I decided to try to use my bleach pen on my digital photographs. I’d printed them out much too light. Lo and behold, it worked! I then quickly printed out another image and this time the print would not bleach out. I finally figured out that you must select black under ink color (see below), so that your image prints using only black ink. I have an Epson 200 printer with Epson inks, I believe Epsons use dye-based inks, but have no idea why the black bleaches out so easily.

To do this:

1. Print your image out (using only black ink) onto everyday glossy photo paper. Lower the contrast or print medium quality so the printer will apply less ink.

2. When printed, trace over your image with a black sharpie.

3. Randomly squeeze bleach from bleach pen onto photo and quickly wipe with a paper towel. You should see an immediate erasure of the black ink. Clean off bleach by spraying with water and wiping away with a clean paper towel. Let your image dry.

4. Color your image. I used art markers: a dark, medium, and light color for each article of clothing. It helps to have a printout of the original image to use as a reference. Test colors on a piece of photo paper. Notice how colors change when you overlap them. This is another way to shade. I colored my light areas first, then the dark and then I filled in remaining areas with middle tone.

5. Add details, I added fishnet stockings and jewelry to my image. You can even add a whole new background if you like.