Fascinating video. I had thought my 9 different gray inks were verging on the excessive but now will have to buy more to try these marvellous techniques. Many thanks
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
Thank you. These techniques can be done with a number of different inks, but you can never have enough inks, right?
@atelierthhun11656 ай бұрын
@@mkompan True. I'm tempted to mix a dark from some of the water soluble blues and browns I've accidentally accumulated and see what happens first.
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
@@atelierthhun1165 I was thinking of doing the same. I would love to come up with a few semi-water resistant inks with different colored components.
@mike.antkowiak3 ай бұрын
I love working with Sailor inks. They work very similar to Diamond Earl grey in that they are made of two components, water resistant and non, and some of them do have that multi chromatic effect. One color I really love using is from the Shikiori line called Rikyucha. It draws sort of olive green wet, and slowly changes to wilted leafy brown dry, hence its namesake. In heavier blended areas there is a bluish undertone as well. Kobe (made by Sailor), Robert Oster, Pennonia , Teranishi and Taccia inks are all worth trying too.
@mkompan2 ай бұрын
Thanks for the recommendations! I’ve never used Sailor inks, and will now have to try them.
@Plaza-ej4dk6 ай бұрын
Hooray, new video. Mark, thank you very much. As always, it's informative. Greetings from Kharkiv.
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
Thanks for watching! Greetings from Los Angeles.
@chopsticks516 ай бұрын
Thank you - another great video packed with technical info and inspiration!
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
My pleasure!
@AlliListArt6 ай бұрын
Now I know why Diamine Earl Grey is my favourite ink Marc....thank u for explaining why....oh and its my favorite Tea too. Love Alli XXX
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
You’re very welcome!
@TheMarioMan2476 ай бұрын
I love all these inks, but I really prefer the Fuyu Syogun. It really is a nice cool blue grey that I think shades better than its warmer, redder "Kiri-sa-me" brother, also made by Pilot in the Iroshizuku line. Despite being water resistant, instead of waterproof, these inks work GREAT IN water brushes, with the shading effect making it play nicer in my opinion so long as you wait for the layers to dry. P.S The ink is pronounced "fuyu SHOgun". I don't know why Pilot used a different Romanization for that word specifically. (sho vs syo, Shi vs si). Maybe cause it's an acceptable input when they type.
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
Thanks for the pronunciation tip. I hadn’t considered placing the Fuyu Syogun into a water brush. Given how well it works in fude pens, I’m sure it will be great.
@LisaRSArt6 ай бұрын
Thanks. Now I will have to add Diamine gray to my collection. Thank you & I love your videos. ❤😊👌💯
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
You are so welcome!
@klbrown22946 ай бұрын
This was a terrific video - thank you. I’m a fan of Diamine Earl Grey but I’d not taken the opportunity to fully consider the various properties nor the value as an art ink. If you’ve not tried Lennon Tool Bar’s Atmospheric line, I suspect you might find them of interest - I’ve been using Twilight quite a bit. Thank you again.
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
Thank you! It makes me curious what other inks behave the same way. I’ll look into Lennon Tool Bar.
@dalem77426 ай бұрын
Thank you for the inspiring content Mr Kompaneyets. I am now excited to try Lexington gray in my flex pen. I previously only used it diluted in a brush pen.
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
You’re welcome, sir!
@gunsmokeandghouls5 ай бұрын
Lexington is a great ink, but that earl gray looks fantastic as a wash.
@mkompan5 ай бұрын
It’s a fun ink, but not for those that like control.
@fabiosilvadesouza53646 ай бұрын
Thank you for another great video, Marc! I hope that someday you write a book about drawing with fountain pens! I still have little experience with inks, but I love my De Atramentis Document Black. Have you ever tried the R&K SketchINK line? I think they are a little more wet than DA, but very waterproof too.
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
Thank you! Perhaps when I'm out the having very small kids stage I can dedicate some time to writing, but at the moment these short videos are the most I can manage. I have a number of R & K inks, and they're great.
@ichirofakename6 ай бұрын
1. Informed opinions and great technique. 2. Back in my neanderthal/realist days, I periodically swore off true black in favor of Lexington Gray. More range, and you won't get pitch black unless you want it. 3. If you found De Atramentis "Urban Grey" not to your taste, note that they make several different grays. I like the "Fog Grey". But the "Grey" is black as far as I am concerned. 4. One specialty gray I use sometimes is Herbin Gris Nuage, which was the palest gray I could find at the time of purchase. Sometimes I just want a hint of tone to distingush one area from another of blank paper. 5. Off Topic: what do you think of using ink with a watercolor technique? Currently I prefer ink over watercolor paint, brushing (pouring, dripping) it onto watercolor paper. It seems simpler to handle and easier to handle. And you can get some good use out of those super pale Sailor inks like Haha.
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
1. Thank you, as always! 2. I used fountain pen ink with watercolor technique for a project. The results were wild. Fountain pen ink can be so poorly behaved in washes that it creates all kinds of unexpected effects.
@MikeRandolph-kt2fr6 ай бұрын
As always, a very helpful learning experience, thank you for sharing your knowledge! I am a De Atramentis ink aficionado, but I do find the black is too black for my scribblings and the urban grey is too dark for my liking. Water is not a satisfactory method of dilution in my experience, so I use De Atramentis thinner. I highly recommend it!
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
You're welcome. I find the value of these transparent greys is dependent on the pen. They appear very light in certain pens, and quite dark in others.
@JagW1236 ай бұрын
Just signed up for the crosshatching fundamentals workshop, really looking forward to it!
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
Thank you!
@TheDynamite3336 ай бұрын
This is fantastic. Hope to see more ink videos in the future. I think I will give a try with Pilot and Diamine Eal Grey. I have already got Lexington after watching your early videos in the past. Thank you.
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
Thanks! I will be doing more of these. Brown inks are next.
@TheDynamite3336 ай бұрын
@@mkompan Truely I can't wait 😀
@dimitrioskalfakis6 ай бұрын
very helpful review and applied techniques.
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
Thank you!
@buddymc6 ай бұрын
Thanks for doing this review of grey inks. I purchased Earl Grey and it works great for shading in my drawings.
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
You're very welcome! I love that Earl Grey ink, and will also be using frequently.
@buddymc6 ай бұрын
How about doing a review of brown ink for drawing? @@mkompan
@sushanart6 ай бұрын
This was interesting! I have been looking at grey inks and now I think I know which will be the firsts for me. Thank you! 😇🩵🙏🙌🇸🇪
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
Thank you!
@nope85356 ай бұрын
I have found an ink and pen combination that for my writing style that is great for my tending to be slow on the start but increasing the longer I write, flowing slowly at first but the more I write increases with time. It can unfortunately turn the XF line into a medium to broad line which requires me to correct words at time due to smearing or spread. A custom tuned XF jinhao x159 with Noodler's Polar Black.
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
The x159 is such a dry writer than any ink that makes it flow better is welcome.
@nope85356 ай бұрын
@@mkompan I adjusted the flow some on my XF nib but it does still start slow. The medium and stub I made I increased the flow a lot so near a long writing session it can be quite....messy. Have to make my letters massive to keep from spread making them illegible.
@jaimejaime11786 ай бұрын
Hi again Mark. Jim from Madrid, Spain (a fellow artist and a New Yorker expat living abroad). Sorry I don't post often but, as you know, I always watch your videos. Great video on "50 Shadows of Grey"... 😁👍 I like the first 2 (Diamine) as water soluable greys... For non soluable inks (to use with watercolor) I use SketchInk because it's the best in quality/price ratio here in Spain. But I'm having trouble finding a "semi-soluble" Black ink at an affordable price to be able to do the "60 shades if grey" (if you know what I mean). Money is always a scarce resource in the Art world (considering everything else - family, mortgage, cars, insurance costs, taxes, etc.) and I need to be able to spend "smart" between all if my Art supplies (mainly - watercolor paper, sketchbooks, paint, brushes, inks, fountain pens, graphite, etc.) due to a limited budget. I don't know if you may be able to help me but... what do you think is a good "soluble" black ink to achieve neutral grey tones when water us applied? I bought Parker Quink Black but it's more if a Sepia black and, even though it's beautiful too, it's not the neutral deep black and grey I'm looking for after applying water (not a grey ink). If you could help me out it would be great, because I know your always very busy and I don't want to bother you. In any case... I really like your channel (as you know) and I watch all if your videos, from which I learn a lot (not too long ago I bought 3 Conte à Paris pencils with which I started to learn the 3 coloured technique after watching your videos). As I said... thank you for sharing your knowledge (at least part of it) and I will continue to watch your channel. Cheers from Sunny Spain!! 😁👍😎✌
@jaimejaime11786 ай бұрын
Sorry for the misspelling, specially on the "ifs" instead of "offs"... my "sausage fingers" get in the way with such a small keyboard in my tiny "dumbphone"... 😁😁👍
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
Good to hear from you, Jim! For semi-soluble black ink, Noodler's x-feather, and Heart of Darkness work very well. These are inexpensive here in the States, but might be difficult to obtain "across the pond." Sigh, the prices for everything are out of control here too (at least in California). Fortunately the channel helps subsidize the art-materials (and justifies the occasional pen purchase). Saludos desde Los Angeles!
@jaimejaime11785 ай бұрын
@@mkompan Thanks for taking time to answer... I'll try to see if I can find both Noodler's inks you specify but I already know that Noodler Inks are very expensive here and very difficult to find but I'll try. Cheers!
@dawnholder88196 ай бұрын
Thank you for a very informative video! I have Earl Grey but have never used it for drawing. Will be inking it in a fine nib today. Question: do you have favorite blue inks that separate out into purples and pinks when water is added? Thanks again for a great video - your work is very inspiring!
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
You’re very welcome! I don’t use blue inks for drawing that much and only have a few of them. Pilot Iroshizuku Asa Gao has purple and pink dyes in it, but these only separate out in a chromatography strip.
@jacobmach37406 ай бұрын
Maybe it was a bad bottle, but I've had some blue feathering with the lexington gray. I thought maybe the paper quality was the problem, but it's been solid with other inks. I know Noodlers can sometimes be inconsistent. I should give it another try.
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
The blue component can separate out slightly, and the washes can be grainy, but to me that’s part of the charm of the ink. For evenness and color consistency go for DeAtramentis Urban grey.
@jacobmach37405 ай бұрын
Marc, out of curiosity, have you tried Rohrer & Klinger sketch inks? I have found them to be really well behaved waterproof inks that are affordable. Their "Thea" color seems comparable to Lexington gray in how it behaves, but is more grayish brown.
@mkompan5 ай бұрын
@@jacobmach3740 I have a few bottles of R&K ink and they are very good. They seem to be more popular in Europe than here in the US. I probably don't need any more grey inks for the next few decades, but will have to try this "Thea" ink. Thanks for the recommendation!
@cdgarcia6 ай бұрын
I found Opus 88 feed doesn’t keep up with a flex. I had to use an ebonite feed to prevent railroading
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
They usually don’t, but this flex nib came in a housing unit with a feed altered for extra flow.
@cdgarcia6 ай бұрын
@@mkompan good to know
@loracharis68146 ай бұрын
Great video on these grey inks. I have been sleeping on Earl Grey, time to order a bottle. What paper or sketchbook do you use when you sketch and use these light washes?
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
Thank you! I love my Talens Art Creations sketchbook, though the washes in it don't lay down very evenly in it.
@thirstyrover77036 ай бұрын
Hi Mark I too love fountain pens and inks and as an Artist my two favorite inks are Platinum Carbon ink and Lexington gray. I have done ny own lightfastness tests and have found that Diamine Grey performed better than I anticipated. Do you do any lightfastness tests as well? Or how do you preserve your artwork?
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
Platinum Carbon and Lexington grey are some of my commonly used inks. I have not done light-fastness tests for my ink, but I'm not surprised that Diamine grey with it's single grey pigment did well. I imagine that Diamine Earl Grey would not fare nearly as well. Light-fastness in drawings is a tricky thing, since paper itself is sensitive to light. There's a reason why drawings in museums are always displayed for short periods of time, and then in darkened rooms. I keep my drawings in drawers and boxes, and recommend that people rotate their displayed works often.
@thirstyrover77036 ай бұрын
@@mkompanThanks for the reply Mark as well as the good advice.
@adaml69366 ай бұрын
It looks to me that you filled your pen up for each ink to test. When you were swapping inks, do you put the ink from the pen back in the bottle it came from? I'd like to fill my pens but I like trying different inks in my pens and I don't know what to do with the "extra" and don't want to waste it.
@mkompan6 ай бұрын
In this case, since each ink was used only briefly (and the pen was cleaned thoroughly) I poured the inks back into the bottles. You can buy little plastic sample vials if you don’t want to do this.
@adaml69366 ай бұрын
Thanks@@mkompan ! I'm ok putting it back in the same bottle in theory, but the internet has horror stories about it ruining the ink (due to paper fibers and other issues of the nib being exposed to "the world" etc..) As a new fountain pen user I've been hesitant. I'd rather not have to track vials and ink bottles if I can keep it simple 🙂 I'm good about cleaning out the pen between colors - sounds like it's worth the risk to put the remaining ink back in it's original bottle rather than put it down the drain. Just realized, if I was refilling a pen with the same ink, the same nib would touch the ink in the bottle when I refilled it, no? Maybe it's not as much of a risk as I thought. Which is good - because I have some Super 5 Australia Red I'm itching to try out. 😀
@adaml69366 ай бұрын
oh... and if you're looking to try out another grey... Super5 Frankfurt Gray is lovely
@retardno0025 ай бұрын
Hey Marc, I think a great set of inks to review next would be the De Atramentis Artist inks. Not the collection named after great artists but rather the inks specifically designed for artists. They have whimsical labels with various animal drawings on them (a squid for Speia for example). They are waterproof, can be mixed together, come in many colors, are fountain pen safe, and De Atramentis also makes an 'ink thinner' for them, so literally a liquid watercolor set.
@mkompan5 ай бұрын
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll look into these inks