Blood as Ink

[Dragoonster]

Dragoonster: with any utensil? I was going to do it with a quill and a Fountain pen to test. Do you have any examples for us to see?

Have never tested it with a nibbed pen, though that's an interesting idea. I've just let it drip like Pollack or smeared it with a finger or brush. Blood seems to coagulate quickly so I hadn't thought to try to save it as an ink.

Have examples but my printer is on fritz so can't scan anything. Basically the art looks red-brown and water-colorish. Picture a water-color in blue you did 20 years ago and it's basically also the same now.

You do know that's creepy, right?

Heh. Well, no, as an available medium for art. If a cut occurs and some dark red stuff comes out and one is an artist, why not? If a sturdy paper is handy, may as well do some 100% free art on it rather than send the blood into a trashcan or something.

 

[Brian-M]

Have examples but my printer is on fritz so can't scan anything.

Hmm... that just gave me an odd idea. I've heard of people refilling their spent printer cartridges with food-dye (example). Now I'm wondering if you can do the same with blood (with citric-acid mixed in as an anti-coagulant).

It's definitely not a good idea, but it's certainly an interesting one.

 

[ljohnson]

Well, there is always the Necronomicom from the Evil dead movies.

The book is covered in human skin and written in human blood and bad things happen when you read especially if you are named, Ash.

 

[I Ratant]

I sometimes create artwork out of my blood after I suffer a cut. Been doing this for at least twenty years and the stuff I made back then hasn't faded. If anything blood tends to darken. And if using a ton of it it'll get a nice shiny glaze look.

.
I just looked through my daily ledger for 2000, and found a few stains that might be blood from my blood sugar testing... or orange juice, one... nothing red at all there.

 

[Joey McGee]

 

[Dragoonster]

.
I just looked through my daily ledger for 2000, and found a few stains that might be blood from my blood sugar testing... or orange juice, one... nothing red at all there.

Just pulled a little book I'd sketch in at college in 1990. Has three little blood drawings. Two are "washes", one brown, the other brown with some red streaks. The third was a a Pollock style drip, with one big dollop that still has the glaze. That dollop is purplish-black, the others are brown.

So, more brown than red than I'd thought. But dark and not faded. Oh, found a fourth, this one apparently I'd tilted the paper to let it pool/dry at one end (and it wasn't a ton, so not a lot of quick flow. The color gets much darker and redder towards the pooled parts. Those parts also have a slight glaze. The glaze on this one is a "crackle", vs. the dollop which is lumpy with ridges. (The latter I can feel with my fingers; former is smooth.)


P.S. two interesting body parts as (or a very trace amount of) ink stories: Marvel Comics' Mark Gruenwald's ashes were mixed with the ink for the printing of the Squadron Supreme paperback (as per his wishes). And the blood of the Kiss members were added to the ink for another comic.

P.P.S. I'm kind of inspired now to make a blood sculpture. Create a little receptacle for an ounce or so of blood, then let it dry completely, then crack the receptacle so only the blood remains. If it has a glaze like the ones above it would be sweet!

 

[Dragoonster]

Update: As it happens I've been feasting lately on a lot of shelled nuts, so cracked 3/4 of an almond shell just now. Then cut the tip of a finger (don't call me weird, diabetics do this every day!) and filled the remaining 1/4 shell with blood. No clue how long it'll take to harden, or whether cracking/removing the nut will destroy the blood sculpture. May have to be very delicate with that.

Also curious as to whether after it's cracked the blood will continue to move downward. Is coagulated blood like pitch? Or once it's dried is it relatively stable? Maybe I should fire it afterwards in the oven?

Experimenting for art and science!

 

[Dragoonster]

Only 21 minutes and its already coagulated enough to not move a bit on it's edges when I tilt (and even hang upsidedown) the shell. Still soft enough though for the surface to quiver when I blow on it. Could be more strongly adhered now to another object, the shell, than to no object? Color is vibrant deep red, though I guess...hm, do different people have different shades of blood? Or from different body parts/nutrition/etc?

Well, guess I'll stop updates until I break the shell, might wait a couple days for that.

 

[Dragoonster]

So, results: I woefully missed the effect evaporation would have. What started out as a quarter of a shell quickly became an eighth.

Also placed the nut in bad positions/bumped it so it didn't remain in the same upright position throughout.

Cracked it with a small hand-vice (which I've experience is best at craking hazel and brazil nuts and the like) and it emerged really well. It's color is completely black except for a few thin red flares. It also retained an exact impression of the almond shell. I'm nearsighted and have almost SEM sight without glasses, and it's remarkable how exactly the finished product replicated the host shell.

That side that met the shell is matte; the side that only met air is glossy.

Overall impression is that I don't think this is a decent art endeavor because the finished product is too small, too uniform in color, and any sweet nuances could only be seen by looking extremely closely at it. Still remains a very interesting medium though. And could be mixed with dyes or other agents to increase the size of the final sculpture/vary the coloration.

 

[I Ratant]

One of the other posters here on JREF needed some help with 5 quarts of blood..
You might query him as to the source for your future works.