My test of two different ink mixing methods for shading inks

I spent a month trying to make a shading blue ink. First, I just mixed a standard dye ink with water, about 20% water to 80% ink. It washed out the color and made it pale. Then I tried adding a tiny bit of a different, more saturated ink to the base instead, maybe 5% of a deep blue to 95% of a medium blue. The second mix kept the flow good and the shading was way more dramatic on my Tomoe River paper. It seems like adding another ink for depth works better than just diluting with water. What's your go-to method for boosting shading without ruining the ink?

3 comments

3 Comments

coleman.jade1mo ago

Wait, you mixed inks for a whole month?

jessicaw112mo ago

Mixing with another ink instead of water is smart... I wonder if the paper's coating matters more than we think for that shading effect.

butler.brian2mo ago

That paper coating thought is spot on. My friend tried a fancy ink mix on cheap copy paper and it just looked flat, then the same ink on good paper had wild shading. The right paper makes the ink do its thing.