Arting a Birthday Gift

After a big reveal to the birthday girl earlier today, I get to post my gift recently completed.

This effort was done on Canson Watercolor Art Board -- my new favorite substrate! The materials used include a Monoline Studio pen for the face sketching and dot/line structure; Sharpies, Dr. Martin's Bombay India Inks, Golden's Iridescent Pearl and white Posca pen for the color; and a fun blue adhesive gem for the forehead.

I'm very happy with this piece especially with something you can't see in the photograph. That is the yellow hexagons that were made by filling in the shape with yellow Bombay India Ink. That particular ink color dries shiny and slightly raised, and the resulting sheen really adds to the richness of the piece. (By the way, yes, there is a bee theme.)

This is my first time finishing a piece with varnish. Using recommendations from the Alcohol Ink Art Community (AIAC), the finished piece has three (3) coats of Krylon's Kamar Varnish (spray type) -- the first varnish used -- and then three (3) coats of Golden's Semi-Gloss Archival Varnish that contains UVLS (also spray type). In two test pieces I sprayed before doing this one, I noticed the alcohol ink areas darkened a bit. However, I didn't notice as much change in this one after the same applications.

To read the AIAC article, the link is included at the bottom of this post.

https://alcoholink.community/how-to-seal-alcohol-ink-art/

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