Pigments of Your Imagination: Creating With Alcohol Inks Now Released

I've been playing with alcohol inks this year, and Pigments of Your Imagination: Creating With Alcohol Inks by Cathy Taylor has been a great resource.  Alcohol ink is a relatively new fine art medium, and there aren't many books on the subject.  (I could only find two on Amazon).  Internet videos have their place, but wading through them all is time consuming and there is no way to guarantee their quality or appropriateness for your learning level or project.  I prefer books for this type of learning.

Unfortunately, I could only obtain an electronic review copy, and this publication format is not ideal for an art book, in my opinion.  However, I spent enough time with the book to give it a high recommendation for those interested in trying alcohol ink.  The art in this book is plentiful, large, and absolutely beautiful and I hope the print quality of the book is high enough to show it off.  It is very inspiring stuff.

My favorite parts of this book are the first two chapters:  Simply Start and Special Effects.  In Simply Start, Taylor shows eleven different basic techniques for applying and moving alcohol inks.  I could happily play with just these eleven for months!  In Special Effects eight more effects are demonstrated with a few more advanced supplies (mediums, laminate, etc.).

Chapters 3 and 4 provide more detailed instructions on how to do landscapes, and flora and fauna-scapes.  These chapters will appeal to those who like to learn by following step by step instructions for specific projects.

Most of these first projects are done on Yupo paper, and then Chapter 5 moves on to instructions and projects for using alcohol ink on fabric:  batik, madras, marbling and tie-dye, for example.  Chapter 6 covers additional surfaces like alcohol skins, metals, ceramic tiles and glass.  It also delves into mixed media collage, marbling, and monoprinting.  I'll definitely be trying some of these too!

In addition to all of the beautiful pictures throughout the book, a nine page art gallery is included at the end.  All in all, this is a most inspiring publication that will provide hours of fun!  I'll be dipping into this for many months, I can tell.