Inks!

          Before I really get started, let me apologize... I ended up making this post a bit longer than I prefer, but I promise that its all useful information. See, I said that I was going to start making some art posts, since it is my other way to unwind and drive myself insane at the same time. I was going to talk about acrylics, but in a fortuitous turn of events, I found a Winsor & Newton ink set that I'd been looking for on Black Friday. Then a friend visited on Sunday and brought some new Sumi ink that she'd purchased, which let me try out all of them.

          Because something I've discovered working with inks for all last month is that all inks are not created equally. It started when I bought a glass pen and needed ink to play with it. What I mainly discovered there is that I have horrible handwriting, a fact which I know and will really need to work on eventually.

          However, I found that inks can also be used in art with gorgeous results. I'll go into all of the brands in better detail later, since this time I'm only testing the opacity, darkness and waterproofness in today's tests.

          The first ink that I tried was the Higgens Fountain Pen India Ink. It is non-waterproof, which essentially means that it can always be reactivated with water. I generally prefer my ink work to be as non-reactivatable as completely as possible before I begin work on the next layer so it doesn't work with my art style (which makes it good ink for playing with my penmanship). Its also the lightest of the inks. The shade is really more of a grey than a black.

          The Bombay inks dry quickly and seem waterproof to me once they dry, and they do dry quickly. Within about twenty minutes, you'll only get a very light residual pickup and after that, it's essentially negligible. I love them and I think that they are my favourites of all the ones I've tried so far. The only issue for me is that the blacks aren't are black as I could wish. Don't get me wrong, its heads above the Higgens, but still not a really rich, dark black.

          The Winsor & Newton inks say that they are only water resistant but according to my test, after about 18 hrs they are picking up the same amount or less than the Bombay inks do. They are the darkest black I've found though and I am very impressed with how well they go down. I'll have to play more with the other colours as well, but let me say that as of now, I am very impressed.

          The final ink I tried is Sumi ink. Like the Higgens, it isn't waterproof at all, which is less surprising since it was originally made not for art, but for writing (to my limited knowledge). What did surprise me was that it was that it was even darker than my Bombay inks. It's only a shade or two lighter than my Winsor & Newtons. If it wasn't non-waterproof, I would love it.

          As you can see from this picture, this is what you see when you put down a block of the ink. The Higgens and Bombay don't go down quite as smoothly as the others, and they aren't as dark. Despite that, I still like the Bombay's for their other qualities... mainly the incredibly bright and gorgeous colours they have in their sets. 

          Oh, ignore the one I crossed out in red. One problem with the Bombay inks is that after you shake up your ink you need to let it settle for a few minutes before you use it or your colours will be lighter since you're essentially getting just watery bubbles with the smallest amount of colour. I originally dipped my brush and didn't get it past the bubbles. I didn't want to go directly over it and have it be two layers compared to only one of everything else. So I did a second square below as my test.

          This picture shows how the inks react later. The larger boxes were all done by rewetting the original boxes from above with water and then just filling in a box with just that. I waited about two hours for the ink to dry here. As you can see, after two hours the Bombay was completely dry, but the Winsor & Newton was still reactive enough to colour in the box. The smaller ones were done the next day after about eighteen hours had passed. As you can see, the Bombay and Winsor & Newton were essentially waterproof at this point and could not be lifted. The Sumi and Higgens could still be easily reactivated and still get quite dark. 

          Basically, this was interesting for me since I'm learning that there is a time and place for everything. Knowing how your inks are likely to react and the shades you're likely to get using them will help you know when to use the right tool. Like in writing, you have to really understand the rules before you can start playing hard and fast with them and doing unexpected and fun things. 

          Until next time, be creative. Whether its writing, drawing, singing, dancing, etc, do something creative with your time. Create, play with your tools and find out how they all work. I guarantee that knowing what you have to work with will help you find the right tools for all the right jobs.