April Artist & Ambassador of the Month: OLIVIA JOY STUDIO

We are very excited to bring attention to a new artist & educator every month. Each Artist we highlight also teaches their craft in some way so we can all benefit from it. This month we interview Olivia Joy. You may have seen her vibrant exciting work on Instagram. Here we delve into what drives this artist and how we can learn from her.

1) What kind of alcohol ink artist are you? How did you get started? Tell us a little about you.

I started working with alcohol ink about 5 years ago after seeing it used by other artists on Instagram. I graduated from college/art school and wanted to paint full time, back then I was working primarily with oil paint. I turned to alcohol ink while I was waiting for layers of oil paint to dry and after a few months I packed my oils away and shifted entirely to alcohol ink. My work is abstract and I love mixing other kinds of ink, paint, pigment, glitter and other media in when I can.

2) What would you say are your specialties as an alcohol ink artist? What sets you apart?

I love working on a very large pieces, the bigger the better! And I’m pretty good at choosing colors, mixing them and blending to achieve balance and harmony in my work.

3) Do you teach how to do this at all? How can we learn from you?

I have a few online classes available on Vimeo. They are dated (I think four years old!) and so much has changed in the AI community. I hope to film more segments this summer and make them available soon! Link here.

4) What advice for new alcohol ink artists would you offer?

With alcohol ink less is more! It’s so hard to stop sometimes, setting a time limit is a good way to prevent yourself from overworking a piece. Try not to compare your creations to other artists who may have years of experience ahead of you, compare your work now to your previous work to see how far you’ve come! And most importantly, likes/follows do not equal success! 

5) What have you enjoyed most about using T-Rex Inks? Do you have any in-depth review videos / posts about our inks we can link to?

I love all of the vibrant T-Rex colors, especially the new Starlight Shimmer pack! I love the pops of shimmer and enjoy not being able to control where the shimmer shows up. I also LOVE the pure white and highly recommend it to anyone looking for white alcohol ink. It is by far the smoothest and easiest to work.