Inky Gradient: Distilled Water To Noodler's Dark Matter

August 30, 2014

An Inky Gradient

Strathmore Writing (25% cotton, natural white, wove, 24lb):

Georgia Pacific Multipurpose Paper (20 lb, bright white, Walmart):

Southworth Diamond White (25% cotton, white, 20lb):

Why I did it:
To see if it would be a valuable component for Noodler's CMYK Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun approximation. To see what kind of gray it produced; some post about diluting blacks caution that the result are likely not to be gray.

Why you might recreate any of these mixes:
You like gray ink. Particularly ones that are not as charcoal in appearance as Noodler's Black so will appreciate the blueness in Dark Matter creating a smoother gray with a softer character.

Remarks:
After doing Noodler's Black, I knew I was really only interested in the more diluted range so only did half the gradient to save time. If someone is real wanting to see the other half, I might oblige in going back and doing the other half.

General disclaimer when mixing with water:
At high dilution levels, water has too high of surface tension to make a good ink (IMO). I have Kodak Photo-Flo for use as a surfactant and believe I can make any dilution flow at a desirable level for use in a FP. If you are going to do very high dilutions, you will want a surfactant, or can achieve same dilution results with Noodler's Blue Ghost with less hassle. I also have Phenol (never used) should I feel I am making a large quantity that needs a preservative.

September 8, 2014

These are a lot of work and we appreciate your efforts. Thank you.

February 16, 2015

To see if it would be a valuable component for Noodler's CMYK Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun approximation.

Was it?

Thanks for the consistent dilution efforts you've posted over time.

May 2, 2015

Was it?

Thanks for the consistent dilution efforts you've posted over time.

I started with the 20:1 but was finding that I was needing to add a lot of blue to it to bring closer to target. So then I decided to tackle it from the other direction, starting with the cyan (Noodler's Turquoise). I ended up using mostly just the CMY inks, I think I did add a a small amount of a K near the end trying to darken the mix a little after too much dilution, but I do not think a K is necessary for passable results.

The progression from top to bottom:

Target Ink (Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun)

20:1 Noodler's Dark Matter Dilution

Above + 3 drops 20:1 Navajo Turquoise

Navajo Turquoise (20:1, I think)

1:1 (20:1 Navajo Turquoise) (20:1 Shah's Rose) [to see if I would get close to the right hue with them and was in the ballpark on saturation]

_____ (decided I was under-saturated) so started over with a stronger (full strength) Turquoise + Shah's mix

6 lines incrementally adding (C, M, or Y, [or Water/Ghost]) based on perceived need. Full lines were written out when I thought a significant enough change had been achieved to want a full line for comparison some of the scribbles or shorter bits on the page may have been intermediates between these lines.

Scratch/Scribbles

The 6th line was getting close so skipped to after the scribbles and started making smaller adjustments. Wrote a couple words with the target ink to provide side-by-side comparison.

The red in the map below indicates the two spots I have writing with the target ink. (It is just two words down below)