How to make alcohol ink

Through the years I've purchase a variety of inks to use in my art practice from alcohol to tar and water based inks. The traditional India ink with its dark rich blacks work wonderfully for calligraphy and I've even used it in a diluted form to create monochromatic art work - but its costly if you use much of it and making alcohol ink is fairly easy. 

Although there is a wonderful variety of colors of readymade inks I wanted to experiment with additional colors. That's when I started by making my own handmade alcohol inks. They were inexpensive and I've found I use them in my daily practice of making art. I find that I'm more inclined to produce work when I can start the creative process by simply spraying my paper or canvas with a little ink. Its like a Rorschach test where you ask "what does this look like" and in my case my imagination is free to go with it. It also doesn't hurt that I have a destination in mind and it's usually associated with aquatic and ocean themes.

What You Need:

• Crayola, Sharpies, Bic Mark or off brand Permanent Markers found at dollar stores

• Denatured or rubbing alcohol at 99% (the higher the percentage of alcohol the better)

• Container to hold the mixtures as well as a small glass Jar in which to create the mixture (find at dollar stores.

• Plastic spray bottles or dropper bottles to store your ink in

• X-acto knife or sharp scissors

• Pliers

• Plastic sheet, newspaper or other material to cover the work surface

To make the alcohol inks:

• Using needle nose pliers pry the nib tip from the marker. Wear gloves as the dye can stain your fingers. Pry the nib carefully and make sure to keep the tip pointed upward as not to spill the contents. Pour the contents into one of the small containers or bottles and add the felt tip as well (its full of ink). Add equal amount of the alcohol and shake up the mixture and voi·la - there is). I've also used the small amount of left over ink from a Espson ink printer cartridge - a bit messy to take apart but the ink is intense.

• If getting the nib tip out of the marker if difficult use an xacto knife to cut the tip off the marker. I like to use a sheet of plastic in case any dribbles out and then I can scoop it up into the bottle using a spatula.

This ink is a good substitute for some of the pricer inks found at craft stores and depending on the color can be quite brilliant and can saturate the substrate very nicely. Some of my most brilliant pinks came form permanent markers I found at the dollar store and cut apart to make ink.