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Essential Supplies
HAVING A NICE RANGE OF ART SUPPLIES on hand is helpful when experimenting with a new medium, but what’s great about working with alcohol ink is that the basics are just that—basic! The investment is minimal and the results are magical. All you need is alcohol ink, isopropyl alcohol, and a surface on which to start creating. That said, to become fluent in this exciting medium and experiment with the techniques and projects I’ve laid out for you, I highly recommend purchasing all the extra supplies. Most of the extras are fairly basic, and you may already have them in your art supply stash.
Alcohol Inks
Alcohol ink is a translucent, acid-free, highly pigmented fluid medium intended for applying to a nonporous surface. Alcohol ink is made of dye and alcohol; the alcohol is what gives the dye its fluid nature, and the alcohol evaporates as the dye dries. The textures, color palettes, and compositions you can easily achieve are absolutely second to none, resulting in an extremely addictive medium! Not only can you create stunning effects with it, but the versatility is an incredible quality as well. When working with alcohol ink, you have its ability to reactivate dry paintings and completely rework or fix mistakes without difficulty.
Alcohol ink is available in dropper bottles for easy application directly from the bottle onto your surface. With such a broad color offering, the palettes you can create are limitless. With alcohol ink quickly gaining popularity, more and more local art stores are beginning to carry larger selections; however, at the moment the big online art companies offer the largest alcohol ink options in one place. I use three alcohol ink brands: Brea Reese, Tim Holtz, and Copic Various Refills. I prefer these brands, but I encourage you to experiment with all varieties and discover your own favorites. Don’t feel like you have to stick to one brand either; I often paint one project using all three brands.
One of the best qualities of alcohol ink is that most colors let you reactivate the medium to rework a piece. Knowing which colors are more likely to let you rework them is helpful to know and plan for before you start painting. As you experiment with different alcohol ink brands and colors, you will notice a difference in the ratio of alcohol to dye in each bottle. Some colors have a higher concentration of isopropyl alcohol or dye than others; you’ll notice this simply by how much your alcohol ink moves on its own straight out of the bottle as it’s applied to a surface. If the alcohol ink has a higher dye concentration, it’s easier to reactivate and rework because there’s dye or color available to move around your surface. Alternatively, if there’s a higher ratio of alcohol than dye, reactivating the color and reworking it is a little harder. Instead of trying to rework those colors, I recommend applying more alcohol ink directly from the bottle to the portion of your project where you want a greater concentration of color.
ALCOHOL INK BRANDS | Brea Reese |
RANGE OF COLORS | 25 |
PACKS | 9 packs of three |
SIZE | 0.68 ounce (20 ml) |
NOTES | Easily found at your local art and craft stores, it can be purchased in packs of three, making it easy to have a harmonious color palette right out of the box. |
AVAILABLE IN METALLIC MIXATIVES | Yes |
ALCOHOL INK BRANDS | Copic Various Ink Refills |
RANGE OF COLORS | 358 |
PACKS | 0 |
SIZE | 0.85 ounce (25.13 ml) |
NOTES | Copic has the largest color range and a very helpful printout of all the colors on their website. |
AVAILABLE IN METALLIC MIXATIVES | No |
ALCOHOL INK BRANDS | Jacquard Alcohol Ink Pinata Color |
RANGE OF COLORS | 27 |
PACKS | 2 |
SIZE | 1/2 fl ounce (14.79 ml) select colors are available in 4 fl ounce (118.29 ml) and ... |
