Possible to mix my own dual-shading inks?

[asphalt]

Hi, I'm just wondering if it would be possible to mix my own dual-shading inks? I love inks like Sailor 123, haha, nekoyanagi and so on that have this dual-shading property but they're expensive and I need to stop buying all of them. I bought a set of noodler's CMYK to start mixing my own inks, but is it possible to homebrew the dual shading property? 

[A Smug Dill]

32 minutes ago, asphalt said:

I bought a set of noodler's CMYK to start mixing my own inks, but is it possible to homebrew the dual shading property?

 

I'd hazard a guess that you can homebrew it, but not with cheap(er) DIY ink mixing kits available to retail consumers, even if you don't start with the… um, brand that seems to believe in the philosophy that customers feel the higher the dye concentration the more ‘virtue’ there is in an ink product.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Sailor will, some day, bring out a mixing kit that is capable of that, but I think the general principle of DIY hobbies to produce the same result, in small batches, will involve a high set-up cost and cost per unit volume of end-product, because what you're buying on top of the ink is the ‘freedom’ to play already packaged in the retail offering.

 

Unless you need no help (for which you have to pay the ink manufacturer for pre-packaging it), but source everything yourself, and are prepared to ‘waste’ a lot of raw material (not to mention time and effort) in trial-and-error, to make large enough batches that exceed the requirements of personal consumption, I don't think the goal of lower unit volume cost for ‘fun’ is achievable.

[Dione]

12 hours ago, asphalt said:

Hi, I'm just wondering if it would be possible to mix my own dual-shading inks? I love inks like Sailor 123, haha, nekoyanagi and so on that have this dual-shading property but they're expensive and I need to stop buying all of them. I bought a set of noodler's CMYK to start mixing my own inks, but is it possible to homebrew the dual shading property? 

It's possible. Maybe not so much with a Noodler's CMYK kit when you like Sailor inks. But keep trying.

[squirrels]

Not sure how helpful it would be, but from my observations of a few different "dual-shading" inks (One of the Sailor Ink Studio ones (can't remember which), Vinta Sirena, and arguably Vinta Armada), is that they all break up into magenta and teal colors when you play with them with a water brush. Specifically the Magenta seems to soak into the page and resist water more, and the teal is very easily moved by water. Most of the other ones I've seen swatches of (which granted are not always identical to what they look like in real life) appear as if they might not be too far from that, either. That's probably where I would start if I were trying to figure out how to make them. I suspect it's quite a bit harder than mixing a specific color without caring about its properties, though.

 

I would also agree that Noodler's CMYK is probably not the way to go for it, though. The multi-shading inks are usually not very saturated, for one thing, and additionally there are probably specific dyes that are used to get this effect which might not be the same as the ones used in standard Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, or Black inks.

[amberleadavis]

You could try just mixing inks and then using a dilution solution.

[Tas]

Good luck. I've mixed up countless concoctions, not one has ever given me two tone unless washed over.

Please keep us posted of your trials. I'm sure we'd all love to see 🙂

[amberleadavis]

5 hours ago, Tas said:

Good luck. I've mixed up countless concoctions, not one has ever given me two tone unless washed over.

Please keep us posted of your trials. I'm sure we'd all love to see 🙂

 

OH, that's good to know.