Buy Couture Creations Alcohol Ink Art Supplies Online in Australia
Fun to play with and highly expressive, Couture Creations Alcohol Inks are a high-quality, alcohol-based ink that’s known for its vibrancy of colour, fast-drying capabilities, and extreme versatility. As these inks are transparent, they’re great for layering colours, and can create gorgeous marble-like effects on a range of surfaces.
Here are some things you might want to know about getting started with alcohol ink painting.
What Supplies Do You Need for Alcohol Ink Painting?
Getting started with alcohol ink is relatively easy, as you don’t need many supplies beyond a surface to paint on and the inks themselves. Here are the things we recommend for the best experience:
- Alcohol inks: we offer three different types of Couture Creations Alcohol Ink, including their standard range, Pearl, and Glitter Accents
- Blending Solution: used for blending, removing, and lightening alcohol ink colours, as well as cleaning accessories
- Non-porous surfaces: alcohol inks are very watery, so they should be used on hard surfaces as they tend to absorb right into porous materials
- Plastic droppers/ pipettes: for precise, ‘drop’ techniques
- Blending brushes: for blending and moving the ink around the surface
- Alcohol ink carry case: for the storage of your ever-expanding alcohol ink collection
For the first time user, you might want to consider starting off with one of Couture Creations’ Alcohol Ink Starter Kits. This is a cost-effective way of getting pretty much everything you need to give alcohol ink painting a try so that you can decide whether it’s right for you.
What Surfaces are Best for Alcohol Ink?
Alcohol ink can be used on pretty much any non-porous surface, so it’s fun to experiment. Here are some surfaces that we recommend for the best effects.
- Yupo paper
- Glass
- Ceramic tiles
- Plastic
- Metal
- Varnished wood
- Epoxy resin (can be dropped into the solution prior to drying)
How to Use Alcohol Ink
There are a range of techniques that you can try when learning how to use alcohol ink, and what works best will often depend on your own personal preferences. You may want to try combining alcohol ink techniques to create a more diverse and exciting piece.
Drop Technique
In this alcohol ink technique, all you need to do is drop ink onto your surface (typically using a pipette) and watch the colours interact. This can be great for creating colourful, abstract pieces.
A similar but slightly more advanced technique, try wetting a sheet of Yupo paper with Blending Solution, ensuring that the solution spreads across the entire surface of the paper. You can then apply drops of different alcohol ink colours and tilt the paper. This will allow you to direct the flow of ink while encouraging colours to spread, overlap, and blend.
Brushing Alcohol Ink
Alcohol ink bears a number of similarities to watercolour paint, which is why you can use similar techniques when working with it. With a fine brush you can create finer details, while a broad brush could be used to create colour washes. You can even play with coarser brushes to create more textural effects.
Just be sure to keep your eye on drying times, as dried ink can leave a patchy or scratchy effect.
Air Manipulation
You can use a variety of different tools to manipulate the direction of ink flow. These include:
- Air through a straw
- Blow Dryer
- Heat gun
- Air compressor
- Compressed air in a can
Please note: If you choose to use the straw technique, be sure to only blow out. Never breathe in through the straw as you’ll be inhaling those unhealthy alcohol fumes.
Show Us What You’ve Got!
We’re passionate about all things art and craft, and we love seeing what our amazing customers are able to do with our products. So, if you’ve made something fabulous with your Couture Creations Alcohol Ink supplies, we want to see it!
Don’t forget to tag @riotartandcraft on your alcohol ink creations when posting on Instagram so we can appreciate your work.