An example of a colour swatch

Fiona Phipps discovers the benefits of adding Liquitex Acrylic Inks to her repertoire.

First impressions

I have been given the opportunity to review and give my impressions of the Liquitex (professional) Acrylic Inks, which are their essentials range. I hope you find it informative, helpful and maybe even inspiring.

Acrylic inks are a medium that I am unfamiliar with so have no preconceptions of their properties, behaviour and overall qualities - hopefully that's a good thing for a review!

My first impression of the product was the vibrant range of colours in the essential inks, which include; yellow azo, napthol crimson, phthalocyanine blue, (green shade), transparent raw umber, carbon black and titanium white.

This range of colours wouldn’t have been my first choice but I was looking forward to seeing, and adapting this range in a practical way.

Key features

The packaging:

• The outer box is easy to open.
• The bottles have a good quality cap with an integral glass pipette, which works with the aid of a rubber bulb to extract the ink.
• Grooves around the side of the cap assist easy opening, as well as making sure that when finished with, the cap can be fitted securely.

Lightfastness:

• Liquitex professional acrylic inks have gone through extensive lightfastness tests and are of archival quality.
• Their permanence, in the main, is due to their pigment base rather than a dye base, which ensures that there is no fading or shifting of colour.
• They are rated to exceed gallery conditions of fifty years plus.

Consistency:

• As the name suggests the inks have a smooth, liquid consistency with  excellent flow.
• They can be applied in an uninterrupted way from pipette, brush, pen or any other compatible applicator.
• The inks mix well with the others in the set and can also be used in conjunction with any other Liquitex professional media.    

Price: From £6.17 per bottle

Where to buy: Art Supplies with Painters Online

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A useful addition to the artists armoury

I have found during the product analysis that Liquitex acrylic essential inks are a most interesting and useful addition to the artists armoury. There are many varying ways and situations in which the inks can be used. Whether you choose to use them individually in a stand alone piece of art, or whether you use them along side a range of other media, you will achieve surprising results and happy accidents.

Ways of using acrylic inks

This shows an example of using the ink direct from the bottle using the pipette, onto dry handmade Okra Paper, then adding water from a loaded brush.

Here I would like to highlight just a few ways in which these essential inks can be utilised.

They can be used straight from the bottle with the useful pipette, for airbrushing and acrylic pouring technique together with Liquitex professional mediums.

Wet-in-wet

They also have an interesting quality when used in a wet in wet technique whereby they blend and mix to create the most wonderful unique patterns and shapes which can be judged as a complete work in its own right, or provide the perfect backdrop to other possibilities by adding other media.

Above is an example of wet in wet technique, soaking the paper with water in the areas you will be applying the ink, then using the pipette, drop the ink into the water.

If you rock your paper from side to side to encourage the flow of the ink it will bleed and form interesting washes.

At this stage, you can also use a water spray/diffuser to encourage further spread of the inks.

This was finished off using the carbon black with a dip pen for the branches and twigs. Painted on Arches 300lb watercolour paper.

Mixed media

When used with other media the versatility of the inks comes really to the fore, because of their quick drying, waterproof, non-smudge/bleeding and transparent qualities they can be used as a base for applying further layers of materials such as oil and soft pastels, collage, stencils, gouache, acrylic paint, and printing.

You can reverse the layering by using other media on the support first, for example; the inks will flow smoothly in transparent washes over acrylic paint and gesso, contributing in giving depth to the underneath layer. Applied over marks made with oil pastel the inks resist and bead giving an added texture, especially if contrasting or complimentary colours of each media are used.

Both images above are examples of using acrylic ink with mixed media, in this case oil pastel and graphite. I made random marks on the paper before applying varying light mixes of the inks onto dry paper.

When the washes were dry I added another layer of stronger ink washes gradually building up to the final darker washes.

Once completely dry I added more marks with oil pastel and graphite to create highlights, stronger colour and shapes. Painted on Stillman & Birn Ivory paper.

A variety of surfaces

Not only are the Liquitex inks compatible with a plethora of different media, they are also exceptionally accommodating regarding the surface or support that they can be used on. Here is a random selection of surfaces they will happily adhere to:

• Watercolour, cartridge and handmade papers
• Canvas and canvas boards
• Glass
• Wood
• Ceramic
• Metal
• Fabric

Using acrylic inks

I hope the following examples and descriptions are helpful in showing how the Liquitex professional acrylic essential ink collection, can give you some ideas and processes to encourage your enthusiasm and inspiration to create beautiful pieces of art.

Colour swatches

My initial process was to familiarise myself with the colours and fluidity, also to judge its ability to mix with each other and to discover how the vibrancy of the original colour could be muted. This would give me a starting point to assess which situations the inks could be successfully used in. I was particularly thinking about mood, subject and atmosphere.

I began by setting out a swatch with the ink at full strength adding water towards the end to test the transparency. As you can see, the inks are a saturated, vibrant and intense colour.

Black and white

I didn’t include the titanium white or the carbon black in these swatches but included both colours in the subsequent mixes. Obviously these examples are not the full extent of their limits but a sample of what is possible.

I found that using the titanium white with any of the other colours gave it a pastel opaqueness. All the swatch examples are on Saunders 300lb watercolour paper. 

De-saturating the colours

                 

This image gives an idea of how far you can de-saturate the vibrancy of the original colours.

Using plenty of water in your palette or mixing dish, add a drop at a time until you reach the desired wash.

The colour swatches above show just how far you can take the graduation.

This method gives you a subtle strength, to create a different mood from the colourful and intense alternative. Painted on Stillman & Birn Ivory paper.

Conclusion

Value for money? Yes, undoubtably. For the simple reason, they will never sit in a cupboard waiting to be used for one purpose, they will be at hand to use in any situation and piece of art, you wish to create.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, this particular colour set wouldn’t be my first choice, however, since using them in various ways, they do have their place e.g. for vibrant still life work - particularly flowers, fabric printing and collage. Having said that, I will be exploring further, the Liquitex Acrylic Ink muted range of colours in the future.

Before I close, there is one important point I would like to raise regarding the mixing process. You will need a good supply of clean water. It is vital that you regularly change the water, not only the brush rinsing water but your supply of clean water. A small amount of ink in either, or still in your brush, will contaminate your mix - but that point also applies to most water based materials. 

Demonstration

For this demonstration I endeavoured to use a combination of media and techniques.

I chose to use a 20” x 16” stretched canvas with a textured layer of white gesso as the base. First I used an off white to pale yellow oil pastel to give a resist against the following layers of inks.

I applied thin coats by rubbing in and wiping off with a rag the yellow azo, transparent raw umber, and phthalocyanine blue, this gave me the effect of the inks overlapping, but in some areas barely staining the canvas.

I wanted to keep the brilliance on the horizon and in the foreground pool, so removed the yellow ink  immediately -as mentioned earlier in the review the inks dry quickly, so actions such as removing from the support need to be done as soon as possible.

Each subsequent glaze was strengthened and darkened by adding a small amount of the carbon black.

Once the required depth of colour was achieved it was left to dry.

Once dry I added the gate, bullrushes and grasses with a stronger mix of raw umber and carbon black by using the feather and quill end of a goose feather.

The highlights on the rushes were added using yellow azo mixed with titanium white to give an opaque, pale yellow, these were also added with the goose quill.

About Fiona Phipps

I have been painting for fifteen years or so, initially in watercolour but then became interested in oils and mixed media which I like to combine together. I studied oils with professional artist and tutor Davy Brown and mixed media at several workshops with Hazel Campbell.

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