Lady Oriole
Lady Oriole
About this painting:
Lady Oriole is an avian sampler of ink painting techniques for spontaneity and control. and Project #2 in the 20 Projects for Alcohol Inks book – perfect for a techniques review!
The background was created by ink flow and air-blown techniques. The diagram at top details how the techniques for control were included in the creation of the painting.
- Partially masked drawing
- Lifting to clean up the masking and later on to add detail and highlight the bird
- Brushwork: Drop and Guide, Brush and Ink, and Dry Brush
- Alcohol Ink Markers and the Fine-tipped Pen
While only still photos were taken during the painting process, our video explains the application of the various techniques.
Challenge Level: ✮✮✰
Why: As a sampler, this piece has a large variety of techniques to practice. One of the challenges is getting the bird to show up against the inky, air-blown background
Predominant technique: This is a sampler of all of the techniques for control – lifting, masking and direct painting. The background is a forest created by air-blown effects.
Inks: Meadow, Bottle, Espresso, Ginger, Honeycomb, Sunset Orange
Reference image: lost…feel free to use my painting as a reference image or find any image of a bird
Project Steps:
- Begin with a light sketch of the bird in pencil on Yupo
- Use a partial masking technique to mask key areas of the bird
- After the masking fluid is fully dry, drop forest colored inks on the paper and use air-blown effects to complete the background
- After the ink is dry, remove the masking fluid
- Use the brush and alcohol to blend in the masked areas. Some areas will be toned and others such as the wing left white
- Lift background ink from areas that will be inked in a different color
- Use the drop and guide method for an intense orange passage of ink for the breast
- Paint in the majority of the bird with the brush and ink dispensed in to the welled palette
- Add details such as the beak and eye with the fine-tipped black, white, and sepia pens
- Use the alcohol ink markers for the tail (note: this usage is for the sampler – it would work just as well to use the brush and bottled ink for this step)
- Use the dry brush method to add tiny dots and lines
- To differentiate the bird from the background, lift ink from the background using the brush and alcohol following the patterns of the ink flow
- Further refine the painting by lifting details with the brush and alcohol
Video Notes
This video is a narrated compilation of still photos
Karen Walker Art 