The Ultimate Beginners
Supply Guide for Alcohol Inks
What to buy and where to buy it
There are only three places that I link to on this page. Blicks, which I have purchased from many times, Mr.Art which I will need to start buying from as they seem to be much cheaper than Blicks and Amazon. I tend not to buy inks on Amazon as their inks are expensive, but I buy most of my other paraphernalia on Amazon.
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Inks
Purchasing alcohol inks can become an addiction. Each time they come out with new colors in the different brands you may feel that you "need" them. I have learned as you probably will, that there are certain colors that you will tend to go back to over and over and you don't need every shade of every color. BUT, if you need to get it out of you system...go ahead..buy them all.
I only list three brands of inks that I use. I for example, don't use the Copic even though people do love them, because they are very expensive.
I could not link to individual inks only the pages so you will have to look for the colors and packages that you want on each page.
If you are going to buy locally at Michael's or Hobby Lobby, just be aware that they only sell the inks in packages of 3 and and they are much more expensive than the online places. Joanns fabric store seems to have great prices though.
Ranger/Tim Holz Inks
I use this brand the most.
If you go to the 2 links below you will find the packages and the individual colors that I recommend
Ranger/Tim Holz (Blicks)
Ranger Tim Holz (Mr. Art)
Ranger kinds come in packages of 3 and individually. There are many different combinations so I listed 5 packages that have the most useful colors. (in my opinion) You can peruse all the combinations in the product pages to see what else you like.
The links to the ones below are directly to Mr Art because I have discovered that they are cheaper, but feel free to check out Blicks in the link above as well.
There are inks that ranger calls darks and ones they call lights. You will probably use the darks more often than the lights as they are more vibrant however, you will sometimes need the lights to lighten up some darks. (My most used light ink is probably cloudy blue as its great for skies)
The package Countryside below has cloudy blue and 2 other lights).
Nature walk (wild plum,butterscotch, stream)
Countryside (shell pink,willow,cloudy blue)
Retro Cafe (pink sherbert, pool, espresso)
Dockside (watermelon, citrus, sailboat blue)
Summitt (sunshine yellow, orange, purple twilight)
Ranger also now sells the gorgeous metallic Alloys
If I would be buying the packages above I would also add the individual colors I listed below.
Botanical
Teakwood (brown)
Pitch Black
Denim
Cool Peri
Snow cap (white)
Be careful of the color indigo. It is pretty, but very dark and can really mess up your pieces unless you are using it for a specific reason.
Feel free to hang out in the alcohol ink section of Blicks and Mr Art and see if there are any other colors you would like. If you are going to buy lots of different shades of different colors than I would first get more greens and then more blues. There are more differences with the greens and blues then there are yellows, reds and oranges.
Jacquard Pinata
These inks are somewhat thicker than the Tim Holz/Ranger.
You can start with the exciter pack which has 9 colors and includes rich gold, white and black. The 2 colors that I think are way to dark for regular use in this package are the passion purple and forest green.
If however, you mix them with alcohol then they become lighter and won't darken your pieces too much.
If you are buying this pack along with ranger inks then you won't need to buy the ranger black and white.
You can buy the pinatas individually at Blicks.
MUST HAVE PINATA INKS:
Rich gold
Brass
(if you are buying Ranger inks then the Alloys are just as good as the rich gold and brass of Pinata)
Tim Holz/Ranger also have metallic mixatives, they are not as good as the Pinatas.
One good thing about Pinata is that certain colors come in 4 oz. bottles. The only ones I do buy in those sizes are the metallics (Rich gold and brass)
You can buy the exciter packs at Amazon or Blicks and you can buy the 4oz bottles at Blicks (sometimes Amazon has them for good prices)
The individual bottles I like in Pinata
Senorita Magenta
Baja Blue
Saphire Blue
Lime Green
If you want to start with 3 primary colors and mix them to get your own colors then use three Pinata primaries
Baja blue
Chili pepper
Sunbright yellow
Brea Reese
Brea Reese (Blicks)
Brea Reese is a brand that I tried only recently. They have gorgeous colors, not as many colors as the other brand and I don't like their bottle.
The fact that their bottles don't fit in my storage tins is a mild annoyance.
I however, started with the other brands and don't find that much of a need to switch over, but I do tend to use these inks at my alcohol ink parties as they do have some really pretty colors.
I have heard that they sell them at Walmart now too.
Alcohol
91% isopropyl alcohol (or above) is very important for use with alcohol inks. It's what gets the ink to move and you use it to remove ink as well. I am not linking to it here as it has become difficult to get because of Covid. You can try local drugstores, Walmart, maybe Rite aid online etc. It has become easier to get lately, but was too expensive on Amazon to link to it.
Tim Holz blending solution does what alcohol does. However, it is more expensive and there are two main differences between the two. Alcohol is better at removing ink and blending solution is better at blending.
Backgrounds
(or substrates as they are often called)
You can create with alcohol inks on any non porous surface. These are the ones I have used.
Yupo paper is the original paper used for creating with alcohol inks.There are a few brands, but I linked to the one I've used.
They have 3 types in this brand:
Standard (orange cover) Translucent(light blue cover)
Heavy duty(purple cover)
They also have a number of sizes
You can also get the yupo at Amazon
This link is only for 1 size so you will need to search for the others.
There is an alternative to Yupo which is cheaper. Kirkland photo paper works like Yupo if you use the matte side of the paper.
(I like to use the 5x7 the most for practicing and they also have 4x6) Note: You can get it cheaper at Costoc.com than at Amazon as they don't sell it in the stores at Costco
If you want really large pieces of yupo paper then you can buy them in sheets at Blicks
Tiles (6x6) (Amazon)
Tiles are extremely popular to use as you can wipe them down to white very easily if you make a mistake.
Even though I linked to some here you are probably better off getting your tiles individually at either Loews or Home Depot.
You can probably find interesting sizes and colors as well
Canvas and or
Gessoboard
You can use canvas, but it is strongly advised to add a primer like gesso which allows the inks to move more freely. You can also buy pre gessoed canvas and boards.
Other Substrates
Tim Holz Cool Card Stock Surfaces (Amazon)
These are 3 card stocks that are very unusual that you may want to try especially if you are a card maker.
Black Craft Vinyl (Amazon)
The benefit of these is that they are peel n stick and you can mount them on some wooden cradle boards
Clear Duralar (Amazon)
There are different types of duralar, but this one is clear.
Grafix Craft Plastic (Amazon)
An interesting alternative to Yupo. It's 12x12 and wipes down much cleaner than the Yupo or Kirkland photo paper.
Tools That Move Air
One of the beauty's of alcohol ink is that it is so fluid. A basic tool to help move the ink is the straw. You need to be careful not to inhale as it can be dangerous and don't use it too much.
Air by Hand
Giotto Rocket blaster (Amazon)
This was one of the first tools I bought that moves pushes out air by pressing on the bulb with your hand. Then Ranger came out with the same thing.
Canned Air
Canned air allows you to push out quick bursts of air to move the inks. The problem with the canned air is that the bottles freeze up very quickly so it's important to have about 2-3 cans available to work with at a time so you can switch off when they freeze up.
Though this is a Amazon link you can get canned air in any office supply store, Walmart or Costco
Plugged in Air
Plugged in air is tools that need to be plugged in to get the air.
An airbrush is mainly used for creating wispy abstracts. I purchased the larger one below, but realized that you really don't need that much power and the small one would have been just fine
This is a very cool little blower that I bought recently that you have to plug into a USB cable to get it to work. It may even work like a very weak airbrush.
Tools & Stuff
For use with alcohol
These small bottles are great for adding alcohol to your pieces. They are also good if you want to mix darker colors with alcohol and use them as ink applicators.
Both of the above are good for adding fine sprays to your pieces for texture. They are also good for spraying dirty tables and such to clean up
Pipettes (droppers)
If you want to drop colored ink or alcohol onto your pieces.
Tools to remove ink:
The following are for either dipping in alcohol or filling with alcohol to wipe away parts of your artwork to remove color. You may want to do this to lighten the spot or to make it lighter to add color to the lightened spot
Other STUFF
Another way to add ink to your paper is by using some felt that has velcro attached to a stamper.
If you want to use brushes to add dots of alcohol OR to fill in color then the brushes should do the trick
When you want to actually paint with the inks then you will need a place to drop them onto. You then use bits of ink on a brush to pain. I use this Tim Holz palette. There are many wells so you can just reuse them for the same or very similar colors
Here are three storage ideas for inks:
I use the storage tins for traveling to classes
This case is one I would buy if I hadn't bought the others.
This nail polish holder is the best way to store your inks when you are staying in one place and want to easily be able to see what you have
Pens/Markers
Alcohol ink pieces often need some enhancements and these are my favorite pens to do so
These markers are alcohol ink markers (as are sharpies).They are not expensive and great for fixing up part of your pieces. they can also work great with alcohol making them into alcohol inks.
I love these pens and use all 3. The white one is extremely popular with many crafters, but I love them all.
Great pen markers that write on anything and they come in many widths.
A cool pen that I've used that writes like foil