Alcohol Ink Taster Session With Robyn Parker-Love

We have stocked Piῆata alcohol inks for some time now and Robyn has already taught a workshop in the inks last year. Although I’ve seen lots of Robyn’s artwork I was never quite sure how to use the inks myself.

We had a little play with them when we first received them in store, teaching ourselves using Youtube but I have always wanted to see how Robyn creates her amazing pieces of art.

We had a free taster session with Robyn on Saturday 19th January and as there was a spare space and it was my day off I decided to come along and finally be taught how to correctly use the inks.

The essential items for using Piῆata alcohol inks are the inks themselves, some Yupo paper which is a paper made of synthetic materials and it is completely waterproof and rubbing alcohol which is readily available online.

You can use straws and tissues to help create images but for the basic materials you do not need much, it is just a bit of an investment as the paper and inks are not cheap to buy as they are artist quality materials, however they do go a long way.

Alcohol Inks Workshop
Alcohol Inks Workshop

It was really great to be able to have a play around with the materials with Robyn’s guidance. Robyn demonstrated using the inks at first and explained a bit about them.

The Piῆata inks are so vibrant and can be used on any non porous surface – glass, metal or ceramic – so are really versatile. We had small pieces of the Yupo paper to test the inks on and used pipettes to drip the rubbing alcohol over the top of the ink. As we did not have any straws to hand we just blew over the Yupo paper and spread the ink out that way.

It is a very organic way of making artwork as the ink constantly spreads so the artwork is ever changing, which makes Robyn’s artwork where she draws animals and portraits in the inks even more impressive.

Roybn told us that the silver and gold inks have bits of metal pigment in them that spread over the other inks or paper once you use it. It’s a beautiful effect and reminds me quite a bit of the Pébéo Prisme and Moon paints. The white ink is opaque and really changes the colour of the inks when added to them.

You soon learn that less is more with the inks as a tiny bit will spread far with the rubbing alcohol. You can also rework the image if you end up not liking what you have, by adding more rubbing alcohol and slowly taking away the ink.

The inks are not affected by water but will re-wet themselves with rubbing alcohol so once a piece is finished you must be careful not to get any rubbing alcohol on it.

We discussed the various ways of fixing the inks once finished and Robyn spoke about resin being one way to cover the inks and seal them. Sadly the inks are not very lightfast, which is a shame.

Robyn recommended an electric eraser as the best thing to use to take all the ink off the paper, so although it is perhaps a little time consuming if you have a large area to remove, for cleaning up the edges of a picture it is really useful.

We experimented using Promarkers, Copic markers and even Brusho with the inks.

Brusho did not work as well with the inks as it is water-soluble and the rubbing alcohol did not do anything to the Brusho, however, adding it into the ink worked better. I would not really recommend them as a combo.

The Promarkers, Copic markers and Brush markers work well with the inks as they are also alcohol based.

Robyn filled up some spritzer bottles with rubbing alcohol and spritzing the paper with this made for a brilliant effect. The images below are of the same piece; I just reworked it several times and then spritzed it with alcohol.

It was such a fun two hours spent with Robyn and I learnt a lot, which is great as I am now able to pass on that knowledge to customers.

A few other staff members were able to pop up during the day and have a quick play too so we are better informed.

I would highly recommend coming to a taster session for many reasons, it is a brilliant way to test out a product that you have not tried before committing to buying it.

Attending eases you into the workshop format which is good if you are unsure about attending a full days course and it helps you get to know the tutor and their style of working.

We are hoping to hold a few more taster sessions throughout the year as have had great feedback from customers about them.