De Atramentis Artist Turquoise

[yazeh]

As I had samples of both Document and Artist Turquoise I decided to review them simultaneously. 

 

I cannot recommend this ink for everyday writing, with this ink I gave up after testing with the M nib. 

 

It can be crowned as the king and queen of ghosting and bleeding through every single paper I used. The only paper, that it was almost ok,  was surprisingly Mnemosyne. There was ghosting, and some bleed through if I dared to doodle in the corner of page. But I only used a broad nib so I don't know how it would have behaved with the other nibs.

 

I was really disappointed and was wondering maybe because it’s an “Artist” ink, it should be used for art and specific papers. 

 

That inspired me to do an experiment.  As all Document and Artist series can be mixed  I decided to mix this one with Artist Sepia, which is extremely dry and awful ink. The result was magical. I managed to create a shade of green which was  pleasant to write with,  the ink behaved decently, the colour was pleasing and I was sad when the pen ran dry.

 

Moral of the story: These inks are best for people who love ink mixing, are adventurous or are artists. 

 

Chroma quite  similar to Document Turquoise:

Writing samples: 

Midori (quote is by Gabor Maté, from his excellent book, (The Myth of Normal) 

Note how the Lamy EF is thicker than the F.

Back. 

Tomoe River 68gr

Quote is by Aeschylus 

I've rarely if ever seen anything like this on Tome River 68gr paper: 

Quotes is by Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco

 

Water test: 

Ink is waterproof under running water. Left side was held under running water. 

Comparaison: 

I got inspired by Nick Stewart's work, by brushing water on CANSON watercolour paper:  Nothing special but fun to do: 

 

 

As I said, I mixed a few drop of Artist Sepia with this one, this is the result:

Here a couple of scans and photos:

Midori scan:

TR 68gr

Photo: (TR 68gr, left - Midori, right)

 

 

 

 

 

 

· Pens used: Pilot Kakuno (Ef) Lamy Safari (Ef/F/M) 

· What I liked: Ability to mix with other Document/ Artist inks. 

· What I did not like: Too many to name.   

· Shading: None  

· Ghosting: On every single paper. . 

· Bleed through: Same as above. 

· Flow Rate: Waterfall

· Lubrication: Excellent

· Nib Dry-out: None.

· Start-up: None.

· Saturation: Who cares?

· Shading Potential: You must be kidding me!

· Sheen: None.

· Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: It feathers on cheap paper. 

· Nib Creep / “Crud”: A bit.  

· Staining (pen): I don’t know. I won’t be using it for long, thankfully. 

· Clogging: No

· Cleaning: It’s a pigment ink. It was relatively easy to clean. But I had it for less than a week in my pens. 

· Water resistance: Excellent 

· Availability: 50 ml bottle.

 

Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier

 

 

[LizEF]

Thank you, @yazeh!   For enduring a challenging ink, and for redeeming it by creating a much more interesting mix of inks.  

[yazeh]

5 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Thank you, @yazeh!   For enduring a challenging ink, and for redeeming it by creating a much more interesting mix of inks.  

What we don't do to find the good in most things

 

[InesF]

Thank you @yazeh for taking the effort of assembling, formatting and posting a review of an ink that failed your praxis test.

The bad behaviour is a pity, the colour how it appears at the photo would be nice and the addition of a bit Sepia increased its attractiveness even more.

Your review confirms my experience with so many deAtramentis inks: almost all of them have nice colours, but the inks have low or very low surface tension, behave badly on most paper types and should preferably be used with EF or some F nibs only.

 

[yazeh]

 

5 hours ago, InesF said:

Thank you @yazeh for taking the effort of assembling, formatting and posting a review of an ink that failed your praxis test.

Most welcome 🙏pens

5 hours ago, InesF said:

The bad behaviour is a pity, the colour how it appears at the photo would be nice and the addition of a bit Sepia increased its attractiveness even more.

Yes and it behaved much better!

5 hours ago, InesF said:

Your review confirms my experience with so many deAtramentis inks: almost all of them have nice colours, but the inks have low or very low surface tension, behave badly on most paper types and should preferably be used with EF or some F nibs only.

 

It is ironic that this ink in particular was equally bad with Ef/F nibs