Here’s a squid painted in its own squid ink on rice paper. Sometimes getting the ink sack from inside the squid can be very difficult–for example the ink might have already been shot out or it’s just hard to find inside the body of the squid. It has such a beautiful, rich, warm color when you can get it. Painting on rice paper forces me to be very bold and direct–you can’t build up on each brushstroke as you can with heavy watercolor. As a result the paintings come across as more expressive, though I find they can be very easy to mess up. Paintings like this are up for a reward on my Kickstarter page just like this preparatory sketch.