Inky Gradients

August 30, 2014

I have used a less rigorous form of this methodology for creating mixes or just exploring mixing potential (and others never posted). I have also done some more complete incremental mixes where I have created a separate mix for each transition (Six Solvents, CMY Mixes).

Both are useful, the former is easy to do and quicker but has a fairly high margin of error making results harder to reproduce. The later is more time consuming eats up a lot of vials, but give an end result of having a lot of different ink colors available on demand.

Learning from these experiences I have now settled on a new methodology. It aims to save time and vial resources while giving more accurate results. The results show 1:0, 10:1, , 10:9, 1:1, 1:1, 1:1, 9:10, , 0:1 mixes of the two input inks. The downside is that the end result is 4ml of a 1:1 mix which may not be of any interest at all. It requires two syringes, two sample vials, two ml of each of the inks, and about two hours.

Some results:

The process:

Add one ml of the initial ink to a sample vial.
Sample the ink in the sample vial.
Add one additional drop of said ink to the vial to account for the first sample taken.
Sample the ink in the sample vial.
Add 0.1 ml of the second ink to the sample vial.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 nine more times.
Switch which ink is the initial ink and which is the secondary. Repeat steps 1-6.
Combine the two sample vials.
Do a final sample. This helps to show how much error there was.

In a pinch it might be possible to do this with only 1 ml of each. However, it would be more challenging (it is hard to sample really small results) and have more error from measurement (1/20th of a ml is about 1 drop with the syringe I have).

I may have to try using a lesser amount this with my early Susemai inks where I already took the approach of creating 8%, 4%, and 2% mixes in separate vials so no longer have enough 16% to so this. I am not sure I will have enough for that though, we shall see. With the latest round of inks I have enough for this and you can expect to see them I get them done.

At some point I need to make guide paper for this, so I line things up nicer.

Edited August 30, 2014 by vossad01

September 1, 2014

This is WONDERFUL!

September 22, 2014

Stunning.

October 7, 2014

I realize that I forgot to indicate what I am using for a pen. Unless a post says otherwise, all the gradients are done with a #5 Fountain Pen Revolution (FPR) fountain pen nib with a tape reservoir in a dip pen holder. The nib is either a Medium or a Fine, I am not sure which. If I ever figure out which size it is I will post, last time I tried to tell the difference between known specimen of those two I had trouble telling the difference.

October 7, 2014

Of course Inky Gradients need not be linear gradients. I kicked around the idea of non-linear gradients in my head hoping there might be a way to get results that better highlight the interesting points or give suitable results in fewer lines of ink. I could not come up with anything that I thought would be as general purpose as the linear gradients.

Necessity caused me to create my first Exponential Inky Gradient. In this case the dye contribution from the first ink is cut in half each line. That is the amount of the second ink is [2^(line number - 1) - 1] * (quantity of first ink). In this case I already had the first 4 mixes of the exponential gradient and I did not have enough of the parent ink to do a linear gradient. I liked the results, and used if for the rest of the blacks I was needing to do because I care more about the grey range when diluting a black than subtle variations of black.

I think that, in general, the exponential gradients are better suited for dilutions than mixes. I think the exponential gradients are better at giving you an idea of the range and saturation of the ink and are less useful as a guide for mixing.

Some results:

Edited October 7, 2014 by vossad01