Multi Purpose Fountain Pen Inks

[NickiStew]

 

 

It’s taken a while, but at long last, the mission has been accomplished. Multi-purpose fountain pen inks. Inks that one can write with and inks that one can use for painting and illustration. The perfect limited palette that one can take ‘on the road’ and use however one wishes, whether its writing down one’s thoughts or recording what’s going on around you.

 

 

 

 

What I didn’t want to do, was label up 4 pure off the shelf colours and call it a job done. No. I wanted to create 4 unique colours that would stand up as four beautiful unique fountain pen inks each with their own personality and chromatic behaviours BUT also have the ability to blend with each other and create secondary and tertiary colours. Not as easy as it sounds and as always, there have been compromises along the way.

 

So how do they shape up? Well at this moment in time they don’t have any names, but the recipes are finalised and I’m very happy with them. And they all react with bleach.

Blue – this is a deep blue colour that reacts easily with water bleeding out bright turquoise, cyan with a hint of pink. There is also evidence of a delicate red sheen at the edges when dry. As a writing ink, it flows well with evidence of some shading.

Red – this is a deep magenta that reacts easily with water bleeding out rose reds but also with yellows at the very edges. This took a long while to get right. As a writing ink, it flows well with some shading.

Yellow – I needed to darken this, to give it a darker tone, otherwise it would be difficult to write with it as it wouldn’t read. The ink reacts easily with water bleeding out mottled ambers and lemon at the edges. Because of the deeper tone one needs to add plenty water when wishing to achieve those lighter greens and oranges. This took a long while to get right. As a writing ink, it flows well with great shading.

Black – My favourite of them all. This a dark black that reacts easily with water bleeding out greys, blues and reddish browns. For some ochre brown colours this mixes with the yellow superbly. This also took a long while to get right. As a writing ink, it flows well with a hint of shading.

So how do they mix? Please see the colour wheel below:

The inner ring is a light wash of the black showing the tertiary colour possibilities. And below are some very quick secondary and tertiary colour mixing experiments:

I’m confident that these inks can produce most of the colours that a traveller would need without taking up much space in the rucksack. These are now going to be put into production.

The food on table image is rendered in the style of John Minton. A simple and graphic example to demonstrate how these vibrant inks can be utilised as well as the wet in wet watercolour techniques. I used 2 Da Vinci travel brushes – an 8 and 5 – as well as a Serendipity dip pen. The palette plate was a cheap plastic 10 dimple dish. Paper used was heavy cartridge, Bockingford 200lb rough and Rhodia dot matrix.

For more info, check out my profile page. Thanks. Nick

Edited September 4, 2018 by NickiStew

[npweston]

Those look superb. The blue is particularly lovely. How long before they're available do you think?

 

Congratulations, great work

[NickiStew]

Those look superb. The blue is particularly lovely. How long before they're available do you think?

 

Congratulations, great work

 

End of October, early November. Thanks for your kind comments. N

[amberleadavis]

STUNNING!!!!

[NickiStew]

STUNNING!!!!

 

Thanks Amber! And this is just the very beginning. Some exciting stuff coming up and it's all ink based!

I really want to deliver some online tutorials - swatch art, colour mixing, modern calligraphy etc.

Do you have any contacts who may have experience in this area? UK is always 2 years behind the US when it comes to this sort of thing.

Edited September 5, 2018 by NickiStew

[goodpens]

An amazing project.

That color wheel is gorgeous.

Congratulations.

[NickiStew]

An amazing project.

That color wheel is gorgeous.

Congratulations.

 

Thanks. N

[musicman123]

These are absolutely beautiful! I love how well they mix! Would be great if you sell them in large bottles, a la, Noodler's-sized so they could be mixed into every shade ever.

[amberleadavis]

 

Thanks Amber! And this is just the very beginning. Some exciting stuff coming up and it's all ink based!

I really want to deliver some online tutorials - swatch art, colour mixing, modern calligraphy etc.

Do you have any contacts who may have experience in this area? UK is always 2 years behind the US when it comes to this sort of thing.

 

Hmmmm.... I don't know anyone personally but I'll think on it.

 

Also do you think could be used in inkjet printers?

[NickiStew]

Hmmmm.... I don't know anyone personally but I'll think on it.

 

Also do you think could be used in inkjet printers?

I havent tried them in inkjet printers. In theory, I see no real issues.

[NickiStew]

I havent tried them in inkjet printers. In theory, I see no real issues.

That said, the printer nozzles are very delicate. Fountain pen inks do have agents added to help control ink flow and drying time. There may be a risk that fountain pen inks could block the nozzles? As said, I haven’t tried this and have no reason to want to either.

[BaronWulfraed]

There is also the question of if the printer was designed for pigmented inks or dye inks.

 

And... one would need to run calibration software to remap the print driver should some of the replacement inks be slightly different in intensity/hue.

[tamiya]

Stunning work... wish I had even a fraction of the talent to make use of those inks

 

 

Colour wheel by itself I'd already call great art work it'll make a great poster print