Inkblot exercise: What do you see?

Ink droppings 1
My inkblot number 1. What do you see?

I have learned how to do something called “inkblots” by Leah Piken Kolidas of Creative Every Day. I was so inspired after watching one of her videos I had to make my own, at once! Then when I had my inkblots I was staring at them for a long time. What is that?

I used the only ink I had at home. A black ink in a plastic bottle, it’s some kind of Chinese ink that smells funny. My experiments didn’t turn out exactly great (the ink seeped through the binding to other pages and it didn’t print well to the opposite page even though I added some water to make it spread out) but I still think the pages are interesting…

Ink dropping page 2
My inkblot number 2. What do you see?

My second one didn’t turn out black at all, just a kind of evaporating gray. It covers to big pages of watercolour, so I still want to do something with it… I’d love to know what you see in these two spreads… What would you draw? What do you see?

I’ll tell you what I did tomorrow. If you want to give inkblots a try Leah is an inspiring teacher. I love watching her splash ink onto pages in her journal and then closing the book making the ink blot booth pages (it’s a kind of print almost).

If you want to try it, watch Leah’s video below:

Inkblots! from Leah Piken Kolidas on vimeo.

13 Responses

  1. You are right. Leah is an engaging teacher.

    I like this idea of inkblots. In the second photo, I keep seeing two bison coming out of the pages.

  2. Love these Hannah… and I enjoy Leah too. I’ve been linking up for Art Every Day Month – it’s quite a challenge for me with my little zoo. I’ll have to try the inkblots this week – a nice something different in my art journal. xo!

  3. Inkblot number 2:
    Left page — a dog’s head in profile.
    Right page — a rabbit standing up on it’s hind legs.

    I’m off to see my shrink now, Ms Rorschach ;-)

  4. What a fun thing to try! I really liked Leah’s examples. In your first ink blot, I see a little owl on the left page, just under the pink ink. And I totally see those bison that Jodi sees (I probably shouldn’t have read the comments before I tried to see pictures myself!).

  5. On the left one, I see a dog up on his hind legs…you can see his legs, and his tail. I see rabbit ears at the top of the second one! Hehe. That was fun. I enjoyed the video, too. I must try this!

  6. Oo, fun! I’m so glad you shared the inkblots! I hope you’ll share what you do with them too!

    In the top one, I see a fat little elephant on the right page. hehe. And in the second, I see a face covering both pages.

  7. In image 2, I see a dog heads in each side, mirrored images of course.

    In the first one I did see a bison on the right and on the left , the beginnings of a Kachina doll….although that could be a product of the Southwest arts show I went to today. :)

  8. In the first ink blot I see a struggle of good and evil. A monster with long claws and the diminishing good that’s still inside. The monster persona is more represented on the right, while the normal person persona that’s faded and disappearing is represented on the left.

    In the second ink blot I see Big Foot’s feet prints (look at it upside down).

  9. On the last one, on the right hand side page I see a gorgeous little creature, looking upwards. She has little black (grey) bunny ears.
    I am off to check out the video and see what I come up with. Thanks for sharing.

    Jacky xox

  10. Even though I saw your babies on the later post, this inkblot looks to me like handcuffs. Or something with horns. Isn’t it wild how we all see different things? I’m going to try this with paint tomorrow. I don’t have any india ink.

    Thanks for the video!

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