De Atramantis Inks - mixing document greys. Updated January 2015

I enjoy sketching in black, brown and grey inks. I may add a yellow ochre or raw sienna, but these generally satisfy most drawing subjects on location. I am using the De Atramentis Document Black and Brown and apparently there will be a grey, but for now I have made my own using the Blue and Brown inks. 

I wanted to see whether the Document Magenta and Document Green inks neutralise each other to produce a black, and therefore another grey option. They do - they make a rich black. I then thinned it down with the Document thinning solution and made a lovely range of lighter greys. The last has about 8 drops of thinning solution with less than a drop of ink!

  

The bottom mix shows the same process with the Document Brown and Document Blue inks. They made a very dark grey - almost as intense as the magenta and green - that thins down beautifully to a range of greys. 

This is a page from a sketchbook exploring Document Red and looking for Burnt Sienna, Indian red and grey hues. 

In the first line you can see Indian Red and some great greens.

In the second row there is another Indian Red option with Document Blue

You can see another grey option on the third row with Document Red and Cyan. It is then thinned out with ink thinner.

The lower rows are also explored elsewhere. So many colour options!

I'll explore raw sienna and yellow ochre mixes next. I'll also thin the black and see what it looks like as a grey. The options with these inks are endless!

De Atramentis Document Inks mixed with Black - Updated January 2015

I don't usually use black when mixing with watercolour, but with a CYMK mixing set it certainly increases the options and is the only way to create some hues and tones.

There are 9 inks available in the De Atramentis Document range so far. Yellow, Red, Magenta (also called Fuchsia), Blue, Dark Blue, Cyan (also called Turquoise), Green, Brown and Black. Here you can see each of the colours mixed with black. When the White is available I will do the same with that. Document Fog Grey (which is really a very dark blue) will also be added here soon.

It takes VERY little Black to make a change to the original colour so I haven't included ratios for these mixes.






Here is Document Yellow mixed with Document Black. It's a lovely bright mid yellow and a strong tinting ink. The Black is really very pure - notice the yellow is darkening rather than turning green as it might with many blacks that are on the blue-side.

Document Red mixed with Document Black gives a lovely range of red-earth hues like an Indian Red or Venetian Red. (Doucment red looks the same as a mix of 1:1 Document Yellow + Document Magenta)






Document Magenta (also called Fuchsia) mixed with Document Black. There are a few more possible tones between the pure colour and the first mix but I added too much black too quickly. It takes SO little to make a change!

Next is the warm Document Blue mixed with Document Black. A nice range of deep blue and indigo hues are possible.




Document Dark Blue looks like a mix of Document Blue and Document Black so is already a lovely dark blue.







Next is Document Cyan (also called Turquoise) mixed with Document Black, making cooler deep blues.

Document Green, which looks like a mix of Yellow and Cyan at a ratio of 1:4, mixed with Document Black makes wonderful deep bottle greens.

And finally Document Brown mixed with Document Black to make a great range of dark brown and sepia hues.

To see these colours mixed together see the previous post here.