Creating an illustration with acrylic inks

I have been using the same watercolour set for a few years now. It's a huge Windsor and Newton set with about 50 colours and I love it, but sometimes having a load of colours to choose from can actually make things more difficult. When layering watercolours it can be hard to keep things neat, so I decided to give acrylic inks a go. I just got three colours - process yellow, process magenta and indigo. That way I'm not overwhelmed by a million colours, I am forced to mix my own.

I created the illustration below as a test and I'm really happy with how it turned out - nice and vibrant. These inks mix really well and are buildable, they have the consistency of thick watercolour paint. The only con is they dry quite quickly and cannot be reactivated with water. For the black outlines I just used regular indian drawing ink.

Hope you enjoyed this mini review. I post most of my drawings on Instagram, I'm at @art_by_nicola. :)

Life in Melbourne so far

I have been living in Melbourne for just over a month now. I'm still looking for a place to rent as well as find an area I'd like to live in.

Me at Luna Park the other week. St Kilda beach is a really cool area for drinks, food and quirky shops.

Classic Flinders street station pic with the Eureka sky deck peeking over the top.

I went to the State Library of Victoria in the centre of Melbourne. Huge building, I sat in the main reading room. It was busy but very quiet. If someone was to cough it would echo forever.

Sun Theatre, Yarraville. We briefly wandered about the main street here, it was a nice little area.

Wander round Malvern - another area with the typical small quirky style shops you will find throughout Melbourne.

Lunch, including a Tim Tam milkshake which was ridiculous but amazing! I'm definitely going back here!

One of my recent book purchases - Anne of Green Gables. I've never read it before but I thought it would be a good book to read for inspiration for future illustrations.

 Been trying out a new style of drawing with ink and adding watercolour over the top. This was a first attempt, I think it worked out not bad.