Playing With Pigment Inks

Pigment inks are great for working on backgrounds. When I worked on this butterfly, I used the pigment ink dauber to work on the background and then I cut the butterfly shape out of corrugated paper, painted the ridges with black ink and stamped it onto the inked background. This is a simple technique but the end results aren't too bad.

Handmade Paper Backgrounds

Working with torn pieces of handmade paper is a great way to create a textured look for the background for a collage or mixed media piece. The process is a little bit more labor intensive than using paint, but the end result is usually a good one that will allow you to set the tone for what you're working on, and if you're trying to add some varying levels of texture, then this is another way to do it.

I used a lot of bright colors on this one, but muted tones will work just as well.