My inkblot number 1. What did you see?
In my last post I asked if you could see or imagine anything in these inkblots that I made into my art journal, and I got some fun answers. Thanks everyone!
The more I think about this exercise the more I see its value. I realize how great it is to sometimes let art be a coincidence, to let go of control and perfectionism. It is challenging us to think differntly and use our imagination more actively. Imagination is key, but it needs exercise or it gets really really tired. Some grown ups seem to have killed their imagination somewhere along the way, and that is so sad. Give your imagination some mouth-to-mouth help, quick!
Often we already know what we want to see on the page. We think we have an “idea”, but where did it come from? Maybe someone else’s art journaling? By looking at something already existing we let the subconscious work, and that is very good. Innovative art often comes from the subconscious.
So you have your inkblot, and you are looking, and looking…
At first you might see nothing, just some stupid spilled ink, but once you relax and you see an image revel itself you are taken by suprice. Why didn’t you see that at once? Yeah, now it’s so obvious.
For me I get kind of stuck at both these stations. First I got stuck and saw absolutely nothing no matter how hard I tried. Then I saw what the inkblots depict and after that I could see nothing else!
I can only see babies there now, no matter how hard I try to see a bunny, a buffalo, a bison or something else entirely!
All I see are these babies…
I call them the inkdropplet twins. One dark like coal in the November night, one transparent and almost dissolving…
They are kind of spookey, and because the “came to me” I am not sure if they are unborn children longing to be born or spirit babies trying to tell me something… :-) I think they would be interesting images to continue working with, maybe in fabric or embroidery? Or poetry. To me they are very poetic.
This is how the second inkblog image looked when it had dried:
And this is how it turned out, an iluustration spreading across two pages, not as romantic or poetic, but rather cute:
Inkblot elephant, born out of… my imagination? coincidence? my humor?
Thanks everyone for playing along and using your imagination. I hope you will try this exercise that is called “inkblots”, taught by Leah Piken Kolidas of Creative Every Day. I will defiantly add it to my arsenal of art exercises to use every now and then.
I so agree with you – and you saw I touched briefly on this on my post today too. We do forget to use our imaginations and get so caught up with perfection.
The babies look like scan pictures – new life waiting to be born… just like our art. Great imagery and symbolism.
In your work, I can see horses and in the top one I can see a man’s face but he also has a tusk coming out of the right side of his mouth, (on the left as you look at the page). I just see odd shapes everywhere these days!!
Thank you for such an ineresting post.
Gwen xx
I love ink blot art ! It is so freeing to let that imagination just play. I love the black and white effect of your Babies. Awesome play, Hanna !
this is so fun…have you seen my Inkblot Challenge? Come and join the play here!
What fun! I was seeing hippos in the first one, hahaha
~Dawn
Love ink blots. So much fun to make.
These are wonderful, I love ink blot art, so fun!
What a lovely exercise. I love how intuition is brought to the surface with these. In the first inkblot I saw a white bird rising up agains the dark shadow at the top of the page. I really like the twins, and how they’re almost the opposite of each other.
This was a really great post and I loved the thoughts on imagination… I think that the whole AEDM thing is pushing me to think more openly… the twins are quite fascinating and I will be interested to see you make of them xx
Tack för tipset :) Tänkte faktiskt inte pĺ att man kan köpa broderier pĺ Tradera :)
The top one nr 1 (top blob) looks like ET wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigar….
I love the elephant, I saw two penguins.
It looks like a messy technique, I’ll try it in my ‘messy ‘ art journal.
I love your inkblot pages! And I enjoy reading about your process because when I do this exercise, I too seem to get stuck with seeing the same things over and over. Leah’s practice is really inspiring and I am having fun working with it … here are some pages I did recently (they are wayyyy at the bottom.)
As the days are getting grayer here, I come to visit you for a dose of vibrant color and inspiration!
xo Lis
At first, this spread looked like two bison heads, with the mouth open (especially on the left side) But your elephant is fun. I missed your first inkblot post so I’m going to go check it out.