De Atramentis Document Inks Revisited.

In late 2014, the De Atramentis Document Inks - a range of lightfast, pigmented, mixable fountain pen friendly inks - was released. It's been a revolution for many sketchers who previously really limited to a few black waterproof inks. I've worked with a number of my own custom mixes - a raw sienna, a burnt sienna and a mixed Jane's Grey in particular, but I use the Black and the Brown as they are all the time.

Now we have these - and other - wonderful pigmented inks to use. What I have always loved about the De Atramentis range though is that they are mixable so it is fun to create your own colours. I did a series of posts showing two colour mixes, three colour mixes, and more three colour mixes, mixing greys and mixing with black.

Since that series, a few more colours have been added - Violet, White and Urban grey. This is the latest and was developed by Larrypost.com.au for the urban sketcher. It is about the colour of a graphite pencil so gives lovely pencil-like lines with no smudging.

Here I thought I'd update and show the range of Document ink colours mixed with Document Black and with Document White. I don't have a scanner at present so please accept my apologies for the photos. You can still see the wonderful range of tints and shades you can create.

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Yellow and White

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes  - Red and White

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Magenta/Fuchsia and White

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Violet and White

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Blue and White

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Dark Blue and White

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Turquoise/Cyan and White

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Green and White

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Brown and White

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Urban Grey and White

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Urban Grey and Black

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - White and Black

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Brown and Black

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Green and Black

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Cyan (Turquoise) and Black

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Dark Blue and Black

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Blue and Black

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Violet and Black

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Magenta (Fuchsia) and Black

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Red and Black

De Atramentis Document Ink mixes - Yellow and Black

Fountain Pen Inks

I've loved fountain pens since I was a child. I've bought a number of inks over the years, though these days I am mostly using waterproof inks for drawing and sketching. Fountain pen ink that is pigmented and waterproof is relatively new and has changed the way I work with pens and sketching. Black is not longer the only option.

I thought I'd catalogue some of the inks I've tried here, and add more as I try more samples.

De Atramentis Document Range

Document Brown Ink from De Atramentis - image from the website here.

I've written a lot about these lovely German inks over the years, and created many mixing charts. Use the search button to find them, or click on the links below. I use the black for my regular pen (a Lamy Joy with an EF nib) in my diary. I also put it in a Pilot Custom Heritage 92 piston filled pen for sketching. I fill another Custom 92 with my mixed grey and use the Brown in a TWISBI diamond 580, also for sketching. This gives me a nice range of lovely colours to sketch with, all completely waterproof and lightfast. I have more pens I use with these inks in my studio, including one filled with my Burnt Sienna custom mix. I love being able to mix any colour I want with these inks!

De Atramentis Document Inks - White, Burnt Sienna (custom mix of the Yellow and Brown), Brown, Black.

June 2018 update - Urban Grey has just been added to the range - available from Larrypost.com.au in Australia, it is a warm grey waterproof ink :-)

De Atramentis Urban Grey Document Ink -
added 2018

De Atramentis Document Inks - Yellow, Red, Magenta (also called Fuchsia),
Violet and Green

De Atramentis Document Inks - Grey (custom mix of the Blue and Brown), Fog Grey, Dark Blue, Blue, Turquoise (also called Cyan)

See here for mixing 
See here for three-colour mixes
See here for mixing greys

See here for mixing with black

De Atramentis standard inks

These inks are dye-based, rather than pigmented, so not waterproof or lightfast. I tried some to test, exploring the interesting effects you can get with ink and water or adding watercolour but the colours were too unpredictable. Best used for writing! I use these in my writing pens for notes in my journal or letter writing.

De Atramentis Standard Inks = Ocher Yellow, Copper Brown, Dark Blue, Dark Green, Auburn, Fog Grey.

Super 5 Ink

Super5 inks -  Darmstadt, Franfurt, Atlantic, Dublin, Delhi, Australia

These muted inks come in 6 different colours and are completely waterproof. I've written about them here. It is not a range I have explored much, though I have heard good reports of them.

Super5 ink, Atlantic.

Pilot Iroshizuku Ink

The name is made up of 'iro' (colouring) and 'shizuku' (droplet), and 'each ink name derives from the expressions of beautiful Japanese natural landscape and plants'. (From the website here) 

This is a relatively new range of dye-based inks. Lovely for writing but not for adding watercolour, though I rather like the softening effect on the first one. 

They come in gorgeous glass bottles. I'll explore these further for writing...

Pilot Iroshizuku Inks - Fuyo-Syogun (Old Man Winter), Kiri-Same (Autumn Showers), Tsukushi (Horsetail), Yama-Guri (Wild Chestnut) and Take-Sumi (Bamboo Charcoal) (sorry - label above spelt incorrectly).

The colours available in Iroshizuku Inks

Sailor pigmented Nano inks

I am sad to say it but these were a disappointment as I'd originally bought them for sketching so wanted waterproof inks. The Blue Black is almost waterproof but the black is not, though it was supposed to be. They are also available in cartridges. Fast drying.

Still - there are times that it is nice to draw with a semi-waterproof ink and get softened lines.

Sailor Nano inks - black and blue-black.

Parker's Quink

An old friend. Introduced in 1931 - who hasn't had a bottle of this at some stage? I actually only use this to play with, making use of the dye properties and the separation that occurs when wet. Dye-based inks are made up of many colours and the blues and reds create interesting effects. Colours available include blue, blue black, black, red and green.

Quink bottle. From the website here.

Parker's Quink, Black.

            

Noddler's Inks

I bought a few of these inks - I loved the colours. However I started to have problems with my Lamy pens and was told the ink reacts with the plastic of the feed, so now they sit in a drawer. (Apparently this problem has been fixed so newer Lamy pens won't react.) These are large generous bottles (3oz) and great colours. Not waterproof, though there are a few in the range that are supposed to be.
Thanks to the comments below, here is the link to the PDF listing the properties of the inks.

Noodler's Inks - Apache Sunset, Kiowa Pecan, Red Rattler (lubrication ink), Blue, Turquoies (lubricating ink) and forest Green.

Platiunum Carbon Ink

Platinum Carbon Ink - black

This also comes in Blue in a waterproof ink. It is lovely and rich. Totally waterproof. It also comes in cartridges, and is great in the Platinum Carbon Pen. I also use it in my Platinum brush pen. The bottles are simple and hold a generous 60ml of ink.
This ink may be too thick for some pens - the feed of the carbon pen has been enlarged to allow the ink to flow. I haven't use it in other pens apart from the carbon pen, though others have.

Platinum Sepia Brun Pigment Ink.

Sepia (Brun) Pigment Ink from Platinum as also waterproof and is a lovely brown. I've just bought this for the first time so haven't really explored it yet...

Sailor Storia Inks

Made in Japan, this range is fast-drying, pigmented and waterproof. This one is - and is a lovely raw sienna colour.

Sailor Storia Ink - Lion (Light Brown)

I love Sailor pens, which can have perhaps the finest nibs available, and am interested in the inks they produce.

This lovely image from Pen Chalet shows the cheerful bottles of Storia Ink.

There are 8 colours, all bright and named after a circus theme. Spotlight (yellow), Fire (red), Balloon (green), Lion (Light Brown), Clown (yellow green), Magic (purple) Dancer (pink), Night (blue).

I'd love to see these in some neutrals too. I still continue my search for a lovely waterproof grey...I may try mixing the Fire and Night to see what sort of neutral they might create...

Lamy Ink

Lamy make inks in bottles in a limited range of colours - blue wahsable, black, red, turquoise, green and blue-black. the blotting paper is very useful when filling pens!
Their cartridges come in more colours. Non waterproof.

Lamy ink - black.

 Higgins Ink

Higgins make loads of different inks but this is the only one called a fountain pen ink. I haven't tried it in a fountain pen though...non waterproof.

TWSBI Diamond 580 fountain pen

The TWSBI Diamond 580AL filled with Sailor Storia Lion ink

For all I love fountain pens, one of the frustrations of using them is that they run out of ink. So do other pens of course, eventually (and they get thrown away) but fountain pens need to be refilled regularly, especially if using them for sketching and cross-hatching!

I carry small Nalgene bottles of ink with me when travelling or sketching so I have some on hand, but I've long been curious about the TWSBI pen as it has a massive (2ml according to their literature) ink capacity. I am using the TWSBI Diamond 580AL which is the largest of the series with the largest ink capacity. The Diamond 580 is identical, except that some of the parts that are metal in this pen are plastic in the 580 version, so it is perhaps 25% lighter.  It also comes in a mini version that is shorter and slimmer.

It's available in Australia from Larrypost, who specialise in all things pen, sketchbook, watercolours and ink. In the US I'd recommend Gouletpens.com. I filled the pen with a sample of Sailor Storia 'Lion' ink, a lovely golden brown ink, also from Larrypost. This is a pigmented ink so is fairly waterproof - an important consideration when sketching with watercolour. I wanted to use a fairly light colour to do the sketch for this sandstone building in Pyrmont. You can see the large capacity of this piston filling pen that works without a cartridge or converter.

Drawing with Sailor Storia Lion ink and the TWSBI Diamond 580

I have the Extra Fine nib, which always my preference as I really like fine lines. This is a Taiwanese pen with German nibs, so the Extra fine is not as fine as my Japanese EF nibs, but it is a really nice line width for writing or drawing - very like the Lamy. You can see how light the sandstone is in this picture, and why a black ink or even my usual dark brown or grey, would have been too strong.







Completed with watercolour, the initial line-work almost disappears.

Union Street, Pyrmont, ink and watercolour.

I wanted to test out this pen for other purposes too so I've filled it with black De Atramentis Document ink - my go-to ink for drawing with fountain pens. I'll give it a run with the black ink in my diary and sketches and see how it goes.

The TWSBI pen is also available with a gorgeous ink bottle that has a two-lid system containing a very clever filling mechanism. You can fill the pen without getting your hands covered in ink! You take off the top part of the bottle and the nib from the pen and fill the body from the beautiful and cleverly designed bottle. The special filling mechanism works with the TWSBI Diamond range, the TWSBI Classic range and also with the 'universal' converter so it is really nifty! Of course you can use fill any other pen from the bottle in the usual way.

The TWSBI Diamond 580 pen and the Diamond 50 ink well.

It is heavier (28grams) than some of the other fountain pens I've used, and quite thick in the barrel so it doesn't easily fit in the pen loop of my dairy. I usually use a Lamy Joy as it slots in very nicely. So I am keeping this one in a pencil case in my handbag.

I wasn't sure whether I like the lid posted or not - it is heavier than the Joy posted but feels shorter un-posted. It is not strictly designed to 'post' - it sits on the turning screw that is used to fill and empty the pen rather than fitting fully over the barrel of the pen. The Mini version, however, does post normally. The Classic version doesn't post at all. Of course I don't post the Lamy Joy nib, but I often do with other pens. It's all about the weight and balance of each pen.

Lines made with a Lamy and a TWSBI, both EF nibs.

I ended up using it un-posted most comfortably when I took it out sketching on Saturday and gave it a proper run. It is a robust nib, not intended as a flexible nib, but there is a bit of line variation possible - press lightly and get a very fine line, press more firmly and get a darker and thicker line. Turning the nib upside-down also gives a fine line but any finer so I didn't really bother doing that with this pen. It ran very smoothly with the De Atramentis ink and I enjoyed working with it. It certainly didn't come anywhere close to running out of ink! And that is the big feature of this pen - ink capacity. If you write and draw a lot, it's hard to beat. Interestingly is also coped very well with the medium texture of this watercolour paper. The EF Japanese nibs such as my Sailor 1911 EF can struggle since they are so fine.

A Moreton Bay Fig and Wendy Whiteley's Secret Garden, Lavender Bay, drawn with the TWSBI Diamond 580 pen and De Atramantis Document Black ink. The paper is Fabriano Artistico.

November 2018 edit - TWSBI also make an Eco pen, which is almost the same to look at initially, but has a lightly narrower nib and is made with different plastic and without the 'diamond' stying; and the newly introduced Go, which is a spring filled pen at a very low cost. I'd recommend looking at the Eco as an excellent starter fountain pen for sketching. It is also lovely to write with. I'll add a blog post soon.

I'll be taking the Kaweco for a spin at some stage. I do love drawing with fountain pens :-)

For more on fountain pens see Lamy here, My Favourite Pens for Drawing here and Working in Ink here. There are also many posts on mixing inks on this blog - just use the search tool :-)