I think I found my ink painting approach

 

On Thursday I continued my ink painting experimentation with Megan. I wanted to test using micro spray bottles to apply the top coat to test works.

 See the starting test sketches below. The two on the left are on watercolour paper and the one on the right is on Yupo paper.

After applying both alcohol and acrylic ink to pencil sketches, including four sketches of dandelion seed heads, I have come to the conclusion that micro spraying my blue alcohol ink mix (shadow grey and sapphire blue) and standard shadow grey alcohol ink over pencil sketches on Yupo paper is the way to go for me.  In the opening photo the top left image shows what happens when you apply two coats of alcohol ink; and the top right shows the result of cool grey acrylic ink.

The opening photo shows the comparison of the outcome of different ink and spray techniques. The photo below shows the micro spray bottles Megan sourced - they hold about 3-5ml of ink and give a fine fairly even spray.

The following photo shows the result of spraying both alcohol ink and acrylic ink over graphite watercolour pencil sketches on water colour paper. 

The acrylic ink on the flower seed heads (right) demonstrates that the acrylic ink is too opaque. The alcohol ink sprayed on the stone sketch resulted in a very flat image.

Some other process-progress photos follow. I did two more sketches of seed heads on white and translucent Yupo and then sprayed with my blue shadow mix. The white Yupo paper gave a clearer result; whereas the translucent paper (left)  resulted in some spotting texture - both good outcomes.

Some reflections-conclusions include:

Yupo paper is best - both translucent and white work. Always clean the yupo paper with clear alcohol before doing base sketches and don't get fingers on the paper after cleaning. One coat of alcohol ink works best. If you apply two coats the second coat simply reactivates the base coat and the ink runs and form holes or patches - but if that is what you want go for two coats. Standard graphite pencils are best for doing the base sketch - although a black sharpie is good for foreground work. Alcohol ink top coat results in a work that has a sheen, depth, texture and a bit of mystery.

I think the approach I will choose (yupo paper, pencil sketch and one coat of alcohol ink) is good for me as I want to create moody pieces with life and a sheen.