Ink on Canvas Painting Tutorial

This post is dedicated to my latest abstract painting, "Fractured Sunset". It is acrylic and India ink on gallery profile canvas, 15 x 30 inches. 

Inspiration for this piece came while I was looking at a similar piece I did last year using alcohol ink on mirror with a resin topcoat. It's a favorite of mine, but rather heavy and I have ventured away from resin for several reasons (mainly the cost and tedious application process). So, I decided to create a painting that had the same feel using ink on canvas. 

Materials

• Liquitex acrylic inks
• Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay India inks
• white Liquitex Basics acrylic paint
• isopropyl rubbing alcohol (91%)
• water

Process

The first thing I did was thin down my white paint to a milk-like consistency (but a little thicker than ink) by adding water in small intervals, mixing well each time. This process is much easier when the paint and water are gradually mixed little-by-little, otherwise you may get chunks of unmixed paint on the canvas.

After mixing my white paint, I poured it all straight on the canvas, making sure to cover the entire surface. This base layer makes it easier for the ink to spread around.

Next I dropped ink all over the canvas, keeping in mind the gradient of colors I wanted, and spread the colors around by tilting the canvas and blowing on it (super high-tech I know) until the canvas was covered in ink. 

Once I was happy with the color gradient, I dipped an old paintbrush into isopropyl alcohol and flicked it over the wet painting. The spots where the alcohol landed exposed the canvas which you can see in the photo below. This technique create depth, much like using alcohol in a watercolor painting. 

Exposed canvas after addition of alcohol

After patiently waiting a few hours for the painting to dry, I added white lines to mimic natural fractures using a fine tip applicator bottle filled with white paint. This is a technique I use to embellish the details I love in the previous layer and minimize those that I don't.

When I add these details I also think about where I want the viewer's eyes to go as they look at the piece. For example, in this painting I used the lines to break up the middle blue and purple areas into smaller sections. This makes that section appear more dense and grounded  than the surrounding teal and red areas, which means the viewer's attention will be drawn to the center of the painting as opposed to the edges. 

Middle section with high concentration of white lines

When dried, I sprayed the painting with a few layers of varnish and photographed it.

That's it! I hope you found this post helpful. You can view more photos of "Fractured Sunset" and purchase it here: http://sabrinaeptonart.bigcartel.com/product/fractured-sunset . I'll be doing another post soon where I focus on how I add line details so stay tuned for that. In the meantime please comment any questions you have about my process and subscribe using the link at the top of this page to see future posts!