Purple Ink Making Failures

[Dino Silone]

I've been trying to make a darkish purple ink by mixing red and either blue or turquoise (all Skrip).

 

I tried going in two directions. The first was to start with 1ml of red, and then add turquoise drop by drop to see what would happen. It passed through a variety of brick colors, and then settled on brown, never having passed through purple at all. Adding more red eventually gives a black ink.

 

I then started going in the other direction, i.e. by starting with 1ml of turquoise and adding red drop by drop. A couple of drops produced a blue-black color that nearly matched Skrip blue-black (with maybe a hint of purple in it). Another couple of drops created black.

 

Results using blue instead of turquoise were similar, except it got to black sooner.

 

I thought blue + red makes purple. What gives? And what's a good way to make purple ink without starting with some purple ink (or pokeberries - I'm not that hard-core. ) ?

[zipcodeman]

Unless you start out with a bright red and a bright blue, I don't think you will be able to create a very nice purple.

 

Edit: Oh yeah, light and pigment don't mix the same. In light, generally, red green and blue are mixed. but with pigments, it works better to use Cyan Magenta and Yellow. It has do do with additive vs subtractive properties of pigments and light. Lights add together, while pigments absorb more light when mixed.

Edited March 31, 2011 by zipcodeman

[professionaldilettante]

not even that, you're probably going to have to use something like Cyan and Magenta. I would think this dives into color theory, which has been explored with Noodler's inks, here on FPN. Where, I don't know, but you could find it easily I think.

[Scrawler]

In my search for purple, I discovered that blue and red make brown.

[KCat]

isn't turquoise more green?

 

When I've made purplish inks I've used a bright blue that probably already leans purplish to begin with (something like Florida blue) and a red that is not too orange. Otherwise you'll get mud. Levenger's cobalt and cardinal red made a very dark burgundy that did not get muddy or dried blood. The inks available for FPs are more complex than you might think. Take any set of browns for example and do a little paper chromatography. you'll see some interesting separation into a variety of colors. The amount of greens or reds or yellows in one brown v. another is always interesting to me. Likewise black ink which can be blue-based, red-based, or green-based.

[encephalartos]

isn't turquoise more green?

 

When I've made purplish inks I've used a bright blue that probably already leans purplish to begin with (something like Florida blue) and a red that is not too orange. Otherwise you'll get mud. Levenger's cobalt and cardinal red made a very dark burgundy that did not get muddy or dried blood. The inks available for FPs are more complex than you might think. Take any set of browns for example and do a little paper chromatography. you'll see some interesting separation into a variety of colors. The amount of greens or reds or yellows in one brown v. another is always interesting to me. Likewise black ink which can be blue-based, red-based, or green-based.

 

Correct, turquoise is on the green side of blue. That would mean there is yellow in it. Yellow is the complement of purple, so if you are starting with yellow to mix purple, something muddy results. Florida Blue, or Diamine Sapphire are more toward red in the blue ink family.

 

Instead of a true red, a magenta might give you a better purple. Diamine Dark Magenta would be one. R&K also makes a good magenta. (But they make a nice intense purple called Solferino, too.)

 

The paper chromatography suggestion is a good one. Generally, if you are trying to mix intense colors in paints, you would need more than one red, more than one blue, and more than one yellow.

[Dino Silone]

In my search for purple, I discovered that blue and red make brown.

I am walking in your footsteps. Edited April 1, 2011 by Dino Silone

[msahrap]

I've been mixing Scheaffer Red and Lamy Blue in a 1:6 ratio. It gives a nice purple grape color that behaves well but shows no shading. I've had the ink mixed for a few months and there's no sign of any bad reactions or any sediment in the bottom of the bottle. Of course it's not water resistant because neither of the starting inks were.

 

Maybe I just got lucky with this mix, but it seems to work very well. Good luck!

[cocojj]

I remember someone here posted a review of Noodler's Saguaro Wine. The poster mixed it with Noodler's Navajo Turquoise and, to me, came up with lovely shades of purple, depending on how much was added of each color (there were writing samples posted). You may want to check that out.

[Surnia]

from my tests, pink and blue yield purple. I have a lovely NAV equivalent (almost completely identical, and it dries faster, and doesn't smell) made from Baystate Cranberry and Baystate Blue.

[Dino71]

If your idea of purple is close to PR's Tanzanite, Binder posted a recipe on his site. He uses a 1:1 mix of Waterman Florida Blue and Waterman Violet.

 

Sounds interesting considering how safe Waterman inks usually are and how reasonably priced they sell for.

[desertsquid]

In my search for purple, I discovered that blue and red make brown.

 

To get purple from red and blue, you need a red and a blue that each tend towards purple. It's because there's no such thing as a pure red or blue pigment. Every red tends either towards orange or purple. And every blue tends either towards violet or green. If you use a red that tends towards orange or a blue that tends towards green, you will end up with brown.

 

There's a great book on this by Michael Wilcox: 'Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green'.

[Scrawler]

In my search for purple, I discovered that blue and red make brown.

 

To get purple from red and blue, you need a red and a blue that each tend towards purple. It's because there's no such thing as a pure red or blue pigment. Every red tends either towards orange or purple. And every blue tends either towards violet or green. If you use a red that tends towards orange or a blue that tends towards green, you will end up with brown.

 

There's a great book on this by Michael Wilcox: 'Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green'.

I have experimented quite a bit and have finally found the colour I have been looking for in a commercial ink. Most commercial inks are combinations of colours that have been carefully mixed to get the colour, hue and other characteristics.

[Dino Silone]

In my search for purple, I discovered that blue and red make brown.

 

To get purple from red and blue, you need a red and a blue that each tend towards purple. It's because there's no such thing as a pure red or blue pigment. Every red tends either towards orange or purple. And every blue tends either towards violet or green. If you use a red that tends towards orange or a blue that tends towards green, you will end up with brown.

 

There's a great book on this by Michael Wilcox: 'Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green'.

I have experimented quite a bit and have finally found the colour I have been looking for in a commercial ink. Most commercial inks are combinations of colours that have been carefully mixed to get the colour, hue and other characteristics.

And? Are you going to tell the name of the commercial ink?

[Scrawler]

In my search for purple, I discovered that blue and red make brown.

 

To get purple from red and blue, you need a red and a blue that each tend towards purple. It's because there's no such thing as a pure red or blue pigment. Every red tends either towards orange or purple. And every blue tends either towards violet or green. If you use a red that tends towards orange or a blue that tends towards green, you will end up with brown.

 

There's a great book on this by Michael Wilcox: 'Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green'.

I have experimented quite a bit and have finally found the colour I have been looking for in a commercial ink. Most commercial inks are combinations of colours that have been carefully mixed to get the colour, hue and other characteristics.

And? Are you going to tell the name of the commercial ink?

Akkermans Simplisties Violet