My Research Into Inks & Watercolours

I’ve been really enjoying the fluidity of inks, but realised I needed to do some methodical research into the capacities and qualities of different inks. Some dull a lot more than others when they dry, for example, which can be quite a disappointment! I wanted to compare brands and see which colours hold their colour best as they dry.

I’ve also been finding that I’ve not felt settled yet about the surface I want to work on, and I’ve wanted to be sure that I select the right method for protecting my artwork, depending on the mediums I’ve used and the surfaces I’ve worked on. I selected the following acrylic inks and watercolours…

Experimenting on different surfaces

I’ve been used to working on canvas. For acrylic paintings it’s an easy surface to work on, relatively robust and inexpensive, and it doesn’t have to be framed when you display the artwork. But my main beef with canvas is that I don’t like the texture. It feels plastic-y, man-made, dead. It’s fine when the whole painting will be covered with paint, but I’m drawn to working with more translucent mediums like the inks and watercolours, and I also want to play with leaving spaces unpainted. Unpainted space is a lovely contrast to painted areas, so long as the unpainted surface has it’s own beauty. Papers can be lovely, but are less resilient than canvas and wood panels and have to be framed or mounted on wood panels, and protected with either glass or a protective coating.

Inks and watercolours behave very differently on different surfaces. On gesso-ed canvas, they don’t absorb well. Then they tend to puddle and the colour evens out or bleeds while it takes a long time to dry, so you lose some of the beautiful colour variance and crisp edges you can achieve on paper. I applied a coat of gesso, followed by a coat of Liquitex ultra matt medium on my canvas. the ultra matt medium needs to be shaken well before applying, and then applied quite thickly, and then it’ll turn the canvas into a more absorbent surface. Not quite like paper, but much more absorbent than the canavs would otherwise be.

From right to left in the images below, the inks I used were: Golden High Flow Acrylic, Dala Acrylic ink, Daler-Rowney acrylic ink, Herbin Eclats watercolour ink, Herbin Eclats watercolour ink mixed with acrylic medium, and then the last two were mixtures of the different inks.

I also experimented with applying a messy coat of gesso, followed by a thick coat of Liquitex ultra matt medium onto paper. I was interested in seeing how the inks and watercolours behaved on this textured surface.

Finally, I also used the inks and watercolours on plain paper.

From right to left in the image below, the mediums I used were Herbin Eclats watercolour, Daler_rowney acrylic ink, Van Gogh Watercolour, Amsterdam talens acrylic ink, Sennelier Abstract acrylic ink, and Liquitex acrylic ink. I also texted them with glazing medium and Liquitex ultra matt medium.

Findings

Colour intensity: Golden High Flow Acrylics and Liquitex acrylic ink held their colour best overall. Herbin Eclats watercolour inks are gorgeous and hold their colour well on plain paper, but they dull a lot when used on top of the ultra matt medium. And the ultra matt medium is necessary if you’re using the watercolours on top of a gesso-ed canvas or gesso-ed paper.

Colour permanence: Acrylic inks are almost completely permanent once they’ve dried on paper, gesso-ed paper, and canvas. Watercolours remain water-soluble even after they’re dry, so this is important to remember if you plan to use layers of paint… new layers on top will disrupt your impermanent lower layers in unpredictable ways! It’s also important to remember when you’re deciding your protective coating! You can add acrylic medium to the watercolours and this will make them dry permanent, however, they also become more viscous so they flow very differently when you use them.

Mixed media work: Due to the acrylic medium in acrylic inks, you can paint them on top of water colours (though un-fixed watercolours will bleed when you do this), but you cannot paint watercolours on top of acrylic inks once the acrylic inks are dry. The acrylic medium makes the acrylic ink non-absorbent, and the watercolours need an absorbent surface. You can mix watercolour and acrylic inks successfully to create new colours to work with.

Sensory experience of the medium: I love the way that the Herbin Eclats feels… it flows completely unobstructed like water. The acrylic inks are a bit more viscous, Golden High Flow acrylic being the most viscous (though better when thinned with water, and it can be thinned quite a bit but still hold it’s colour vibrance and resilience). I definitely prefer the feel and flow of watercolour inks to watercolours out of the tube, though I really enjoy the way that the Van Gogh watercolour degranulates and creates unexpected textures.

Surfaces: I’m feeling happier with canvas as an option, especially if I create texture with messy gesso, and then apply a coat of Liquitex ultra matt medium. This creates a lovely textured, matt surface to work on, similar to paper. This surface absorbs the inks and watercolours much betetr and looks beautiful when left unpainted. I also like the plain paper and paper with gesso and ultra matt medium as options, especially for smaller work.

A fun surprise!

I was delighted to find that the Herbin Eclats watercolour ink in Teal changes colour in the light. If it’s used at full intensity (undiluted), in certain light, it changes to a lovely warm rust, which looks so good with the teal!