The use of acrylic ink in your artwor with spray misters and aquabrush

Mixed Media Art Questions for Milliande

Hi, Milliande.

I am in the process of loading up my mini mister and aqua brush with acrylic ink as seen in your art journaling videos especially the first few days of 2010.

I think that one of them was diluted with a bit of water and now I do not see the reference to it now.

So I just want to know if I need to add some water to the acrylic ink into the above mentioned holders. Just need a little guidance. I am very excited to start trying some of your amazing techniques.

Thank you so much, Heather Earnhart



Mixed Media Art Questions answered by Milliande
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Hi, I am glad you like my art journal videos .. and get inspired

~ I use several different approaches to working with mini misters and the aqua brush

~ I often use on color of acrylic ink and then dilute it with water in different proportions..that gives me the same hue of color but in different strengths which can be very useful for shading techniques

~ I have several different aqua brushes that I fill with different colours and different strengths ..usually my favourite hues and a dark paynes grey

~ as for the mini mister... I use a variety of inks to fill various misters with ink or dilutions of reinkers with water

~ some of my favourite combinations are Tim Holtz distress inks... just one drop of this thick ink diluted with water gives a nice consistency for spraying and stencilling

~ I also like using adirondack dye ink reinkers... those can also easily be mixed to obtain different hues..eg one drop of this colour and one drop of another ..then test out how much water to add to give a strength that is pleasing to you

~ the main thing with the spritzer inks is to watch out that one does not spray to closely ..as the watery inks can easily seep through paper ... for my art journal I use a paper that can withstand water media and that works well ...

~ I have tried to use acrylic inks in misters too with varying success.. the heavily pigmented inks like white seem to clog up the nozzle fairly quickly ..a little soak in hot water often helps... the more coloured ink again can be diluted to varying degrees to obtain different hues

~ Above all --it is a little bit of playtime to get it right and suited to your mixed media surface.. be it paper or canvas or fabric :-)

Hope this helps
...milliande :-)