the inks to do what I wanted them to do, the uglier the painting got. And what I noticed over time, is if I just let go, the beauty, the magic creates itself. It’s so much like life, don’t you think? The more we strive, and hustle, grind, and force what we want, often times the worse the results tend to be. So use these next 2 weeks to just let go. It may take a few days to develop this, but keep at it. This challenge isn’t about creating a masterpiece. You may not even walk away with a piece of art you’d like to hang on the wall, but you will come out of this with more peace, feeling more connected to yourself, your intuition, and to nature.
*You’ll want a workspace to work on this week. I work in my Grandma’s old secretary, she was an artist as well, so I like to think she would be happy I’m using her furniture in this way. Be sure to protect any surface from ink or water spills. Also have a cup of water and paper towels handy to clean up any spills. Too much liquid on the paper could cause it to run and make a mess. Watercolor paper is best for this process. Buy whatever brand is within your budget. I like to buy the larger pads of paper and cut them down to size. I like my photography art BIG, but my ink works small, go figure.
Your Assignments for this week:
Put ink to paper. Experiment. My personal go-to method is to wet the watercolor paper first, then apply the ink into the puddle, allowing the inks to disperse into the water as they see fit and then allowing the piece to dry once I have added as much ink as my intuition tells me is enough. Depending on how concentrated your inks got, a little ink can go a long way.
Play. Try using 2 colors at a time, then 3, then 4, and so on until you’ve used all the colors you’ve created into one piece.
Observe. What is your favorite color combo? How do the different inks mix with one another? Are there any natural textures in the dried ink? Notice if you struggled in the letting go aspect. How did that piece turn out? ‘Better’ or ‘worse’ if you tried to control the outcome too much?
Remember to relax + let go. No overthinking. Just put ink to paper. There is no right or wrong way. You don’t need to share any of your pieces with anyone, much like writing in a journal, this can be a personal experience.
Feel free to try different brushes + techniques in applying water and/or ink to paper.
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