ART | CREATIVITY | EXPERIMENTATION
Using White Ink on Black Paper
Trying a new type of drawing
Since being back in Canada, my art supply collection has grown considerably. It’s so nice to be able to walk into a place like Michaels and find any art supply that I could ever dream of. While traveling, it is always difficult to locate supplies and even harder to find anything of quality.
Something that I did the last time we were in Canada in 2019 was paint and draw on black paper. Since then, along the way, I have given away many of these pieces of art. They make a great gift and if people show interest in my artwork, I pull them out and ask if they want one.
It’s fun to leave bits and pieces of my artwork with the people we meet. Hopefully, they will enjoy them and they will remind them of the fun times we had together while we were there.
But over time, my supply of artwork has dwindled and I haven’t been creating more. So I decided to rectify that and make some more pieces so that I can take them with me when we leave again.
While housesitting here in Canada, we had a very large dining room table with a bright light above it. On day one of our housesit I covered the table in a large sheet and it pretty much served as my art station for three months.
Instead of painting on black paper, this time I decided to draw on it with my white pen and I was thrilled with the results. I filled a whole page with just lines of patterns, and it turned out really cool. I think our time spent in Africa really inspired this piece.
But then, as a lover of color, I really wanted to add some to this. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do that until I picked up one of my markers and simply started coloring over the white. The ink from the marker worked great at picking up the white lines, and it disappeared on the black paper. In no time I had colored the whole page and was thrilled with the results.
Of course, as these things do, it led to a bunch of experimenting and over the course of our stay I did a bunch more.
I kept experimenting and playing and had a lot of fun making a few of these fun drawings.
I got a little more carried away with the image below and added many layers to it to make it look a bit more 3D and eye-catching. I also used a white charcoal pencil on this to create the highlights. This took some experimenting because the marker lifts the white charcoal, so it has to go on after the coloring is finished.
I am also spending time taking good-quality photos of my pieces so that I can have them printed on bags that I am selling in my Etsy shop. I think they look cool on bags. What do you think?
For me, art is all about experimentation and play. When I get an idea, I make efforts to try it out because you never know what the results will be on the other side.
I’ll leave you with a colored version of the lead image. I have more work to do on this before I deem it complete as I need to fill in more background and want to make the color bolder.
I have many different art projects that are constantly on the go. When I get inspired, I work on something. Then when I hit a wall, I move to something else.
There is a constant evolution of inspiration surrounding me at all times!
I hope that this project will inspire you to get creative and experiment with different mediums. The more you play, the more you create, and that is a very good thing!
Happy creating!
xo Jill
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