Thank you for your report!
We have received your report and it is currently under investigation by a forum moderator.
Artist ink question
Welcome to the forum.
Here you can discuss all things art with like-minded artists, join regular painting challenges, ask questions, buy and sell art materials and much more.
Make sure you sign in or register to join the discussions.
Hang on Studio Wall
This is a Studio member-only feature!
Join our Studio membership and save your favourite Painters Online content, from gallery artwork to step-by-step guides, to your own online mood boards. Create your go-to place for inspiration and learning. Plus, members can also enjoy a range of exciting features including monthly art videos and a digital magazine library.
If you are already a Studio member, simply login to your account.
Not a Studio member? Why not try our free 30-day trial - no commitment, no credit card required
Message
Posted
Hi all,
Newb here. I'm planning on painting a rather sizeable picture to hang on my living room wall and my original idea was to do it with ink. I used drawing ink before for smaller pictures and I really like the Winsor and Newton ones, they have brilliant transparency and really vibrant colour. Now I know they are dye/shellac based and therefore not light-fast, so putting it on my wall as is would probably not help making it last.
I've also seen Daler Rowney acrylic artist inks, which should be light-fast but never tried them. In the bottle they just look like normal acrylic paint to me, seem to lack that really nice transparency and deep colour of the W&N ones, they kinda resemble the acrylics I use for my models.
So my question is really twofold:
1. Anyone used both these brands and can give a heads up or comparison in terms of their behaviour? How similar is the DR to the W&N, or is it more like just getting normal acrylic from the tube and watering it down to a certain consistency?
2. Is there any way of making W&N inks light-fast? Would UV spray or something similar help or that'd be just prolonging the inevitable? The frame I'm planning on using is like the stretched canvas frame (would be on paper) so I can't add a UV filtering glass/perspex sheet.
Any help would be much appreciated!
Posted
The Winsor and Newton website - or come to that stockists - should list the various colours and indicate their degree of lightfastness. I agree that shellac based inks look and behave differently to acrylic inks - but if I wanted permanence, I'd go with the acrylics. And would also stick to the transparent colours - an opaque ink won't have the qualities you seek.
As an alternative, you could try Chromacolour - available from www.chromacolour.co.uk (or Google it if that link doesn't work). They only sell via their website, but their acrylics can be watered down far more than most acrylics and it does resemble working with ink, provided again that you stick to mostly transparent colours.
The same may be true of some other brands of liquid acrylics - it'd be worth asking around: and perhaps some on the inkies on this site will be of more help to you. We have a few, I know.
Posted
Dear Robert Jones, I did press a like on your post as a thank you to your reply. Apologies if that wasn't a clear indication of feedback. As you said " it'd be worth asking around: and perhaps some on the inkies on this site will be of more help to you." This is exactly what I did by posting this thread. It is by no means saying that I do not appreciate your reply, it's simply that there was not much factually for me to come back to and was waiting for anyone else to chime in as first and foremost I was wondering if there was any way of making the W&N inks more lightfast. Make no mistake I do appreciate your reply.
Dear Alan Bickley, thanks for your input as well, glad that you managed to spend the same amount of time by typing your fingerwaving post than anything that could have been useful. It's very important after all to have principles.
Thanks for everyone involved. I don't think there's much point in keeping this thread on anyway.
Edited
by sztriki
Posted
Thanks again!
If anyone's still interested BTW, I just put the question to W&N on their facebook page last night and they replied this evening saying that UV spray would improve but would not make the drawing inks lightfast and directed to their calligraphy ink lineup which look similar in quality and opaqueness to the drawing inks. So hopefully they'll work out, I'll buy a few test bottles soon.