Painting With Troublemaker Inks

[NickiStew]

I have just returned from 2 weeks cycling in the French Alps and when not on the bike enjoying the scenery, I had the opportunity to test out the new Troublemaker inks sent to me. These are proper duotone shading inks - each ink composed of 2 colours shading one into the other.

 

 

The wonderful surprise for me is that this limited palette of Milky Ocean, Abalone, Petrichor and Kelp Tea gave me all the colours and tonal depth that I needed at the time.

 

Milky Ocean- A Royal blue that when dropped onto a wetted watercolour paper bleeds out pink, blue and bright turquoise. No sheen in evidence. A strong white gold effect when subjected to bleach. Hints of Sailor 143?

 

Abalone- A deep blue grey that when dropped onto a wetted watercolour paper bleeds out pink, dark blue, greys and green turquoise. No sheen in evidence. A strong white gold effect when subjected to bleach. Hints of Sailor 123 & 243?

Petrichor- A deep grey that when dropped onto a wetted watercolour paper bleeds out pink, dark greys and green turquoise. No sheen in evidence. A strong white gold effect when subjected to bleach. Hints of KWZ Lux Grey?

Kelp Tea- A deep olive that when dropped onto a wetted watercolour paper bleeds out ruts, browns and greens. No sheen in evidence. A strong white gold effect when subjected to bleach.

 

I'm fully aware that the painting sketches displayed are not graphic representations in terms of colour but here's the point, if I wanted that, I might as well have taken a photograph and left it at that. It's the in-built chromatography of the inks that, for me, make the images. Simple, quick, unique and graphic. No overworking - just as it comes! Instant watercolours!

When I set out on this project four years ago, to reimagine fountain pen inks as a creative medium, I had no idea where it would lead. To be able to use one pure and unique medium throughout a journal for both imagery and writing really is the dream come true.

Simple, subtle and just beautiful to look at. Great colours. So, if you're looking for inks with great chromatic qualities and a good tonal range that you can write and illustrate a travel, art or diary journal with, these would appear to be made for the job.

The sketch book used is a Hahnemühle ZigZag

[inkstainedruth]

Wow. You are just so talented! Being able to get that range of subtlety and depth of color from a limited palette? Reminds me of my first painting class in college where we were limited to IIRC yellow ochre and Prussian Blue -- and we had to paint these little dioramas of a corner (two walls and a floor) with an egg in it.

And for you to treat the inks as if they were watercolors? Inspired. (Watercolor is a tough medium to begin with, because it's so easy to screw up....)

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[NickiStew]

Wow. You are just so talented! Being able to get that range of subtlety and depth of color from a limited palette? Reminds me of my first painting class in college where we were limited to IIRC yellow ochre and Prussian Blue -- and we had to paint these little dioramas of a corner (two walls and a floor) with an egg in it.

And for you to treat the inks as if they were watercolors? Inspired. (Watercolor is a tough medium to begin with, because it's so easy to screw up....)

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Ruth, these shading inks are a dream to use both for writing and painting. I'm going to be testing some Vinta inks in a couple of weeks which allegedly are even better!?!

Edited September 23, 2019 by NickiStew

[Carrau]

Lovely work, Nick. I have had bottles of Abalone and Copper Patina ordered, and am awaiting delivery from Philippines. I hadn’t heard of Vinta inks before your post. It appears they are of Philippine origin as well, and seem to have the same polychromatic qualities as the Troublemakers.

[txomsy]

Amazing, truly amazing!

 

I am loving my Simoun and Doña Vitorina inks. Besides the sheen, they are wonderful colors once you get down to use them.

 

Now, I'm waiting to make some room (too many inks already) to order more Troublemaker inks. I find them truly inspired and, to me, really pleasing.

[NickiStew]

Lovely work, Nick. I have had bottles of Abalone and Copper Patina ordered, and am awaiting delivery from Philippines. I hadn’t heard of Vinta inks before your post. It appears they are of Philippine origin as well, and seem to have the same polychromatic qualities as the Troublemakers.

 

I'll post my Vinta tests on FPN once conducted. N

[NickiStew]

Amazing, truly amazing!

 

I am loving my Simoun and Doña Vitorina inks. Besides the sheen, they are wonderful colors once you get down to use them.

 

Now, I'm waiting to make some room (too many inks already) to order more Troublemaker inks. I find them truly inspired and, to me, really pleasing.

I honestly that think these far Eastern shading inks could be what I've been looking for. I thought that utilising sheening, shimmer and standard inks for illustration, calligraphy and painting would already warrant fountain pen inks as a standalone creative medium but these new shading inks could seriously set up fountain pen inks as a whole new genre and if used creatively could seriously revitalise traditional journal keeping and associated creative pastimes. Pressure still needs to be put on ink producers to properly get behind what some of us are trying to do and ALSO to solve the fading issues of certain colours. In this day an age, there are so many UV resistant additives available, you would have thought this would have been sorted by now? Still, exciting times ahead me thinks.

[SpecTP]

absolutely wonderful use of the shading capabilities of these inks.. I like the shading effects here much better than those of sheening inks.

[Uncial]

These are very beautiful inks. I picked up the set of four but the lack of lubrication makes some of them almost unusable in a pen, which is a shame.

[SpecTP]

These are very beautiful inks. I picked up the set of four but the lack of lubrication makes some of them almost unusable in a pen, which is a shame.

 

did you specify wet / very wet versions?

[Uncial]

That wasn't an option on the shading ink set of four.

[DrDebG]

This is wonderful, Nick! You are so talented. After seeing your paintings, I went to the Troublemaker website to order. They have shut down their operations in August for an a time in order to get caught up on the backlog of orders. It appears that they are going to be selling their inks through other retailers.

[Carrau]

I received the Abalone and Copper Patina inks at last. They were ordered as Standard/wet (I believe there was an option for extra wet as well). As Uncial commented, they are very dry even in a 1.5mm stub. I mixed a sample of the Copper Patina with a few drops of 0.5% PhotoFlo, which improved its writing behavior. The Abalone was better lubricated than the Copper, so I havent added any PhotoFlo to any samples of it.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Herrjaeger