De Atramentis Document Inks -- Lightfastness, Waterproofing, and Other Attributes

Results are in on the lightfastness tests I did of the full line of De Atramentis Document Inks!

You can see the results of the testing of the De Atramentis Document Inks in this post, as well as my comments regarding other attributes of those inks, which I've been exploring during and after the six months of testing. Below is a photo of all the ink swatches before half of each went into the window. It's a combination of the Document inks, some others that Brian Goulet sent me (from Goulet Pen Company), and some fountain pen, drawing, and calligraphy inks that I had here in the studio and wanted to test. This post will focus only on the De Atramentis Document Inks.

Lightfastness Tests -- Faber Castell Polychromos Pastels

Faber Castell Polychromos Pastels have been a go-to pastel for artists because they are individually rated for lightfastness, and provide a wide range of colors among the harder brands of soft pastels. Having a lightfastness rating does not mean that a color will never fade; it just means that the company is telling you the degree to which the color is lightfast, compared with other colors.

For these tests, I assumed that the earth colors and grays are about as lightfast as you can get, so I didn't test the entire line of Polychromos. Instead, I pulled out 74 colors from the full set that I thought would be most inclined to fade or shift color. The samples have been in my south-facing studio window in the northeastern US for at least a few hours a day for the past five years. The

Lightfastness Tests -- Charvin Water Soluble Pastel Painting Sticks

In January, 2015, I made swatches of the 48 colors in the Charvin Water Soluble Pastel Painting Sticks set, and cut the strips down the center. I put half of each strip by a south-facing window of my studio, and the other half wrapped up in a dark closet. In another month, it will have been five years since I started the test. By art longevity standards, five years is not a long time.

In case you're not sure which pastels I'm referring to, above is a photo of the set. Here is a link to them on the Jerrys website. They claim to be pure pigment and lightfast. They are certainly well priced! As you can see in the image below, the colors are rated by the manufacturer, some as "**** Excellent" and some as "***Good". But if you know me, you know I often need to prove things for

Lightfastness Test Results on Noodlers Eternal Inks, pigmented and iron gall inks, and more

Last year, I began some lightfastness testing on the full line of Noodler's Eternal Inks, as well as pigmented and iron gall inks by other brands (Sailor, Rohrer & Klingner, Diamine, and Platinum). This was done in collaboration with Brian Goulet of the Goulet Pen Company. Brian was interested in providing information to his customers, and I was interested in learning which inks would be best to use for assorted art applications. You can click here to see how I set up the test sheets.

It is now many months later, and the results are in! I tested 41 eternal, pigmented, and iron gall inks. There are another 45 or so inks that I tested at the same time, which do not fall into those categories, and I will discuss those briefly here as well. Before I go into the results, it is important to note that terminology varies between fountain pen folks and artists. No fountain pen ink is expected to live up to archival standards in art materials terms. These inks are not designed to be lightfast when exposed to UV light. Brian and I both faced this test with low expectations, which were, for the most part, confirmed. That being said, there were some inks that held up better than expected, and others that did surprisingly terrible in their class. Also, ink manufacturers sometimes make changes in color or composition of their inks between batches, so the results you get may be different from mine. For example, Noodler's Lexington Gray performed much better this time than a sample of it that I'd tested a couple of years ago.

SUMMARY
After five months, there were no inks that looked exactly the same as their control samples. However, some did extremely well, and changed very little. Those changes might not even be visible in the photos. The inks that were in this top tier are:

• Noodler's Black
• Noodler's Blackerase Waterase (big surprise for me!)
• Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng
• Noodlers La Reine Mauve
• Platinum Carbon Black
• Platinum Pigmented Blue
• Sailor Nano Black
• Sailor Blue Black

The second tier lists the inks that had a color shift greater than the inks above, but they didn't shift or fade very much. Those inks are:

• Noodlers Heart of Darkness
• Noodlers Polar Black
• Noodlers X-feather
• Noodlers Lexington Gray
• Noodlers Bad Blue Heron
• Noodlers Luxury Blue
• Noodlers Polar Blue

The third tier is basically everything else. These inks either had a huge color shift, faded a lot, or in some cases, nearly vanished. Below are the photos, so you can have a look for yourselves.

I gave a preliminary report last February about how the inks changed after the first six weeks. The samples then went back into the window for another three and a half months. Some changed little in the first six weeks and then nearly vanished! Others changed quite a bit in the first six, and not too much more after that. I attribute that to different ingredients and dyes in the inks, some of which are responding to the UV light faster or slower than others. Because of this interesting difference in the time frames, I am going to post both the six week and five month samples one below the other. Only the Noodlers Eternal Inks have six-week results, since I put those tests into the window first. The others have only the five-month images. (They went into the window later and came out later.)

Artists who are interested in knowing which inks can create a wash, and the color of the wash, will be able to see that in the samples. That washed area is generally where changes first appear, since there is a thinner application of the ink there. The six week and five month photos were taken with different cameras and different light sources, but you can still do the comparisons on each page. You can click images for a larger, clearer view. One thing you will notice is that due to the optical brighteners in the paper, the UV light caused the paper to yellow a bit by the five month mark, even though it is archival paper.

The control side is on the left, which was kept inside a sketchbook. The right side of each page was in the window. I then taped the pages back together to photograph them. It's much easier to make the comparisons with the sides together this way.

If you have a favorite ink in this test group, be sure you look at both the six week and five month samples! Remember that some inks that showed little change in six weeks had huge changes just a few weeks later. All images are clickable for a larger, clearer view.

Sheet 1, Six week sample:

Sheet 1, after five months:

Sheet 2, six week sample:

Sheet 2, five month sample:

Sheet 3, six week sample:

Sheet 3, five month sample:

Sheet 4, six week sample:

Sheet 4, five month sample:

Sheet 5, six week samples:

Sheet 5, five month samples:

Sheet 6, six week samples:

Sheet 6, five month samples:

Sheet 7, six week samples:

Sheet 7, five month samples:

Below are tests of the following inks that were included in the study, but not photographed at the six week mark. These were also in the window for five months:

• Platinum Carbon Black
• Platinum Pigmented Rose Red
• Platinum Pigmented Sepia
• Platinum Pigmented Blue
• Sailor Sei-Boku Blue Black
• Sailor Kiwa-Gura Nano Black
• Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa
• Rohrer & Klingner Salix
• Diamine Registrar's Blue-Black

Sheet 8, five month samples:

Sheet 9, five month samples:

That was it for the Eternal, iron gall, and pigmented ink samples I had for testing. If you found some of those results discouraging, you'll feel better about them once you look at inks that don't fall into those categories. I didn't even photograph most of those, because for the most part, they nearly vanished. Below are two examples.

Sheet 10 after five months:

Sheet 11 after 5 months:

Thank you all for your patience in waiting for these results. It took a long time to get these all done and photographed, adjusted, and posted. I hope it was worth the wait for you, and that you find this information useful. It's been interesting for me to see how some of my personal favorites have fared, and as an artist, I now know more about which inks I'd use for what applications. 

I previously tested many other fountain pen inks and put the results up on my blog with images. You can see those on these links:
Lightfastness Results
More Ink Lightfastness Test Results
Lightfastness Results of 15 More Ink Samples
Eleven More Lightfastness Tests Revealed

Noodlers Eternal Inks Preliminary Lightfastness Results

Many thanks to all of you for waiting so patiently for these preliminary results! For those who don't know what I'm talking about , you can click here to read about these lightfastness tests of the Noodler's Eternal Inks, and see how I set up the tests.

Last week, I was a guest on the Goulet Pen Company's webcast show, "Write Time at 9!" During that broadcast, I did a verbal reveal of changes to the samples. If you were unable to tune in at that time, you can watch the recorded broadcast below. I come on at about the 10:00 minute mark.

The right sides of the samples posted below were in my south-facing studio window for just six weeks, in the northeastern United States. It's the heart of winter here, when the sun is at its weakest. They got a few hours of direct sunlight a day through a screen and glass. I will be putting the samples back into a window tomorrow, and I'll do another reveal in six months to show the differences.

The tests are pretty self-explanatory. You can click any image below to see an enlargement. In the broadcast, I verbally described the changes to some of the inks, and you can click that link above if you'd like to hear more of my summary. Here on this post, I'll just list them for now in three categories:

1. Inks that didn't change
2. Inks that changed the most
3. Inks that changed a little

The inks that had no visible changes so far are:

• Black
• Blackerase/Waterase
• Heart of Darkness
• Polar Black
• X Feather
• Lexington Gray
• Bad Blue Heron
• Luxury Blue
• Polar Blue
• Polar Green
• Kung Te-Cheng
• La Reine Mauve
• #41 Brown (2012 version)
• Polar Brown

Inks that changed the most during this time frame are:

• Periwinkle
• Hunter Green
• Dostoyevsky
• Year of the Golden Pig
• Empire
• Fox
• Rachmaninoff
• Tchaikovsky
• Pasternak
• Whaleman's Sepia

Inks that showed a slight change during the six weeks are:

• El Lawrence
• Bad Belted Kingfisher
• Bad Green Gator
• Socrates
• Mata Hari's Cordial
• Bad Black Moccasin

There are two other inks that I did not discuss in the broadcast: Whiteness of the Whale, and Blue Ghost. I did test these, but I believe I need to look at them under a blacklight, and I have not yet done that. I'll report on those when I do my follow-up on these Noodler's Eternal inks, in another six months.

So without further delay, here are the images of the samples. The right half of each page was taken down from the window, taped on the back to the half in the book, and photographed. Those artists who are interested in knowing which inks wash and the color of the wash will be able to see that in the samples. That washed area is generally where changes first appear, since there is a thinner application of the ink there.

I hope many of you have found this information useful. It's been interesting for me to see how some of my personal favorites have fared! I'll be testing another 40-50 inks very soon. Stay tuned for a list within the next couple of weeks to see if any of your favorites are among them. After they've been in the window for a month or so, I'll do a post of preliminary results like this one, followed by six month results down the road.

Please join me for Write Time at 9 on Wednesday

This Wednesday, February 15, I will be a guest on Write Time at 9! This is an almost-weekly webcast by the Goulet Pen Company. We will be revealing the one-month results of the lightfastness tests I've done on the Noodler's Eternal Inks, and discussing the use of fountain pens and inks for sketchbooks and fine art. Please join us to contribute information, ask questions, or just lend your support since I'm not used to public speaking! You can click here for more information on the tests, and to see how these lightfastness tests were set up.

To join in, or just sit and watch/listen, you can look for a link here on my sketches site on Wednesday evening, or on the Goulets' blog, Inknouveau.

Noodler's Eternal Inks Lightfast Testing Preliminary Report

Brian Goulet of the Goulet Pen Company contacted me regarding some lightfastness testing I've been doing on a number of inks. So far I've tested 39 fountain pen inks. (If you haven't seen those results, you can click here and then keep scrolling down to see them all.) Whether or not lightfastness is an important issue is a decision you need to make for yourself, and your particular applications. Having the information available is always a good thing, and it gives us one more factor to consider when choosing an ink for a specific job.

In the interest of providing information to his customers, Brian suggested a collaborative venture to test all of the Noodler's Eternal inks, and have those results available on Inknouveau. Although some of my previous testing did include some of these inks, having them all done together at the same time, and available both there on Brian's site, and here on my blog, will be a good resource for those times when some UV resistance is important. The line of Noodler's Eternal Inks that we are testing includes the following:

• Noodler's Bad Black Moccasin
• Noodler's Black
• Noodler's Blackerase Waterase
• Noodler's El Lawrence
• Noodler's Heart of Darkness
• Noodler's Polar Black
• Noodler's X-Feather
• Noodler's Lexington Gray
• Noodler's Whiteness of the Whale
• Noodler's Blue Ghost
• Noodler's Bad Belted Kingfisher
• Noodler's Bad Blue Heron
• Noodler's Luxury Blue
• Noodler's Periwinkle
• Noodler's Polar Blue
• Noodler's Bad Green Gator
• Noodler's Hunter Green
• Noodler's Polar Green
• Noodler's Dostoyevsky
• Noodler's Year of the Golden Pig
• Noodler's Empire Red
• Noodler's Fox
• Noodler's Rachmaninoff
• Noodler's Socrates
• Noodler's Tchaikovsky
• Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng
• Noodler's La Reine Mauve
• Noodler's Mata Hari's Cordial
• Noodler's Pasternak
• Noodler's #41 Brown (2012)
• Noodler's Polar Brown
• Noodler's Whaleman's Sepia

I selected a Stillman & Birn Alpha 7x10" Wirebound book as my paper to do the tests. It's nicely sized, acid free, archival, heavy weight, doesn't have too much tooth, and is a clean bright white. Brian sent the 32 ink samples to me, and I got busy making swabs, crosshatches and washes to test in my studio window.

The ink samples were sorted by color group according to where Brian placed them in the Goulet Swab Shop, then by alphabetical order within that group. The swabs were done with Q-tips --- twice across on the top swab, and once across on the lower swab. All writing was done with a glass dip pen (including the crosshatched sections), which was washed and dried between samples. Artists who use fountain pens are often interested in knowing how much an ink's lines will wash with a water-filled brush after the ink is dry, so I washed a portion of the crosshatched sections with a wet brush. That also spread the ink thinner, providing additional information as the UV light interacts with the ink. Here are the prepared pages. You can click on any image for a larger, clearer version:

Black, Gray, White, Clear (Blue Ghost):

  

(My apologies for some ghosting on a couple of these images, due to the next page showing through a bit. I didn't realize that was happening until I was adjusting the images, and it's not too relevant at this stage in the process.)

Blues:

 

Greens, Turquoise, Yellow:

Red, Pink, Magenta:

Purples:

Browns:

The pages were then cut down the centers vertically, so that the name of the ink and half of each swatch is on each side. The right sides of the pages were placed in my south-facing studio window. The left sides will remain in the closed, wirebound book, where they will be in total darkness. Here they are, all set to go:

Most fountain pen inks are more fugitive than you'd think. That may not matter if whatever you write will not be exposed to UV light in its application, but it is certainly a reason to keep all of your inks stored in darkness.  Even colors in artists' paints that fade very quickly, like genuine alizarin crimson, take many times longer to show signs of change than fountain pen inks. Some inks start fading in just a matter of days. Others take six months or more.

I actually did this almost a month ago, so I will be posting preliminary results in about a week. That will give you an idea of which inks fade the fastest. I can tell you that a lot of them already have changed. So, stay tuned, especially if your favorite ink is on that list!

Eleven More Lightfastness Results Revealed

These are the last sheets of my lightfastness tests for now. I'll be putting these back into the window to see how they fare over the next six months, and will give you an update then. I'll also be setting up testing for an additional 30 or so colors, which I will add to the window next week. Pretty soon, I won't be able to see out of my window! LOL I should have some preliminary results from those in a month or so. It amazes me that fountain pen ink can begin to fade in such a short time, but it does!

Here is the list for the colors tested in this post.

• Noodler's Brown #41 (old version)
• Noodler's Golden Brown
• Diamine Chocolate Brown
• Diamine Saddle Brown
• Caran D'Ache Grand Canyon
• Noodler's Brown
• J. Herbin Eclat de Saphir (#1 on second test sheet)
• Diamine Marine (#2 on second test sheet)
• Diamine Majestic Purple (#3 on second test sheet)
• Noodler's Navajo Turquoise (#4 on second test sheet)
• Noodler's Black Swan in English Roses (#5 on second test sheet)

You can click the images to see larger versions. The left sides were exposed to sunlight in my window since last April. The right sides were kept inside a box in a cabinet.

 

I was surprised that the browns above didn't fade and/or shift more than they did. However, they all changed enough to avoid awarding gold stars to any of them. I still plan to use my favorites (like Caran D'Ache Grand Canyon) in my sketchbooks.

But check these out! J. Herbin Eclat de Saphir (#1), Diamine Marine (#2), and Diamine Majestic Purple (#3) vanished so quickly that they should be in a magic show!

It is worth noting that the sheets on the right, which were kept in darkness, have had no problem with retaining vivid colors, so please don't get nervous if you've been using these inks inside a book. They should be absolutely fine! These tests only reveal what happens when an ink is exposed to sunlight. If the inks you've used are not exposed to light, then these results are irrelevant.

If you'd like to see the previous lightfastness tests, click here. You'll always be able to find them easily by clicking on the "Lightfastness Tests" category on the left sidebar.

I have a bunch of wonderful new pens and new inks to review coming up in the next few days, along with a new drawing project I'm starting. So much to sketch, so much to sketch with, so much to photograph and share, and so little time!

Lightfastness Results of Fifteen More Ink Samples

As promised, here are the results of my lightfastness testing to date of the following inks:

• Noodler's Bulletproof Black
• Parker Quink Black
• Private Reserve Gray Flannel
• Diamine Graphite
• Diamine Grey
• Noodler's Lexington Gray
• J. Herbin Gris Nuage
• Iroshizuku Kiri-same
• Omas Grey
• Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogen
• Iroshizuku Yama-guri
• J. Herbin Cacao du Brasil
• Diamine Damson
• Caran D'Ache Storm
• J. Herbin Poussiere de Lune

The left halves of these test sheets were in my south-facing studio window since April. The right halves were kept in a closed box in a cabinet.  It is worth noting that the sheets on the right, which were kept in darkness, have had no problem with retaining vivid colors, so please don't get nervous if you've been using these inks inside a book. They should be absolutely fine! These tests only reveal what happens when an ink is exposed to sunlight. If the inks you've used are not exposed to light, then these results are irrelevant.


Test sheet 2:

Test sheet 3:

You can click them to see larger, clearer images. I'm sorry that I'm not a better photographer, but even so, individual results are pretty clear. Most colors experienced fading, color shifting or both, but I feel the following inks had very little, if any, change:

• Noodler's Bulletproof Black
• Diamine Gray
• J. Herbin Gris Nuage

Noodler's Bulletproof Black and J. Herbin Gris Nuage are both real workhorses for me, so I was delighted to see them perform so well. Some inks had so little change that I wouldn't worry at all about using them, though I still wouldn't be comfortable with exposure to UV light:

• Omas Grey
• J. Herbin Cacao du Brasil
• J. Herbin Poussiere de Lune

I found it interesting that so many of the greenish grays lost some of their blue component, resulting in a yellowish-olive/umber tone, like Parker Quink Black, Private Reserve Gray Flannel, and Noodler's Lexington Gray. Diamine Graphite turned from a greenish gray to a more neutral gray. Iroshizuku Yama-guri (one of my personal favorite inks)  lost some of the cool color, transitioning to a much pinker color, whereas Diamine Damson lost some of its rosy glow and turned to a bluer, cooler violet. And who would have guessed that Caran D'Ache Storm would bleach out to pale orange?

Stay tuned for more lightfastness results tomorrow on 11 additional colors. To see previous lightfastness test results, click here. You'll always be able to find them easily by clicking "Lightfastness tests" on the left sidebar.

More Ink Lightfastness Test Results

A sheet of sample swabs of various popular fountain pen inks has been in my studio window since March 10. The samples I tested in that round are:

• Noodler's Kiowa Pecan
• Noodler's Nightshade
• Private Reserve Chocolat
• Private Reserve Avocado
• Private Reserve Velvet Black
• Noodler's Whaleman's Sepia
• Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng
• Noodler's Baystate Blue
• J. Herbin Rouge Hematite
• Diamine Red Dragon
• Noodler's Sequoia
• Noodler's Navy
• Noodler's Walnut

One month later, I posted the changes that occurred in that short time period. Today I took down the sheets and photographed them again. It's seven and a half months that they've been in the window, and a couple of the results I  found surprising. Here's what the sheets look like now:

You can click that image to see a larger version. The left side was in my south-facing studio window. The right side was kept inside a box in a cabinet, to avoid light exposure completely. The biggest surprise was that Noodler's Baystate Blue completely disappeared! Well, okay, there are a few greenish bits barely visible here and there, but I'll bet within a month, those will be gone too.

The other big surprise is actually a good thing; Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng, one of my favorite inks to work with, has stayed exactly the same as far as I can tell. That doesn't mean I'd do fine art with it to hang on my wall, but it does mean I feel totally comfortable with using it in my sketchbooks and for other purposes too. All the rest of these colors either faded dramatically, had large color shifts, or both.

It's a well known fact that fountain pen inks should not be used for fine art. They are dye-based, rather than being pigment-based like paints, and those dyes are fugitive and not meant to withstand the long term effects of ultraviolet light. Still, some hold up much better than others. Even for use in my sketchbooks, I like to know where they stand. It is worth noting that the sheets on the right, which were kept in darkness, have had no problem with retaining vivid colors, so please don't get nervous if you've been using these inks inside a book. They should be absolutely fine! These tests only reveal what happens when an ink is exposed to sunlight. If the inks you've used are not exposed to light, then these results are irrelevant.

In April, I started another round of tests with 26 more colors. It's hard to find the time to post them all at once, so I will be posting those results tomorrow and the next day. Tomorrow I'll be posting the results of::

• Noodler's Bulletproof Black
• Parker Quink Black
• Private Reserve Gray Flannel
• Diamine Graphite
• Diamine Grey
• Noodler's Lexington Gray
• J. Herbin Gris Nuage
• Iroshizuku Kiri-same
• Omas Grey
• Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogen
• Iroshizuku Yama-guri
• J. Herbin Cacao du Brasil
• Diamine Damson
• Caran D'Ache Storm
• J. Herbin Poussiere de Lune

On Thursday I will share results from testing these colors:

• Noodler's Brown #41 (old version)
• Noodler's Golden Brown
• Diamine Chocolate Brown
• Diamine Saddle Brown
• Caran D'Ache Grand Canyon
• Noodler's Brown
• J. Herbin Eclat de Saphir
• Diamine Marine
• Diamine Majestic Purple
• Noodler's Navajo Turquoise
• Noodler's Black Swan in English Roses

Lightfastness Results

Note: Too see all of my lightfastness tests to date, click here.

You may recall that I started a series of Lightfastness Tests back in early March. Samples were taped to the windows in my southern exposure studio on March 10. It is now exactly one month later, and I took them down and photographed the results of one month's exposure through double pane window glass. Given that it's taken even the most fugitive oil paints six months to show signs of change when I've tested oil paints, I was quite suprised that after only 30 days, nearly all of these ink samples had faded or shifted (some more than others). Below are some larger images of the test results. You can click on these to see them even bigger:

You can click all of the images here to get large views of the samples and form your own opinions. The biggest surprise for me was the Baystate Blue. Out of the 13 inks I tested in this round, I consider that and the Diamine Red Dragon to be the Biggest Losers. After checking at the two week mark, I figured the Baystate Blue would just lose the intensity of the color, but even the more muted blue left behind is starting to fade. The Kung Te-Cheng was the clear winner in the Lightfastness category.

Some of the inks are presenting only the slightest shift in color at this point, or slight fading. Inks that I feel are holding up pretty well include:
Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng (the winner!)
J. Herbin Rouge Hematite (huge surprise that it's holding up this well, but it is lightening slightly)
Noodler's Nightshade (turning a bit more red)
Noodler's Sequoia (graying slightly)
Noodler's Navy (fading just a hair)

Some colors are exhibiting strong shifts in color, or fading in only certain components of their mix.
Noodler's Kiowa Pecan is losing the red coponent and becoming more yellow
Noodler's Walnut is also losing red and becoming more yellowish brown
Noodler's Whaleman's Sepia is losing the bluer elements, and the ink is shifting to red/pink.
Private Reserve Avocado is fading
Private Reserve Velvet Black is shifting color
Private Reserve Chocolat is losing a little intensity

Enlarge the images above and form your own conclusions. I'll probably photograph them again at the three month mark. If you'd like to see what this looked like before I put it in the window, here is a link to my previous post.

I have about 20--25 more ink samples to put up in the window today, so stay tuned for results on different inks in another month.

New Inks to Play With, WooHoo!

I had 13 ink samples come in a couple of days ago:
Noodler's Nightshade
Noodler's Sequoia
Noodler's Walnut
Noodler's Navy
Noodler's Pecan
Noodler's Whaleman's Sepia
Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng
Noodler's Baystate Blue
Private Reserve Velvet Black
Private Reserve Avocado
Private Reserve Chocolat
Diamine Red Dragon
J. Herbin Rouge Hematite

I played with the samples on a sheet of an 11x14" Raffine sketchbook, since this paper is well sized to allow the ink to move with water. I was especially interested in seeing which ones would wash with a waterbrush, and for how long they'd retain that characteristic, and which ones stayed put.

The ones that washed the best and longest have small stars next to the name on the test sheet. I kept returning to the samples and going over parts of the writing with a waterbrush. The Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng is definitely Bulletproof. All of the others washed more than that one, with several contenders for ink and wash work.

The bottom row of inks is from the March Ink Drop from Goulet Pens. For those not familiar with the Ink Drop, you pay $10 a month, and each month five ink samples show up in your mailbox! You also get a 10% discount on full bottles of that month's inks, in case you fall in love with one of the samples. Other member discounts are also offered.

In addition to knowing how much the different inks wash, I am interested in finding out which ones are lightfast. I cut pieces of Strathmore 500 Plate Bristol for this. I know the ink sinks in a lot more on this; maybe it would have been better to do it on a different surface, but I'll see how this goes. Perhaps I will size the paper myself for the next batch.

A heavy line of the ink was drawn with a Q tip, going back and forth four times. Then I washed with a waterbrush to draw down some of the ink into a wash line below. I wrote the ink names in on each side with a bamboo dip pen, and the strips were cut in half. The left halves will go into a south facing window. The right halves will be stashed in a wooden box so they will not be exposed to light. I'll keep comparing them over time, and will add each month's Ink Drop samples to the test. I'll report back as I check on the samples being tested.

I've selected Noodler's Nightshade and Private Reserve Velvet Black to experiment with first for artwork, and have loaded up a couple of fountain pens from the samples. You can expect to see some of the results from those soon.