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
For a marbling effect, try dipping paper into puddles of spray ink.
Make spray inks permanent by mixing them with gel medium or gesso.
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.
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 inks are similar to watercolor. You can dip paintbrushes into the ink to paint backgrounds, script words, stems for flowers, etc. For bigger brushes that don’t fit in the spray bottle, you can spray the ink directly onto your palette.