This is the next slideshow in the "alcohol ink" series. This includes some more complex digital image editing and the use of a neural filter / AI add-on to the software with cloud processing. That image is identified. As mentioned, I now have some acrylic inks and will be trying those in a future work.

1. Flow
A novice’s play in alcohol inks,
synthetic papers,
and digital image editing…
Shalin Hai-Jew
March 2021

2. 2
Artificial Citrus Flavors

3. 3
Land and Sky

4. 4
Focal

5. 5
Gel Pad

6. 6
Remainder

7. 7
Water’s Edge

8. 8
Gears

9. 9
Delirium

10. Flow
• This slideshow is a continuation of the alcohol ink drip-playing during the
time of the pandemic, with working from home meaning very long work
days and working through nights and weekends. With the job losses, many
are picking up the slack.
• We also have to work harder at professional development without any budget, so
this means free online conferences, free trainings, and self-learning as much as
possible.
• The title of this is a play on liquidity. This refers in part on
Csikszentmihalyi’s “flow,” a state for me which is fleeting and interspersed
between other projects. Playing with these visuals relaxes me.
• Titling cannot be sort of imposed on a work. It works better if the titling comes from
the work itself organically.
10

11. Flow(cont.)
• This is a brutal period for humanity. Not everyone will come out
whole on the other side, if at all.
• Part of this work is about staying in touch with my own humanity, to help me
find the reserves to support others in their work. It is about being kind(er)
without being taken advantage of.
• The point is not to fall into negative cycles like blame, accusations, paranoia,
and micro-aggressions, all of which I’ve observed and / or experienced. We
are all fatigued, tired of being tired, tired of being under bio-threat.
• The point is not to “blow off” people.
11

12. Flow (cont.)
• My main objective is the learning (and the “journey” but not to sound
hokey), so I’ll share some observations here.
• The learning is accumulative. With additional knowledge, more complexity
and more simplicity may be achieved…with some level of control.
• Part of the learning is about seeing with some level of attention.
• It is about understanding human conventions with visual “common art.”
• It is important to lighten the hand…and not go overboard. Seeing subtleties and nuances
is important, and it is important to protect these features.
• There are various new sequences and steps and techniques used to
arrive at different visual effects. It is important to get off the beaten
track (of one’s own making) and experiment more along the way. This
learning only occurs experientially and in the moment. It is not an
intellectualization in most cases.
12

13. Flow (cont.)
• Understanding “pause points” and “when to stop” is so important.
• In the alcohol ink drawings / paintings on synthetic paper, it is too easy to go
past a point of no return, and then it’s just muddy. (Digital editing can save
some of these since I can always lighten the image to see the layers below. I
can play with contrast. I can play with edges.)
• In digital visuals, it helps to pause along the way to save a copy under a new
name to return to later for further editing. The pause points occur when I see
potential in the base visual that can be distorted and / or edited for further
effects.
• Of course, there are dried paintings that may still be re-used for additional
visuals, and in the spirit of frugality, I am consciously revisiting former practice
works and painting over them.
13

14. Flow (cont.)
• Digital editing does enable born-digital works. They enable born-
physical works (scanned or photographed into digital format).
• All the work I do, I consider practice runs. I try all the variations I think make
sense.
• The amounts of options become astronomical, especially with the various
options in digital image editing.
• I am using more of the 2d and 3d but do not view these in fixed form. It is
perfectly fine to move between the two.
• I am fine CTRL+Z-ing out of any sequence that I’ve followed in terms of digital
image editing. It is interesting to see decision points in reverse order, to see
where I went astray.
• I try all variations and am fine about not being satisfied until I’m satisfied.
14

15. Flow (cont.)
• Lots of (fun) trials and errors
• I’m okay going down blind alleys. I’m okay dumping work that is not working.
• I will revisit a work as needed. I wait a day or two to make sure the choices I made
work or not.
• It helps to know when there is still more road to take on an image, so that its
potential is not lost to a lack of exploration.
• I finally tried the fairly new neural filters and applied a new pre-loaded art style to
one work.
• Also the “commit” does not happen until I share in the slideshow, so there is a lot of
freedom there, too. Being noncommittal is a state of freedom. (The alcohol ink
commits in seconds, though, on its own.)
• I don’t want much for inspiration. I try to find a time or two to play with the alcohol
ink, even if it is just in passing as I am passing the workspace where I have the inks
and synthetic papers.
15

16. Flow (cont.)
• These works are about both disorder and order, and there is a thin space
where these are in proper balance.
• I recently came into some low-cost acrylic inks, and maybe these will be
integrated into the explorations.
• Soon, I may be ready to integrate this new angle.
• About the cover image, I almost always choose something different than
what I initially think will be “it.” The initial ones are almost always
placeholders. Then as the various images come into being, there is one
that is created that I sudden realize is the one…and I go with it. It may be
that the cover image is just the selection when there are just a few more
slots to fill, and it’s a matter of running up against a deadline.
16

17. Flow(cont.)
• The more “humble” skills are also important.
• One such skill involves cleaning an initial scan of the synthetic paper.
• How can one preserve subtle (low-contrast) shapes while removing
backgrounds? [Selecting and copying objects onto a blank background?
Raising the contrast, so an edge can be seen by the machine? Manually
closing edges?]
• How can one get to white color balance?
• How can a rough edge be cleaned? Feathered? Subtly replaced?
17

18. Flow(cont.)
• It helps to have a larger range of options. It helps to have technical
discernment about which work pipelines and tools are optimal and
which suboptimal.
• It helps to engage in the cross-fertilization of ideas, with the analog –
digital, visual – textual, and other dimensions informing the work.
• This set includes some more references to food and flavors and
tastes, something inspired by the concept of synaesthesia.
• I like the idea of visuals triggering multi-sensory sensations and concepts.
18

19. Flow (cont.)
• As an instructional designer, researcher, and teacher, I know how
important it is to push through moments where it does not feel like
you’re making any progress.
• Learning is incremental. Learning is hard work.
• We determine the direction of some of our learning.
• We control our attitudes towards learning. It is our job to protect our
curiosity to learn.
• We can’t delegate out our own responsibility to learn. We have to own it!
• It helps to be open to experimentation.
• It helps to be patient with the self. Real learning requires the space to learn.
• Don’t be satisfied too easily (if ever). The brag is not the thing. Really.
19

20. On white synth paper
20

21. 21
Rift

22. 22
Skywriting

23. 23
Outdoor Fire Pit

24. 24
Consonance

25. 25
Emergent

26. 26
Summer Fruit Salad

27. 27
Stone Fruit

28. 28
Blueberries

29. 29
Bluish Mindset

30. On digital variants
30

31. 31
Sea and Sky

32. 32
Landscape Features

33. 33
Problem Solving

34. 34
Heads Tails

35. 35
Robotics

36. 36
Discontinuities

37. 37
Discontinuities (with Preloaded Neural Art Filter)

38. 38
Bio Risk Environment

39. 39
Geyser

40. 40
Someday

41. 41
Prairie Perennial

42. 42
Lava

43. 43
Chance Factors

44. 44
Night Watering

45. 45
Fragmentation

46. 46
Syrup

47. 47
Momentum Out

48. 48
Pair

49. 49
Black Plum

50. 50
Modern Chair

51. 51
Dispersion

52. 52
Hungry Waves

53. 53
Promise

54. 54
Stagnant

55. 55
Freeway Lights

56. 56
Order Disorder

57. 57
Shell

58. 58
Convergence

59. 59
Shallows