Video summary
In this episode of Inkblot Alchemy, artist Kim Deas Holm invites viewers into an unscripted creative process where a random inkblot serves as the catalyst for drawing something out of chaos. Although she initially considers creating a landscape featuring hills or mountains, the fluid nature of her chosen medium—Ecoline liquid watercolors—guides the composition toward a forest scene instead. Unlike traditional ink that dries permanently, these reactivatable pigments allow her to manipulate the image long after it has dried by adding water again, spreading colors and refining shapes in real-time. This unique property enables a dynamic interplay between control and chance, ensuring that the artwork evolves organically rather than following a rigid pre-determined plan.
The artist draws a fascinating parallel between her improvisational style and the legendary painter Bob Ross, noting how his seemingly effortless eloquence was actually the result of extensive preparation involving three separate versions of each painting: a private sketch, a silent close-up shot, and the final wide-angle recording with commentary. While Holm acknowledges that she cannot replicate this multi-version workflow for her current series, she reflects on the value of such preparation versus her own preference for spontaneous creation. She explains that while her lack of scripting means her verbal explanations may not be as polished as Ross's, the mental effort required to think and draw simultaneously fosters a different kind of creativity where the brain works harder to generate ideas on the spot.
As the piece develops into a wandering figure moving through woods, Holm introduces a spiritual element by incorporating an Enso circle, a symbol often associated with Zen Buddhism representing enlightenment or the universe. She establishes a personal rule that if she feels the Enso is imperfect, she must tear up the work as a sign from fate, but since the circle turns out well, she accepts the piece and names it "Wandering Thoughts." This moment of acceptance marks the completion of the alchemical transformation from chaotic ink to a coherent image. The final artwork is inspired by Portishead's song "Wandering Star," blending visual art with auditory inspiration to create a cohesive narrative about journeying through the unknown.
Looking ahead, Holm discusses her upcoming collaboration series, Drawn from Myth, and her intention to learn more structured storytelling techniques from Bob Ross for its second season. She aims to balance the spontaneous nature of Inkblot Alchemy with tighter scripting and better narration to enhance the mythological content being discussed. While she plans to maintain the core focus on the alchemical process happening on the page in this series, the new project will prioritize the stories themselves, using art as a complementary element rather than the sole driver. Ultimately, the episode celebrates the magic of letting the ink decide the direction, proving that even when the outcome is unexpected, the journey of creation remains a fun and magical experience for both the artist and the audience.
Read the full video transcript
Hi there. I'm Kim Deas Holm and this is
Inkblot Alchemy where we use our
creativity to draw something out of
chaos. Now, what will we find in today's
inkblot?
Ooh,
fancy.
I don't know what this is yet.
And I'm not supposed to know what this
is yet.
But I'm feeling like I want to do
something that may be more towards a
landscape. Some
hill or or or uh
uh
mountains or something in that regard.
Something that crawls up like this.
I don't know.
And while we keep looking and seeing
possibilities, allow me to explain
briefly what Inkblot Alchemy is. Two
times a week, I draw something new from
a random inkblot and release the video
of the full process unedited and
unscripted except for this intro script.
I may have ideas of what to draw, but
the ink always decides the direction. It
might get dark, it might get silly, it
might get personal, it might get
political. If you want to skip the whole
process, then you are free to do so. The
final image is marked in the video. But
if you want to come along, then random
ink drawings is not just drawing, it's
fun, it's play, it's magic, it's Inkblot
Alchemy.
Now, let us start twisting the thing
we have here.
And
on the two last
uh
inkblot alkemies I did,
I worked with
this brand new ink I had bought.
But now I'm back to using some Ecoline
liquid watercolors.
And the thing about the liquid
watercolors, even though I call it
inkblot, because it's
it's a lot of the same.
So, even though I call it inkblot,
the thing is that it is reactivatable.
So,
even when it's dry, you can put water on
it, and you will start spreading the
color, spreading the pigments.
And that is fascinating.
Now,
I thought this would be some mountains,
but
suddenly
I'm seeing woods.
And I'm moving my brush.
I'm going all Bob Ross making happy
little trees.
That's um
that's definitely an inspiration. I
my style is very different from Bob
Ross.
And I In the comments I've been called a
metal Bob Ross.
Too many times, but I take that as a
compliment. But
in the early days of
piracy on the interwebs,
I
downloaded and went through
as good as every episode of
Bob Ross's program, The Joy of Painting.
And one of the fascinating things with
those was how
not just art, but how
fluidly he could present
the art and
talk about it while painting.
And if you're noticing, I'm not as
eloquent as Mr. Ross.
I'm not saying this to put him down in
any way, shape, or form because it it is
just a matter of style and what you do,
but but
the reason why he was able to do
these fantastic
drawing painting sessions that were half
an hour
each of them.
And to talk so freely and fluidly over
them
is that behind every
and this isn't a secret. And it's not a
dig. It's a description of the process.
But behind every Bob Ross painting,
there were
three
paintings.
So, there was the one sketch
where he figured out what he wanted to
paint.
And then
there was the
close-up camera
that was a camera pointed
towards
his
um
his easel and his canvas
showing the close-up of
what he was painting without him
in the picture.
And then finally,
it was
the
wide shot where you could see him
painting and talking.
And these three were three different
paintings.
And when you're looking at them closely,
you can see some tiny
differences. Sometimes tiny differences
when
the camera
goes from one to the other.
Other times
these tiny differences
when
you see the final painting during this
um
during ooh
the
end titles.
Because that end title
if I
this part I I may be
um
maybe I'm making this up.
But if I'm not mistaken
the end title could sometimes be
the sketch that you didn't see on any of
the videos.
Because they would put the best version
on
the end titles.
>> That
I may have made that up. So so
um
I may have made the part where they
could put the sketch on the end titles
up. The other parts are correct that
there were three versions. There were a
sketch
uh that wasn't filmed while painting and
that could have taken longer and it was
the
um
uh close-up which took 30 minutes while
not talking and there was the final wide
shot where he was talking. That's how he
managed to
be so incredibly
eloquent while also painting. And it's a
fascinating process
and I would like
to try it
myself sometime.
But uh
um
you can already sort of see how it's
different
from
what I'm doing here.
What I'm doing here
is I'm coming up with
everything
on the spot. Even
those days where I know what I'm going
to
draw as
even if I I have an idea of what to draw
I'm coming up with it on the spot.
And that requires
your brain thinking
in
completely different way than the third
time you're doing an identical
painting.
Therefore, brain thinky much
hard stuff, words outcome not always
eloquent and Bob Ross-like, but happy
little trees still can make.
So, yeah.
Uh
I could not do what Bob Ross did.
I could not do an identical piece three
times, even though I can and have done
very similar pieces.
But
I
live for
the improvisation. I'm not saying there
wasn't improvisation in
Bob Ross's pieces, but the
improvisation
was more
in
the
earliest,
the the unseen.
Sketch.
A- And yeah, maybe one of or two of the
happy accidents were happy accidents.
Uh I'm not calling him a liar or
anything like that.
I I think with
his work, what you see was what you got
in a very
real sense.
But uh
yeah, maybe
and this is something I've been thinking
about because I've started doing a show
with uh Lucas Wachsni called Drawn from
Myth.
We've
um
had a few of the episodes released.
Um
as collab with this channel, then Unger
Hard Holm.
Uh and
we have finished
our first season. And sometime in
hopefully in September we'll record our
second season.
For the second season, one of the things
I'm thinking about and I want to do is
to
learn a little bit more
from Bob Ross.
Is to
take
this improvised process here,
but make it into
a format
where I can
talk much more freely,
and focus more on telling a story,
telling because that's what the show is
about. It's
drawing from myth while talking and
discussing the myths, whether they be
ancient myths or fairy tales or H.P.
Lovecraft or maybe we'll go into some
metal and some video games and
it is
drawing from myth is
supposed to be
much more about
the content of what we're talking about
and the the
art is supposed to be in a sense an
extra. In order to make that happen,
maybe I need to steal more from Bob Ross
and
do a practice painting
and make sure that I can
make it in the allotted time that, you
know,
if I can
make the art in 30 minutes
without talking
then I surely can make an identical
piece or similarish piece
in
an hour while talking.
So, that will be the goal for
season two
it's to
up the storytelling.
Well, this one
it is more about
the storytelling
on
the page.
is about the alchemy that happens
on the page.
Uh and
if I you know, I can have ambitions
about
writing tighter scripts.
Oh,
I don't have scripts.
I only have the the intro script. That's
here. It's literally taped on my
teleprompter.
Uh
and I use my teleprompter just to know
where I should look when I look at the
camera.
So So, I can work on
becoming better at
telling some sort of cohesive story,
narrating what's happening as I
improvise
the image, the art.
And uh
that would be
very
good of me to do.
And that should be a focus.
The focus on
Inkblot Alchemy will always be on the
alchemy, on what's happening here.
That's the exciting part. That's the
alchemy of it.
Well, Drawn from Myth
is something
where we can
focus more
on the content of what's being said, on
the stories that are being told,
and then have
art complemented
and add
to it.
I think that's
probably
a good strategy.
Now,
uh
this piece is starting to come together.
It's com- becoming some sort of a
Odin wandering,
something like that.
Through the woods.
Which means
we will need
some tiny little ravens
up here.
Ravens or or maybe
seagulls or pigeons.
Who can tell? No one can tell at this
distance.
Okay.
Let's soak up
some of that
water.
Ooh.
Careful now.
And let's reactivate it a little bit
for some better shapes.
And work with the shapes.
It doesn't have to be
very
accurate. It just has to be
enough.
And then
I think
I will do
Let's do a little tiny
white dot
for
an eye.
>> And that white dot will
have
some of the blue ink
reactivate up through it, ideal.
But we won't know exactly how much until
it's dried.
Um if I had been using
uh liquid acrylic
or
watercolor, it would have soaked more of
the watercolor up. But this gouache
actually doesn't soak a lot up, so maybe
it doesn't change all that much.
But um
Yeah, let's
do
a little bit of more
blackish thing
here and some
Not too much.
Let's continue
these shapes.
And
there is this nice triangle here.
That nice triangle
dictates where I'll put an answer
symbol. And the answer symbol
is the circle I draw when I think that
maybe I touched on something
spiritual or important or something more
than what's on the paper.
Um and I think, you know, when it comes
to these decisions about how to do the
storytelling and the art and and the
different project. I think
that qualifies. So,
the enso is
so that if
I make the enso and it looks good,
the gods
that are not
have accepted the work and I get to keep
it.
If
If I don't like the enso,
the circle, if it isn't
perfect, if it isn't just how it should
be,
then I have to tear up the work and it
was a mistake. That's what fate tells
me.
Let's see if I have to tear up the work.
Someday, if I keep doing these drawings
with an enso on Ink Blot Alchemy,
someday
I will have to
tear up the work. Those are the rules. I
didn't make the rules. I only made the
rules.
Breathe
slowly.
Perfect.
No notes.
So, that means
the gods,
the fates, the cosmos, chance or luck
happenstance
accepted
today's drawing.
And I get to name it.
And I'll name it
wandering
thoughts.
Now, I have Portishead with Wandering
Star
going in my head, which is a great song.
Ink Blot Alchemy number
018
and sign it.
And that is
how this Ink Blot became Wandering
Thoughts. And if you like this piece,
then it's uploaded both as a print and
the original at the unge haredholm.com,
where you can support me through buying
it. And you can also download
the scan and use it freely because I
release all my art under a Creative
Commons Attribution license, so you can
use it personally, you can use it
commercially, you can use it however you
want as long as you name me as artist. I
think this one came out surprising for
me. It's not a surprising theme, uh
for me, but I was surprised that this
was where we went today or where the ink
took us, because that's
what Ink Blot Alchemy is all about,
going where the ink takes us.
And uh we'll be back in a few days with
another Ink Blot Alchemy.