Woodlands resident Brenda McDougall makes a living creating alcohol ink artwork on ceramic tiles that vary in size.

“It’s a fairly new medium,” she said. “It’s similar to watercolor, but it has an alcohol base to it.”

Alcohol ink must be applied to a slick surface and can be challenging to control since it absorbs and spreads out on surfaces quickly, McDougall said.

The process for making an alcohol ink piece involves applying the ink, spraying the finished picture with a fixative spray and pouring and torching resin—a sticky, flammable substance—overtop. McDougall is typically able to apply ink in about 20 minutes, she said.

“I call it affordable art,” McDougall said. “Everybody would like a piece of affordable art. Paintings go for big bucks, and the other side of it is having the wall space for paintings. This kind of work everybody can afford, and it goes anywhere.”

Although alcohol ink is McDougall’s most popular medium, she also creates encaustic wax paintings and works with graphic design program Adobe Illustrator to create art. She has been drawing or painting since she was a child and worked as a muralist after graduating from college, she said. These days, she has her own Etsy shop and sells her work on Facebook.

Since joining the Woodlands Art League in 2016, McDougall has gotten more involved with local art events and has enjoyed meeting like-minded people, she said.

“I didn’t realize how much there was available in this area until I joined,” she said. “A thing to think about as an artist is if you’re not careful, it’s a very isolated job. You find yourself in your studio, and the world’s just continuing to go.”

McDougall typically has multiple ongoing commissioned projects in the works in addition to creating alcohol ink pieces, she said.

“For me, I get bored with doing the same thing over and over,” McDougall said. “When I’m working on paintings, I tend to be concentrating so hard. Every decision that you make—there’s no going back. [Alcohol ink] allows me to go to the other extreme where it’s very light, very fast and vibrant. You can’t look at it and not be happy.”