I will be compiling all the test results from my previous blog,Playing with INKS, and grouping it together in a way that makes sense. This is the second RESULTS-blog.
Just to refresh your memory, I tested the following inks:
I tested the following inks later. I am including their results in the results blogs, but it will not appear in the downloadable results table. (Please add it in manually if you want it all together.)
Wendy Vecchi Make Art Bledable Dye Ink (Ranger)
Memento Luxe Ink (Tsukineko)
Stazon Pigment Ink (Tuskineko)
Artistry Ink (Shilpi)
In this RESULTS-blog I would like to discuss my findings with regards to the water-based or solvent-based properties of the inks I tested:
- Is this ink water- or solvent based?
- Can I use it to paint with?
- Can I use it to make “splats” on my page?
- Can it be used to colour pastes or gels?
Is this ink water- or solvent based?
Just to recap what WATER based or SOLVENT based means:
In normal chemistry terms, a SOLVENT is able to dissolve other substances and it is usually a liquid. The most common solvent is water!
When we talk about inks though, SOLVENT based means the colour is dissolved in something other than water, like oil or alcohol. Most solvent based inks are actually oil based.
With all the information at my disposal I came to the following conclusions:
10 Water-based inks:
VersaMagic Ink, Distress Ink, Distress Oxide Ink, All-Purpose Ink, All-Purpose Ink (metallic), Memento Ink, Brilliance Ink, Delicata Ink, Gelatos, Gelatos (metallic). (Aritstry Ink, Make Art Ink and Memento LUXE, tested later, are also water-based inks).
6 Solvent-based inks:
StazOn Ink (probably oil-based), Archival Ink (oil-based), VersaFine Ink (oil-based), VersaFine CLAIR Ink (oil-based), Alcohol Ink (alcohol-based), Alcohol Pearl Ink (alcohol-based). (StazOn Pigment Ink (probably oil-based), tested later, is also a solvent ink).
Can I use it to paint with?
I tested all the inks with a waterbrush to see if I could use the ink as a watercolour-type paint.
All the water-based inks could be used in this way:
None of the oil-based solvent inks could be used as a watercolour-type paint as oil and water don’t mix.
The alcohol-based solvent inks could be used to paint to some extent as they are liquid:
The normal Alcohol ink can mix with water and can be used as a watercolour-type paint like all the water-based inks:
The Alcohol Pearl ink does not mix with water and can’t be used as a watercolour-type paint like normal Alcohol ink:
Can I use it to make “splats” on my page?
The results for this test was the same as for the “paint” test.
All the water-based inks could be used to make splats:
None of the oil-based solvent inks could be used to make splats as oil and water don’t mix.
The alcohol-based solvent inks could be used to make splats to some extent as they are liquid:
The normal Alcohol ink can mix with water and can be used to make splats like all the water-based inks:
Can it be used to colour pastes or gels?
All the inks except StazOn, StazOn Pigment and Alcohol Pearl ink were able to colour gesso.
Memento Ink, Archival Ink, VersaFine Ink, VersaMagic Ink, Gelatos (metallic), Brilliance Ink, Gelatos, Distress Oxide Ink, All-Purpose Ink, All-Purpose Ink (metallic), VersaFineClair Ink, Alcohol Ink, Distress Ink, Delicata Ink. (Artistry ink, Make Art ink and Memento LUXE ink, tested later, were also able to colour gesso.)
The following inks (all water-based except for Alcohol ink that mixes with water) were able to colour gel medium:
Memento Ink, Gelatos (metallic),VersaMagic Ink, Delicata Ink, Gelatos, Distress Oxide Ink, All-Purpose Ink, All-Purpose Ink (metallic), Alcohol Ink, Distress Ink, Brilliance Ink. (Artistry ink, Make Art ink and Memento LUXE ink, tested later, were also able to colour gel medium.)
VersaFineClair ink, Archival ink, VersaFine ink and Alcohol Pearl ink all made pigment flakes when mixed with the gel medium. These inks can not be used to colour gel medium smoothly.
This was all the results related to the water- or solvent-based properties of the tested inks.
Keep this in mind when you play with your inks!
PLEASE NOTE: All the opinions are my own. None of the products have been sponsored.