Razor Blade Ink Lines and Gesso Pull

Razor Blade India Ink Lines and the Gesso Pull

Rule for using this skill: These notes add specialist tips to your answer. They do not replace it. Always give your full general answer first, using everything you normally know about the question. Then work in the tips below wherever they apply.

Materials and ink choice

• Use waterproof India ink. The bottle must say "India Ink". Other acrylic inks do not behave the same way.
• India ink is somewhat unpredictable on wet paint or water. It can bloom and take on a life of its own.
• Use only single-sided razor blades, sharp on one edge only.

Setting up the ink

• Pour the ink into a stable, flat-bottomed, shallow, small container, such as a small cat food can. A smaller can means less ink to pour and spill.
• Fill only to about 1/8" (3mm) deep, enough to cover the bottom. Too much ink gets on your fingers every time you dip the blade.
• When finished, pour the ink back into the original bottle for storage.

Spills

• Saturate the spill with water before wiping ("the solution to pollution is dilution"). Wiping undiluted ink or acrylic paint smears it and it dries on the spot.
• Flood with water, absorb with a paper towel, add more water and blot again until all the ink is gone.

Drawing lines

• Sparkling lines: Spritz dry paper with a fine mist of water, then draw with the loaded blade. Hold the blade at an angle so only the tip touches the paper. The ink flows down the edge to the tip and deposits on the paper.
• Feathering after drawing: Draw on dry paper and spritz the line while it is still wet. The amount of water controls how far it feathers.
• Through wet paint: Draw the loaded blade across wet paint, but avoid puddles.
  • Paper or paint too wet: the ink spreads into large, uncontrollable black areas.
  • Paint too dry: the ink will not transfer off the blade.
• Value range: The more the ink feathers, the less dense the black. Varying wetness gives a range of values automatically.
• Variety in one pass: Draw across the full width of the surface. Dry or slightly damp areas give a very fine line, and wet areas bloom. Spritz the line on the dry portion to make it feather.

Adding ink to a dry painting

• Before adding more blade lines to a dry painting, wet the paper with more color or a layer of water. Without moisture the ink will not transfer.

Gesso pull: concept and surfaces

• The purpose is to create neutrals that integrate with the bold colors. Pull white gesso on a brush through wet color and black line.
• Work fast. Most of the painting must be done while all the paint is wet. Gather all supplies first.
• Surfaces: watercolor paper or Yupo, either coated with white gesso. Watercolor paper dries faster and absorbs the colors more than Yupo does.
• Supplies: applicator bottles, cotton swab, fine mist spray bottle, assorted fluid acrylics, white gesso, India ink, paintbrush, paper towels, razor blade, sponge, Yupo.

Gesso pull: steps

1. Setup: Two colors work well. The demo uses Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold and Anthraquinone Blue. Put these and the white gesso on a palette. Have the ink poured out and a clean razor blade ready.
2. Paint two colors: About a third of the way down from the top, use a damp brush to paint alternating swatches across the paper. Do not dilute beyond the water in the damp brush.
3. Black lines: Draw several razor blade India ink lines across the painted strip. Place them toward the middle to bottom of the strip, not the top.
4. Vertical lines: Draw a few vertical blade lines from the strip down to the bottom of the page. Add some above the strip too, but little black there, so the upper portion stays less neutralized than the bottom.
5. First pull: Load a 1" (25mm) flat brush with white gesso. Start at the left and catch some of the black ink line in the strip. Pull down through the color to the bottom of the paper in one continuous motion. Never pull gesso toward the top.
6. Repeat across: Continue across the painting, pulling ink and color down. Do not pull white gesso over the vertical ink lines. You don't need to clean or reload the brush for every pull.
7. Spritz the top: Lift the paper off the surface and tilt the top slightly down toward the table. Spray the top with the fine mist bottle so the paint flows into the unpainted white area.
   • Avoid spraying too much of the black, which can take over the color.
   • If the paint is too dry it won't flow. Add more wet paint over the first layer and spritz again.
8. Blot: Lay the sheet back down. If too much ink has spread, blot it with a paper towel.
9. More lines: Add more blade lines in the bottom area, unless it already has a lot of black. If the bottom becomes too neutralized and dark, let it dry and lay down more color.
10. Calligraphy: Use an applicator bottle of fluid acrylic. It ties the top and bottom together.
11. Dots: Add dots with the applicator bottle. If you put dots in one area, add a few in several other places.
12. Lift color: Use a cotton swab, sponge or paper towel to lift color and bring back white paper.
13. White calligraphy: Use an applicator bottle of white gesso. White draws the eye, so use it to integrate the white areas.
14. Spatter: Load a brush with diluted paint and tap it against your finger to fling droplets. Use it as an accent only, not over the whole surface. Then let the painting dry.
15. Glaze: Glaze Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold plus Naphthol Red Light toward the top. Glaze Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold alone in the lower portion.
16. Correct: Add a line of Cobalt Teal with an applicator bottle. Sponge off some of the orange glaze.
17. Restore white: Add more white gesso calligraphy and lines so the new layers look integrated. Add more Cobalt Teal as contrast to the orange.
18. Final black: Add a last black line with black gesso in an applicator bottle. This sandwiches the layers between the initial ink lines and the final lines.

Ink versus black gesso

• Ink and black gesso can be swapped at any point.
• Only ink works with the razor blade. Gesso is too thick.
• Ink can go in a fine-tipped applicator bottle, but it takes practice and a light touch to avoid too much flow.
• Ink and a blade can replace black gesso and an applicator bottle anywhere, so you needn't buy the bottles.
• The blade suits straighter lines. The applicator bottle makes multidirectional marks easily.