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

More three colour mixes with De Atramentis Document Inks

I have explored a number of three-colour mixes to see how to make interesting neutrals with the De Atramentis Document Inks. Many can be found in previous Blog posts (search 'Mixing De Atramentis Document Inks). 

The first here are using the mixing triad Document Yellow, Document Magenta and Document Cyan and are mixed in the ratios shown. These charts were painted in a Stillman + Birn Alpha A4 sketchbook with a brush.

The following three colour mixes were created fairly randomly, but approximate ratios of each colour are given. Yellow:Magenta:Cyan. First I found some interesting earthy yellows, oranges and reds. The 5:2:1 is a possible burnt sienna option.

 These were interesting plum and purple hues

 And turquoise explorations

 I rather like these ones too.

In these mixes I was exploring what happens when you mix Document Yellow, Brown and Blue and its a lovely range of green-golds and olive greens and cool browns.

Here I was exploring Document Yellow with Green and Magenta.

And here I was looking at the mixes with Document Yellow, Red and Blue. These are some great yellow ochres and burnt sienna hues.

These are some other random three colour mixes using Document Cyan, Magenta and Brown.

 And these are created using Document Blue, Magenta and Brown.

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 Ink mixes - Blue, Yellow and Magenta. Updated January 2015

The possible colour hues you can mix with a three colour mix of yellow, magenta and blue are endless. Here are just a few of the possibilities using the De Atramentis Document Inks - Document Yellow, Document Blue and Document Magenta. The ratios shown are approximate - yellow:magenta:blue based on the number of drops of each colour used. A drop varies in size but it gives an idea. These mixes follow on from the two colour mixes shown in a previous post. These are painted into a Stillman & Birn Alpha A4 sketchbook with a brush at full strength.

Here are the same inks with approximate ratios of the three colours Yellow:Magenta:Blue

The second set of mixes is more random so no ratios are given. Only the Document Blue, Document Yellow and Document Magenta inks have been used.

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.