how to darken brown ink?

[StyloBug33]

I recently purchased my first brown ink, Private Reserve Chocolate. I would like it to he a little darker, but don't think adding black is the best idea. Any suggestions?

Edited November 28, 2009 by Mary A

[spot]

I read somewhere on the forum to leave the cap off so excessive water may evaporate, leaving a more saturated ink behind.

[StyloBug33]

I don't think I am comfortable with that. Among other things, it would undoubtedly get spilled. It is also quite saturated already. It is a rich brown, I would just like it to be a little darker. There's no brown on a color wheel, so I don't know what you would add. I might try a little with black just to see, but thought someone may have tried this on brown before.

[JayLo]

I've noticed some inks darken over a few days in the pen.

[Philosophy Student]

if you are against adding black, which I do not quite understand. Why not add a darker brown? or a dark blue.

[StyloBug33]

I am not against adding black, but I have seen people on the site sometimes recommend another color might be a better choice. I have added black to lots of inks, but am wondering if there is something else.

[Rena]

Hi Mary,

I just got a bottle of PR Chocolat and inked a couple of my pens with it yesterday. I love brown inks and have tried numerous other browns over the years. Chocolat is the darkest one I've encountered so far. In fact, it almost looked black coming from my wet-writing Parker Vac. First try it in different pens, if you are fortunate to have a variety of nibs to choose from. One of them may show the darker qualities of this ink. My drier-writing CI nib, that also has a broader writing surface, shows more of the lighter, chocolate highlights of the ink (which I happen to prefer). You may have liked what I got by using my Vac but it was too dark for me so I've rinsed that pen out.

 

If you do add black to darken, just mix a small batch in a separate bottle rather than adding black to your full jar of Chocolat. This way, if you don't like what you've mixed, you haven't ruined the whole thing. You may already know that, but just a word of warning in case...

[JohnCruzNg]

That ink is made up of a green ink and a red ink maybe if you add a darker green ink to your brown it might come out darker.

[contaxrts2]

On diamine Chocolate Brown and on Waterman Havanna I used Blacks of diamine and Waterman to darken. It worksbut I am still in experimental status.

[Flourish]

Mix in some of your primary colors a bit at a time until you get the color you like. Oh, and make sure they're Private Reserve as well.

[Kabe]

I say mix some black, but in a 20 to 1 ratio. Even the tiniest amount of balck will darken

[welfvet]

I was going to suggest red, thinking of my Diamine Monaco Red that has a brownish quality to it. No experience to back this up though!

[Sandy1]

Hello,

In general terms, I agree that it is best to avoid Black for mixing - primarily because many Blacks are a mixture of colours - not 'just Black'. From my experience, the mix of colors in the Black can easily taint or alter the intent of just darkening a colour, especially the warm colors. My preferred method is to add from the opposite side of the color wheel to darken a color.

 

That said, Brown is mixed from many colors, so there's really no 1 or 2 colors that can be used to darken it that don't also cause a big color shift. (I just tried adding Blue to Brown, and adding Red to Brown - too much color shift I'm afraid.) So, lets just add some Black. It seems that the Noodle's 'Black' is quite neutral and The Writers Block recommends it as a 'mixing color'. Adding Black must be done so very carefully, or you'll overshoot your target.

 

I use an eye dropper, a white saucer, a shot glass, a 0.7 dip pen & some inexpensive copy paper to start with. Q-tip swatches are so very inconsistent! But take a Qtip, dip it in your Brn, and make a line long enough that the Qtip runs dry. Do the same with the Bk - parallel and about 3" from the Brn line. Those are your inner and outer 'range markers'.

 

A likely start would be 20 drops Brn + 1 drop Bk into the shot glass. (No sips!!) Give it a good stir with the dip pen nib. Dip the nib and write a few lines - until the pen runs dry. (That will show you the pale density as the ink runs out.) Add some water to the saucer, and rinse the pen in that water. Once again to reveal the color at its palest.

 

If the mix is too dark, recycle it and start over with say 50 drops Brn to 1 Bk.

If the mix is too light, add 1 more drop of Bk, then repeat the dip pen ritual.

 

When/if you think you're close, fill a converter directly from the well-mixed concoction in the shot glass, and write with that FP. Make any other tweaks, then make enough of your new mix for at least a few day's writing in your intended pen and paper. (Saran over the shot glass should be enough to keep it happy for a few days. Also, check the glass for solids / particles / gunk / junk in the trunk.)

 

Keep good notes / records!

 

Mixing ink is great to do on sleepless nights. (When you're busy in someone else's dream.)

 

Best Regards,

Sandy1

[DanF]

I just did a few experiments, and would suggest adding a bluish green such as Diamine Woodland or PR Sherwood Green. A teal such as Noodler's Squeteague or Diamine Teal will also work. this darkens the mixture by neutralizing some of the red component. About 3:1 or 5:2 Chocolate to Green respectively should do it, depending what you are looking for. The end result will not be as reddish as it was, but that's what makes it darker.

 

I would start with very small amounts, three drops of Chocolate, to one drop of blue green, and test. If you are not happy, add a drop one or the other until you are. I use those little plastic one ounce cups and tilt them so the puddle stays together. Play around with proportions this way until you come up with something you like, and then use those as a guide to mix larger amounts. You can do a lot of these experiments with very little waste of ink, and you will learn a lot about color mixing, so have fun.

 

Keep in mind that a dip pen will generally lay down more ink than a fountain pen, so the line will be darker than you would see from your fountain pen. I use a fountain pen nib in a dip pen, and get pretty close to what an actual pen would look like.

 

Dan

Edited November 29, 2009 by DanF

[Sandy1]

I just did a few experiments, and would suggest adding a bluish green such as Diamine Woodland or PR Sherwood Green. A teal such as Noodler's Squeteague or Diamine Teal will also work. this darkens the mixture by neutralizing some of the red component. About 3:1 or 5:2 Chocolate to Green respectively should do it, depending what you are looking for. The end result will not be as reddish as it was, but that's what makes it darker.

 

I would start with very small amounts, three drops of Chocolate, to one drop of blue green, and test. If you are not happy, add a drop one or the other until you are.

Dan

Hi Dan,

Do you think the Diamine 'Indigo' might be a mixing choice?

BR

S1

[petravana]

I recently purchased my first brown ink, Private Reserve Chocolate. I would like it to he a little darker, but don't think adding black is the best idea. Any suggestions?

 

You may want to wait a bit and see how it changes in the pen after a few days. It will get darker. I use that ink alot and wish that it didn't darken so much as it almost gets indistinguishable from black.

[Viseguy]

That ink is made up of a green ink and a red ink maybe if you add a darker green ink to your brown it might come out darker.

And greener.

 

Make life easy for yourself. A small amount of black will do the trick.

[DanF]

I just did a few experiments, and would suggest adding a bluish green such as Diamine Woodland or PR Sherwood Green. A teal such as Noodler's Squeteague or Diamine Teal will also work. this darkens the mixture by neutralizing some of the red component. About 3:1 or 5:2 Chocolate to Green respectively should do it, depending what you are looking for. The end result will not be as reddish as it was, but that's what makes it darker.

 

I would start with very small amounts, three drops of Chocolate, to one drop of blue green, and test. If you are not happy, add a drop one or the other until you are.

Dan

Hi Dan,

Do you think the Diamine 'Indigo' might be a mixing choice?

BR

S1

 

Indigo is great for making a color more neutral, knocking down the intensity without darkening too much. Don't think it would work so well for this purpose, but then I didn't try it either, so who knows? Looking back at my notes, Lake Placid Blue didn't do too bad at darkening up the Chocolate. Florida Blue had very little effect.

 

Well, curiosity got the best of me and I tried the Indigo. As suspected, it did very little, even mixed 1:1, it just dulled the shaded portion of the writing. Chocolate shades quite a bit, and the shaded part (light portion) is where you see the red, the darker part is quite dark. The Woodland Green diminished the shading somewhat, and made everything darker.

 

Dan

[DanF]

That ink is made up of a green ink and a red ink maybe if you add a darker green ink to your brown it might come out darker.

And greener.

 

Make life easy for yourself. A small amount of black will do the trick.

 

Actually, a little bit of a blue green such as Woodland Green will darken the mix without turning the whole mix greenish. I tried a number of things, including black, and found adding 1 part Woodland Green to 3 parts Chocolate to be the most satisfactory, and not at all "green", just a little darker and less red. It did knock down the shading somewhat, which contributed to the overall darkening. With Aurora Black, added there was still shading, and the darker portions were just about black, but the lighter areas were still light, but grayer. Maybe another black would behave differently, but black usually just sucks the life out of colors, compared to mixing a complimentary color to achieve a darker tone.

 

Dan

[Sandy1]

I just did a few experiments, and would suggest adding a bluish green such as Diamine Woodland or PR Sherwood Green. A teal such as Noodler's Squeteague or Diamine Teal will also work. this darkens the mixture by neutralizing some of the red component. About 3:1 or 5:2 Chocolate to Green respectively should do it, depending what you are looking for. The end result will not be as reddish as it was, but that's what makes it darker.

 

I would start with very small amounts, three drops of Chocolate, to one drop of blue green, and test. If you are not happy, add a drop one or the other until you are.

Dan

Hi Dan,

Do you think the Diamine 'Indigo' might be a mixing choice?

BR

S1

 

Indigo is great for making a color more neutral, knocking down the intensity without darkening too much. Don't think it would work so well for this purpose, but then I didn't try it either, so who knows? Looking back at my notes, Lake Placid Blue didn't do too bad at darkening up the Chocolate. Florida Blue had very little effect.

 

Well, curiosity got the best of me and I tried the Indigo. As suspected, it did very little, even mixed 1:1, it just dulled the shaded portion of the writing. Chocolate shades quite a bit, and the shaded part (light portion) is where you see the red, the darker part is quite dark. The Woodland Green diminished the shading somewhat, and made everything darker.

 

Dan

Hello again,

Well, I had a go using the R&K 'Verdigris'. It darkened the Brown, but pretty much eliminated the shading - even when sampled with a Lamy Safari 1.1 nib. ... I've gone as far on this one as seems reasonably practical. Too bad I couldn't get what I thought I could. P**p.

BR

S1