pigment ink influenced my work
The power of pigment ink gave Red Playground 8 and 9 a dynamic stain-glass appearance, which ameliorated the strength of the pointers located in all four quadrants of the work. Therefore, I avoided the confrontational appearance found in earlier partner work, ‘Red Playground, Finish what you started’.
pigment ink clogging
Soon, the pigment pens clogged from the powdery excess left from dried yellow Inktense which had been thickly applied the day before.
Because I’d encountered this problem before, I had taken care to fully dissolve the Inktense block in water before I applied it. Even though I used Inktense to make many works from my “Out of Hand” series, I’d need to learn more about its characteristics by running solvency tests.
All of my .4mm pigment ink pens became clogged, so I changed to a size .6mm. Probably the extra ink flow resolved the problem
time consuming
The pigment ink gave vibrance to the Inktense designs, while making them appear more grounded. In the second work blue and yellow shapes in the upper right quadrant are almost confrontational, relating to ‘Red Playground 8’ and the earlier ‘Red Playground – Finish what you started’.
‘Red Playground 9’ now reminds me of a Tiffany-inspired design, and required another hour to complete. Whew!
Outlining every one of the small shapes of ‘Red Playground 8’ consumed over an hour. ‘Red Playground 9’ required another another hour. Whew!!
pigment ink is worth it!
Before adding pigment ink both works had a gentle batik feel, however I like the radiance given them by the pigment ink. Pigment ink as an art medium continues prove itself as I seek other ways to use it.
I chose to fill in the two bars at the top and bottom of both pieces. Originally I thought they could serve as a unifying influence between ‘Red Playground 8’ and ‘Red Playground 9’. With the overall strength of chroma of the works they would simply appear unfinished.
what's next
Both pieces, like their companion work, ‘Red Playground-Finish what you started’, are very vibrant. Their rough texture prevents me from giving them three-dimensional form. So, I’ve discovered a new way to express dimensionality. Learn more about that by clicking the next blogpost below.
making Red Playground 8 and 9
I’m creating 52 works by May 2024. When Red Playground 8 and 9 are complete, I will have finished 3 of the my target of 52 works.
