Rorschach exercise

Hi, I’m Jess, an Abstract artist and art facilitator for Talk About It, Mate and other community enterprises. I create various art exercises for all ages. I like exploring child-like practices to allow ourselves to delve into our child ego states whilst not being overwhelmed with conventional art practices. This session was experimenting with the process of Rorschach ink blots.

            Materials

• Pipettes 

• Black Indian ink

• Colour Indian ink

• Brushes 

• Watercolour paper A4

• Watercolour paper A5

• Watercolour paper A6

• Sketch paper 

• Sponges

• Palettes

• water 

• Plastic cups

Firstly, gather all your supplies, in my session the group experimented with black Indian ink before coloured ones to get the hang of things. I think it is worth noting that watercolour paper has a higher water resistance than sketchpad paper, and with that being said, for certain effects, either a watercolour effect or a fluid effect I’d suggest doing this with watercolour paper than sketchpad paper. 

The sketch paper is good for when you’re doing the wet-to-dry method. The wet is the ink and the dry is the paper without any water added. 

Grab whichever sized paper you wish and fold it in half. Now either use a pipette or a paint brush and ink and decorate one side of the paper. Gently fold it inwards to create a symmetrical pattern. I would do minimal gestures/ ink usage when making a pattern and building it up otherwise it will saturate the paper and you will be unable to add any more layers. So be mindful of what you want to draw.

This exercise stirred some active discussion in what people could see, and what it meant and also for some, added reflection upon themselves. You can alternate working with black and colour Indian inks or together once each layer has dried. 

If you wanted to ramp up the difficulty you could use a sponge and water, wipe over your watercolour paper to get it slightly damp, and then use the inks to experiment with. This allows you to get a less controlled pattern. 

Now enjoy your final finished work and discuss what you can see! 

Some of the links for the materials are affiliate links and are true to the use within the exercise