This document provides reflections from an artist on their experience experimenting with alcohol inks over several months. They discuss feeling more comfortable with techniques like working with white space, letting inks dry and move naturally, and mixing colors. They also discuss learning from mistakes, thinking more strategically about ink placement, and realizing digital editing can "save" works. The artist reflects on improving understandings of concepts like color and discovering new digital tools. They see the importance of developing discernment through practice.

1. Splash
Shalin Hai-Jew
February 2021

2. 2
Lens

3. 3
Opposing Forces

4. 4
Rock Vein

5. 5
Mix

6. 6
Digital Flower 1

7. 7
Digital Flower 2

8. 8
Digital Flower 3

9. 9
Clamor

10. 10
Cursive

11. 11
Encroachment

12. 12
Ennui

13. 13
Panning

14. Splash
• Now that I’ve had a few months worth of practice, I am more
comfortable working white spaces and sparsity.
• I am more comfortable waiting for the inks to dry a little before applying air or
gravity…or additional inks.
• I am more comfortable letting inks move and settle on their own.
• I think a little more about mixing inks and how various alcohol ink colors
recombine.
• I am more comfortable working heightened translucencies, through alcohol
dilutions.
• I am thinking more strategically about alcohol ink placement because the
placements affect what is possible.
14

15. Splash (cont.)
• In some cases where I end up layering the inks to “save” some earlier
decisions and spillages, I find two saving graces:
• Alcohol inks dry to a state in which the colors are more muted, restrained,
and calm. In most cases, this is a benefit. (There is sometimes residual regret
though that the brilliant liquid shininess often also disappears.)
• Also, I’m finding digital means will actually “save” the work to something
more aesthetic. I am much more comfortable realizing that there is no way to
absolutely ruin an alcohol ink drawing or painting because of digital image
editing.
• I am thinking of both the analog and the digital from the beginning.
15

16. Splash(cont.)
• I am more aware of my own rookie mistakes, such as accidentally
splashing a pad of fairly expensive translucent synthetic paper while
working on a different work (with the pad underneath). Every page
was re-usable since the damage was only on the corners.
• The normal clumsiness remains, but I am better at setting up the work space
to control for such clumsiness.
16

17. Splash(cont.)
• In the respective newer works, there is a little less pure spillage and a
little more pseudo-control.
• I am working to broaden my work to different themes inspired by the
various visuals.
• These visuals have to work somewhat conceptually…and somewhat
aesthetically.
• I realize how much we have built-in cultural points of reference.
• I see how the human mind creates or sees forms in accidental paint. (This is
analogous to how people may spin up spurious stories or make illogical
connections from unrelated data points or information.) “Apophenia” is one
technical term for this.
17

18. Splash(cont.)
• These plays with alcohol inks have improved my understandings of
the following:
• vibrance, hues, saturation, color values, b/w;
• lightness / darkness, contrast;
• color theory;
• shapes and lines;
• textures; and others.
18

19. Splash (cont.)
• The digital editing has opened my eyes to a range of digital filters and
other tools that I was not aware of, including third-party
downloadables.
• There is more playing with directional lighting on a few images…different
types of tiling…different types of layer effects, albeit at a beginner’s level.
• There are global warps.
• There are local warps.
19

20. Splash (cont.)
• I better understand an earlier idea about the importance of training
the eyes for a kind of discernment and seeing. The magic is not in the
materials but really more in the illusions and the “mind games” (not
in a negative sense).
• The learning is acquire-able with time and effort.
• As for people who want to go for the romance of creating “art,” that is
not really all that interesting.
• That said, Joyce Cary’s main character in The Horse’s Mouth (1944) does have
something of the obsessiveness in the artists I know.
20

21. On translucent synth paper
21

22. 22
Public Declaration

23. 23
Stealth Departures

24. 24
Ordinary Day

25. 25
Bubbling

26. 26
Reading the Environment

27. 27
Grasp

28. 28
Flutter

29. 29
Scribble

30. 30
Spillover

31. 31
Living Fires

32. 32
Intertwined

33. 33
Cold Fury

34. On white synth paper
34

35. 35
Splash Monster

36. 36
Thin Skin

37. 37
Backstory

38. 38
Time of Testing

39. 39
Fling

40. 40
Downstream

41. 41
Indiscreet

42. 42
On a Stem

43. 43
Hike

44. On digital variants
44

45. 45
Corsage

46. 46
Corsage 2

47. 47
Corsage 3

48. 48
Corsage 4

49. 49
Switchback

50. 50
Game Board

51. 51
Marble

52. 52
Sprinkler

53. 53
Fine Print

54. 54
Potted Plants

55. 55
Data Driven Understandings

56. 56
Water Source

57. 57
Bask

58. 58
To Earth

59. 59
Wrong Footing

60. 60
Fantasy

61. 61
Treetops

62. 62
Off Kilter

63. 63
Whole Heart

64. 64
Barbed Wire

65. 65
Read on Situation

66. 66
Sporting

67. 67
Rinse Repeat

68. 68
Extruded Acorn

69. 69
Experiment

70. 70
One Sip

71. 71
Perfume

72. 72
Ferris Wheel

73. 73
In the Rough

74. 74
Hook