Mr Ice Cream (2025) Original Ink Drawing by Ryan Louder

Mr Ice Cream came out of a spill. Indian ink is shellac and water and once it dries it's done, waterproof, no lifting it back off the paper, so you don't steer it you follow it. The black itself is soot, it was smoke before it was him. He arrived as a drop and then he was somebody, the way figures do when they turn up faster than I can decide about them, edges soft, half of him still deciding whether to stay. That's just how he looked when I saw him. Ink dries quicker than you'd think, the whole character set in about ninety seconds while I held my breath. He's melting of course, that's the arrangement when you're an ice cream, but he seems fine with it, cheerful all the way down as he goes. The paper has all of him now. Ink keeps what it takes.

Materials used:

Ink

Details:

• Ink drawing on Paper
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 24 x 30 x 0.1cm (unframed)
• Signed on the front
• Style: Expressive and gestural
• Subject: People and portraits