Today’s materials are:

• ink-jet printer refill ink (red, blue, yellow and black)
• old newspaper
• some toothpicks
• a roller
• some printer paper

I have all this ink-jet printer refill ink and no ink-jet printer (I gave them away to others who needed printers since I have a colour laser printer).

I decided it would be fun to make inkblot pictures. I don’t think I ever made inkblot pictures in school.

I dribbled the ink using toothpicks (I had to break the tips off, otherwise the point is too fine to hold any appreciable amount of ink). I also flicked out drops from the bottles whilst trying to avoid spilling the ink. I prefolded the paper so make the “splatting” process less messy. I am now thinking, I could have laid another sheet on top (thus avoiding the visible crease) and gotten far less symmetrical blots.

Maybe it is the choice of my materials, but the ink really soaks into the paper.

It can be messy (for the palmists out there, you will notice I don’t have the normal creases in my hand, but what is known as a Simian Crease, the same on my left hand):

This is the first. Done using black ink. You can see how the paper wrinkled.

The second. Also done using black ink.

The third. Done using red, blue and yellow ink. This one is my favourite.

The final inkblot. Done using red, blue, yellow and black ink.

I recognize the orientation is arbitrary, so here are the images in successive 90 degree rotations.