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.

Mixing De Atramentis Document Inks Updated January 2015

I am really enjoying working with the De Atramentis Document Black and Document Brown fountain pen inks. I have been gradually buying the other document colours as I find them in various shops in Sydney Australia, including Larrypost, Art Scene, Tilly's and Pen Ultimate, or from Gouletpens in the US. A couple of sample shipments from De Atramentis has enabled me to add Yellow and the thinning solutions, along with Red, Green and Dark Blue. See the full range - Yellow, Red, Magenta, Blue, Dark Blue, Cyan, Green, Brown and Black here.

A Document Grey is now available in some areas, though it appears much more a dark blue than a grey.  Burnt Sienna and White are in the pipeline.

To have a good range of lightfast, waterproof, fountain pen-friendly inks is one thing, but to then be able to inter-mix them is really exciting for an artist. I'm looking forward to experimenting with them as liquid watercolours. They rate the maximum 8 on the blue wool scale so should be fine in framed finished works. (Of course I'll do my own testing :-)

So I have been mixing them, and explored making a range of mixed colours measuring drop by drop. It's not perfect - how big is a drop? - but it gives a good idea of just some of the colours possible. All these colours are full strength. A thinning solution is also available. These are painted out in a Stillman & Birn Alpha A4 sketchbook.

Here is Document Blue mixed with Document Magenta in the ratio written below. Document blue is a lovely warm blue so the purples are clean and beautiful. August 2015 - a Document Violet has been added to the Document Range.

Here is Document Turquoise (Cyan is a more helpful name here) with Document Magenta. Notice how the colours overlap the mixes above so you can make your own document Blue hue, though the Document Blue ink is very nice and acts as a wonderful warm mixing blue.

My next mixes were with Document Turquoise (which will be called Cyan) and Document Brown. The cool blue creates lovely turquoise and green hues and a great olive green and cooler brown.

The next range with a warmer Document Blue creates a lovely deep blue, grey and warm Sepia and burnt umber browns when mixed with Document Brown. I am loving working with this mixed grey and have also used a slightly thinned version in a fountain pen :-)

And here is a range of deep red and maroon colours made with Document Magenta and Document Brown.

Here is Document Yellow mixed with Document Blue. I always love the more natural greens you can make with a warm blue.

Document Yellow mixed with Document Cyan will create much brigher greens.

Document Yellow mixed with Document Green makes ever warmer greens.

Document Yellow with Document Brown makes wonderful yellow ochre, raw sienna hues. You can see this combination in action in Liz Steel's sketches here.

And Document Yellow mixed with Document Magenta makes gorgeous oranges, reds and crimsons :-)

Here is Document Yellow mixed with Document Red.
All the colours can also be mixed with the Document Black for deeper shades. I've started playing with those mixes and you can see them here.

I then did some exploration of three colour mixes. I will add more on these as a separate post. These are quite deep and dark but rather interesting. The first were made with various ratios of Document Blue, Magenta and Brown.

The next were made with the same ratios using the cooler cyan, (Document Turquoise), Magenta and Brown.

For more on drawing with inks see Working in Ink here, or Sketchbook Pages Exploring Fountain Pen Inks here. For more on coloured inks see here. For Brown Inks comparisons see here.

Coloured drawing inks

I have been wanting to do a careful comparison of my many fountain pen and drawing inks and finally washed over the samples to see which are waterproof.

I drew the squares in pencil, draw a line on the left on dry paper and touched the line with water to make it bleed. I then did a second line on the then-wet paper to see how it dispersed in wet. Then I did the cross-hatching on the right of the square on dry paper, then painted the rectangles and allowed all of them to dry completely. I then painted a wash of water through the square and some immediately re-wet, others were completely waterproof.

For writing you may not need to use waterproof ink, and even for drawing you may prefer to have water soluble ink if you wish to use water to create some tones. I just like to know what my materials will do.

 The inks were tested using a dip pen with a 'post office' nib as that is how I prefer to use them, except the De Atramentis inks and Lamy Blue which were in fountain pens.

 The colour of the Copper Brown and Calli Brown is certainly rather crimson, but not as much as the image on my computer :-(  Ochre Yellow is rather orange but most of the others a reasonably accurate in colour. Many companies, such as www.gouletpens.com, offer samples for a reasonable price and also have painted/drawn samples to view on their websites.

The A.S (Art Spectrum) pigmented inks are terrific for drawing with a dip pen. They are waterproof and lightfast and highly pigmented for good strong colour. I shake these well before use.

The Calli inks were also completely waterproof.

I am using Da Atramentis Document inks in Black and Brown in my fountain pens and am very happy with them. I'll also use their regular non waterproof inks for writing and some drawing, and Lamy inks in my Lamy pens. The rest I prefer to use with a dip pen in the studio.

Painting Sydney Sandstone

The Gardener's Lodge, Sydney University. 2014 Watercolour and Pencil.

Sandstone is such a distinctive feature of Sydney. The city is built on it and out of it so we see it all over the place in new and in aged form.

 Hyde Park drinking fountain! 2013

I love drawing and painting it. I started drawing the wind and water eroded sandstone rocks in my teens (see these drawings here) and continued with etchings and coloured pencil drawings (which can also be found in my website) and even some book illustrations exploring this lovely stone.


 Here are a series of sketches done since June 2013, in no particular order.

Window at Cockatoo Island,
watercolour over ink sketch. 2014

The Coal Tunnel, watercolour and pencil 2013

A doorway in the convict area, Cockatoo Island.
Watercolour and ink. 2014

A column on the steps of the State Library.
Watercolour and pencil.

Sandstone in the bay, Vaucluse 2013

Sydney University grotesque 2013

A gate at the Botanic Gardens, Watercolour. 2014

Columns at the entrance to the State Library
Watercolour and brown ink. 2014

Congregational Church, Hunter's Hill
Watercolour over brown ink. 2014

I don't think I'll ever stop painting this lovely stone.

45th World Wide Sketch Crawl

Sketching in Bourke Street, Surry Hills


We had a small but cheerful group of sketcher's at the Bourke Street Bakery, Surry Hills, yesterday for the World Wide Sketch Crawl.

Last time we met there for our monthly Sydney Urban Sketchers meet it rained so we stayed under cover and drew our coffee cups, salt shakers or each other :-) This time we were able to sit on the bench seats and sketch the bakery or surrounding terrace houses. Lots of character and so many beautiful trees.

The queues to the bakery were constant all morning - what a business that is!

The terrace, left, was finished on location.

The Bakery was sketched on location with colour added later.

QoR watercolours by Golden - Updated

Three QoR sample cards and some tubes to play with.

I recently tried a number of samples of the new Golden watercolour range - QoR (pronounced 'core'). Golden has the reputation as one of the best acrylic paint makers in the world, though I haven't actually used them :-) The range of watercolours has a different binder from the usual Gum Arabic - Aquazol - and the aims of the company, according to the excellent website, was to create:

• Vibrant, intense colors that stay brilliant even after they dry
• Exceptionally smooth transitions, flow and liveliness on paper
• Excellent resolubility in water and glazing qualities
• Vivid depth of color with each brushstroke
• Greater resistance to cracking and flaking
• More density of color than traditional watercolors
• Exclusive Aquazol® binder used in conservation

(Copied from http://www.qorcolors.com/about-us)

Note - no mention of granulation - one of the characteristics I love to explore in watercolour.

The sample cards are beautifully presented on waterproof paper with a little sheet of watercolour paper so you can test the colour. I understand thousands of cards were made before they realised that the sample was too small to try properly. See right. The other cards had a bit more paint to be able to create a wash with (see below)

I painted out my usual swatches as best I could using every trace of the paint sample. The paints feel different to paint with. It was as though I were painting with alcohol rather than water though that doesn't really describe it properly - they had a different consistency from what I am used to, though some of the samples were not enough to create a 'juicy' wash. They seem very matt and flat with absolutely none of the slight sheen that the gum arabic creates in some watercolours. Some brands of course are too gummy!

They also didn't have the level of granulation I am used to, which would suit some people very well.

The Permanent Alizarin is made with PR177 - Anthraquinoid Red - which is a very powerful and staining crimson. The Ultramarine is rich and vibrant and there really is less of a drying shift than normal watercolours. I didn't document it with a before and after photo but it is interesting. Would that make it difficult to intermix them with other brands? Perhaps. I'd be reluctant. The Pyrrole Red Light behaved quite strangely as you can see above, but there wasn't much in the sample to explore this further. Note 2017 - the pigment is not PR255 which is a lovely warm red pigment.


I was particularly interested in trying Ultramarine Violet and Viridian as these are generally not very strong colours that I had heard were very good in the QoR range. They do have a little more bang to them, though of course they are still gentle colours compared with their powerful dioxazine purple and phthalo green cousins - that's the nature of their pigments. Nickel Azo Yellow was very powerful. Burnt Sienna, though my preferred PBr7, was less so though hard to really tell from a small sample. It's a nice colour. I wasn't able to mix it with Ultramarine to see how it neutralised.

This bright set of swatches above were all rather lovely colours. Strong and clean and nearly all single pigment colours, except of course Quinacridone Gold, which is a nice hue made from PO48 + PY150. The orange is particularly beautiful.

This above set of swatches has a couple of three pigment mixes, which is too many for my liking. The Venetian Red is strong and opaque and very like Indian Red in other brands and the Transparent Brown Oxide is finely granulating. This could be a nice choice as a Burnt Sienna option if a more granulating version is desired. Sap Green is usually a mixture and this is a very usable version, even though it is a three pigment mix. They are very good pigments!

Note that the tubes are only 11ml and quite expensive compared with many brands.

I have made up a little palette of six to explore further. Somehow I think I will use them alone rather like coloured inks. My rather bright primary and secondary palette is Nickel Azo Yellow, the gorgeous Transparent Pyrrol Orange, Quinacridone Magenta, Ultramarine Violet, Ultramarine and Viridian. I'll see how they go to paint with...

The complete colour chart along with painted out samples and pigment information on all 83 colours can be found here. I have added them to my other watercolour swatches on my website here.

Brights sample card

Earth sample card

November update
I have also tried samples of a number of other colours so will add them to this Blog to keep them together. It isn't really necessary as there are painted samples on the QoR website that do show the colours very well, but I like to be thorough :-) I'll also add them to my website.

I had more paint to finish the Cerulean Blue sample,  so have added that again here.

September 2017 update - I'll be painting out the rest of the range soon. Of note is Neutral Tint - it's a rare mixed grey without any black in it, made with PY42+PR122+Pb15:3 - I look forward to testing that one.