Blogging A to Z: The Letter i

April is here!! It's time for daily blogging, lots of visitors and meeting new friends.  In other words, time for the Blogging A to Z challenge hosted by Arlee Bird and his team of minions.  Thousands of other bloggers from all over the world participate in this blog hop each year, and anyone may join in as long as they blog each day during the month of April, (except Sundays) the blog posts correspond to the appropriate letter for that day, and they sign up on the link list. Simple!

One of the tools in the mixed-media artist's arsenal is ink. It comes in such an amazing array of colors and a wide variety of styles that it is one of the more versatile mediums available.  Most people are familiar with ink pens.  Of course these are very important for art, especially drawing.  Whether using gel pens or markers, I find myself reaching for a pen for almost every project, and I am not very good at drawing!  Anyone can draw a circle, though, and I draw those a lot. :)

In addition to pens and markers, there are lots of varieties of bottled ink--acrylic, carbon, India Ink... Dick Blick has dozens of varieties for sale.  I have a small collection of bottled inks by Windsor & Newton, FW, Higgins and Clearsnap's Smooch and Aladine Izink, which are my favorites because of the pearlized finish. These can be dripped or painted on, as well as used with a dip pen.

Of course there are also ink pads, which come in Dye ink, Archival Ink, Distress Ink, Pigment Ink... and all the refills, which can not only replenish the pads, but used full strength or watered down to dip or spray or drop and splatter.  Some markers are refillable, such as Copic and Spectrum Noir which means that the refills are another source for ink colors to apply in any of those ways.

I have already discussed Alcohol Ink in my Letter A post, but it is so fun to use!

The last section of inks I want to highlight is the spray.  Several brands of spray inks are readily available, many by Ranger, Inc., but there are other manufacturers as well; Lindy's Stamp Gang, Tattered Angels, etc. Some of the sprays are infused with minerals to give them a shimmery look. Of course those are my personal favorites, but I am happy with any source of color, whether it shines or not!

Here is an example of an Artist Trading Card I made with a wide variety of inks.

I stamped with archival ink, sprayed with Adirondack, SEI and Dylusions spray ink, drew with a gel pen, and dripped IZink which I then sprayed with pressurized air to spread.

And here are a few more examples of some work made mostly with ink.

Next time you look at any printed page, whether in a magazine, a newspaper, or a letter, remember that at some point ink was applied to it in some manner.  We take it for granted, but ink is an important part of our lives every day!  Thanks for stopping by today, and if you'd like to leave a comment, I would be so happy! :)