Spray Ink

with Heather Greenwood

There are many different kinds of spray ink. Most of them are water-soluble and will reconstitute when they get wet. There are also some that are permanent when dry. You can also make your own spray inks by adding water or airbrush medium to acrylic paints. The benefit of the permanent spray ink is that it doesn’t reconstitute when it gets wet. However, if you use water-soluble spray ink, you can seal it an acrylic sealer before adding other wet mediums on top.

Materials

• Mists

• Spray inks

• High-flow acrylic paint

• Spray bottle

• Paper (art journal, book paper, paper scraps)

• Gel medium

• Acrylic sealer

• Assorted stamps and stencils

• Brushes

• Palette knives

Misting & Reverse Misting

Step One A good start for a background is to mist over a stencil. To get a nice mist rather than a puddle, hold the bottle several inches above the stencil and move your arm across as you spray.

Step Two Once you have finished misting over the top, lift the stencil.

Step Three Press the excess mist on the stencil down on another piece of paper, like a stamp. This will give you a reverse misted impression.

Dipping & Tinting

Dipping

For a marbling effect, try dipping paper into puddles of spray ink.

Step One Spray ink onto a craft mat or palette paper. Move the colors around to blend them, but don’t completely mix them into one color.

Step Two Dip your paper into the puddle of spray ink and let dry.

Step Three You can dip the paper a few times (drying in between each dip) to create fun patterns.

Put a dab of gel medium on your palette, spray the gel with ink, and then mix it together. This is a great technique for adding details through a stencil. Tinting gel medium with spray ink keeps it a vibrant color, and gesso gives the gel a more muted or pastel color.

Stencil Resist

Using spray inks on an absorbent surface like paper will give you a different look than it will on a surface like gesso or gel medium. Gel medium will resist the ink and can easily be wiped away.

Step One Using a palette knife, add gel medium through a stencil and let dry.

Step Two Once dry, spray ink over your paper and wipe away the excess to reveal the stencil resist.

Stamping & Painting

Stamping

Using spray inks is a great way to get a watercolor look with stamps. This technique works really well with foam or rubber stamps that cover a large surface area.

Spray some ink on your palette, dip your stamp into it, and stamp it down on your paper.