Course Description

Have you ever looked at a flower or plant in your neighbourhood and wondered what kind of color could be extracted from its bright petals? Or marvelled at your own hands, marked with beet juice or blackberry stains, and thought “How could I use this color in my own art?”

Yet, the thought of jumping into natural ink making may have seemed too complicated to get started. Maybe you already enjoy more traditional materials such as acrylic inks and watercolors and the idea of combining them all together is a bit overwhelming?

Well, here’s the thing – I’ve been there and I’m excited to share what I’ve discovered!

Not only will I be demonstrating a variety of natural ink recipes and techniques- but also my approach as to how I use them alongside my favorite traditional mixed media mediums: acrylic inks and watercolors. At times, only touches of natural inks will be used as lightfastness and color shifting can be an issue. Other times we will go all in and play with abstract forms and let the natural inks’ alchemic properties take the lead.

We will also break out the gelli plate and create a stockpile of collage papers with simple motifs and patterns that can be used as focal points in future mixed media pieces. Some of these will be incorporated alongside touches of abstract calligraphy (asemic writing) to pull together a series of airy, abstract, “sky”scapes on paper. These mixed media triptych projects will combine watercolors, acrylic inks and touches of botanical inks made throughout the course.

I look forward to you joining me on this artistic journey that combines natural ink making and mixed media.

So come on! Let’s get our hands dirty, connect with nature – and start making ink!

Techniques Taught in this Course

• Exploring natural ink making methods and processes
• Creating natural inks from flowers, vegetables and kitchen scraps
• Unconventional watercolor and ink techniques
• Cultivating a “What if?” approach to art making
• Connecting with your local landscape for inspiration and materials
• Using motifs and patterns in your work
• Embracing chaos and unleashing unexpected beauty in your process
• Creating transparent layers with gelli prints
• Working in a series
• Incorporating collage elements and metallic leaf
• Creating balanced compositions, flow and cohesiveness in diptychs and triptychs
• Incorporating natural inks with your mixed media pieces
• Creating color swatches and samples for palettes
• Building up layers and washes with watercolors and inks