Not sure where to get started with the wide variety of artists' inks available at ARTdiscount? In this article, we'll explore features and benefits of a range of artists' inks to help you decide which is the best for you.
Ink is a solution that contains at least one colourant (dye or pigment) and a Solvent, (plus a few other ingredients for quick drying) it is used for writing, drawing, painting or printing.
Common Types of Pen Ink Include:
- Ball point
- Drawing, ink dip pens, brushes
- Fountain Pen
- Rollerball
- Gel pen
More Unusual Inks!
- Alcohol inks
- Glow in the dark ink.
- Invisible ink!
- Tattoo ink.
- Adhesive inks, labels, tattoos, decals.
- Printer Ink
- Food dyes, edible ink!
- Erasable inks.
Historically, ink goes way, way back to antiquity. We have documented usage of inks by the Ancient Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans – with some even believing it goes as far back as 4th century BC India!
Luxuriant Forest among Distant Peaks, Ink Wash Painting, Li Cheng, 10th Century, Early Northern Song Dynasty, Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
The ingredients and recipes varied according to the particular time and culture, and could include such things as lamp-black soot, plant mucilage, octopus ink, cuttlefish ink, naturally occurring sulphide minerals such as Orpiment (which was highly toxic!), Iron, Lead, Ochre, the roots or bark of plants, graphite, charred bone, and animal or fish glue/gelatin – and this is just to name but a few!
Today, modern inks are still made up of either a dye colourant – which dissolves in the ink or a pigment colourant which has been created organically or artificially – a solvent, the liquid to which the colourant has been added, and a binding agent. Water, alcohol, wax, linseed/flaxseed, or soybean oils are ingredients commonly associated with modern day ink formulas.
When oils are used, inks will dry through air oxidation, whereas when alcohol is present, the ink will dry through evaporation. All of the different formulas are conceived in an attempt to provide us with the most efficient inks required for our own specific applications.
Ultimately, we want our inks to maintain their colour vibrancy, dry quickly, be fade resistant, and not smudge! Here at ARTdiscount, we believe in quality products for our customers and can offer a great range of Writing, Painting, Crafting and Drawing inks!
Looking to Get Started? Here's a Sampling of the Inks Available with ARTdiscount
Writing and Drawing Inks
Writing and Drawing Inks are often used by calligraphers, artists, illustrators, and designers to create striking, vibrant artwork. They're generally quick fast drying – especially compared to acrylic and oil paints – and are ideal for use with brushes, dip pen, and other mark-making tools. These inks can be found in both brilliant, colourful hues and in deep, monochromatic options, such as Indian Ink.
You can explore a wide range of Drawing Inks using the collection on the ARTdiscount website, but to help you decide, we've also collated a few of our favourites here.
Sennelier Indian Ink
Sennelier Black Indian Ink is an extremely rick Indian ink manufactured with shellac gum, giving it unique brilliance, brightness, and vibration under light.
It can be applied with a brush or ink pen and gives a satin to brilliant film depending on thickness. The ink dries rapidly and displays a high degree of water resistance, without being indelible. These inks are highly sought after for calligraphy, quill drawings, washes, for textile creations and materials research. They can be protected with a pencil fixative in order to increase their light stability.
Winsor & Newton Drawing Inks Individual Colours - 14ml Bottles
Available in 30ml, 250ml & 1 litre bottles.
Winsor & Newton Drawing Inks are formulated from a series of soluble dyes in a superior shellac solution. These inks can be applied with brush, pen, or airbrush and are widely used by illustrators, designers, calligraphers, and artists.
These intermixable, fast-drying drawing inks come in a wide range of jewel-like colours. Cherished by artists, illustrators and designers, they can be overlaid for new effects and shades and used with a brush, dip pen or airbrush. They're best used alongside a good-quality watercolour paper such as Bockingford or Langton.
Winsor & Newton Drawing Inks - The Henry Set
This convenient set contains eight Winsor & Newton Drawing Inks, making it the perfect place to get started when working with coloured inks.
Contains 8 x 14ml Bottles - Violet, Canary Yellow , Nut Brown, Blue, Emerald, Scarlet, Orange, Black Indian Ink.
Winsor & Newton Drawing Inks - The William Set
Just like the set above, this also contains eight Winsor & Newton Drawing Inks, and is the perfect place to get started when working with coloured inks.
Contains 8 x 14ml Bottles - Vermillion, Peat Brown, Deep Red, Black Indian Ink, Sunshine Yellow, Purple, Brilliant Green, Ultramarine
Liquitex Acrylic Inks - 30ml
Liquitex Acrylic Inks are ultra-fluid acrylics with lightfast, artist-quality pigments. No dyes. No fade. Just pure, permanent colour. And like all acrylics, it dries quickly and permanently, with no smudging or bleeding when rewetted or layered. You get pure liquid colour in a range of opacities.
Dip Pens
Dip Pens are often used in conjunction with the kinds of Drawing Inks seen above, and are usually the pen of choice for calligraphers. They generally feature nibs similar to fountain pens, but don't come with any ink of their own. Rather, the artist will dip the pen nib into their pot of ink every few strokes of the pen.
You can explore the Dip Pen Collection on the ARTdiscount website.
William Mitchell Copperplate Dip Pens
3 nibs complete with pen holder and storage box
William Mitchell’s Copperplate pens are outstanding quality writing implements for the Copperplate calligrapher. The very fine, responsive elbow, oblique pens are constructed to enable ease of writing with exceptional results.
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William Mitchell Left Oblique Round Hand Dip Pens and William Mitchell Round Hand Dip Pens
William Mitchell’s Round Hand Dip Pens are the classic tools of calligraphy. Available in ten different sizes, the pens allow a full, even flow of ink when used with the Mitchell Slippon Reservoir and are suitable for all types of edged pen lettering including Uncial, Foundational, Gothic, Roman and Italic hands.
These dip pens in left-handed and right-handed variants
William Mitchell Italic Dip Pens
A chisel point nib ideally suited for Italic handwriting and other calligraphy styles, such as Gothic and Uncial. It is a slightly firmer nib than the Round hand. Set comes with 5 nibs (0.5mm, 0.75mm, 1.00mm, 1.25mm and 1.5mm). 2 Slippon reservoirs for a full even flow, a pen holder and storage box.
Artists' Fineliner Pens
Artists' Fineliners are, as the name suggests, a pen that emits ink in a fine line. They're often used by manga & comic artists, fashion designers, and technical illustrators, and are highly prized for their precise linework. They come in a wide range of sizes, often indicated with a number on the body and nib.
You can find the Fineliner Pens Collection here.
Sakura Pigma Micron Fineliners
Invented by Sakura in Japan over 25 years ago, Pigma Micron Fineliners are regarded by many artists as the most reliable permanent ink pens on the market today and are considered essential for any archival quality illustration project.
They offer artists and designers smooth flowing ink, deep colours, and very stable pigments. This permanent, fade resistant, chemically stable, pigment-based ink will not bleed or run if liquids are spilled on or applied to the document after the ink has dried.
Universally compatible with other media, such as watercolours, oils, and acrylic paints.
Faber-Castell PITT Artists' Pens
These artist-quality Faber-Castell PITT drawing pens from Faber-Castell are available in a range of sizes and shapes. These include fine liners, bullet tip, brush tip and chisel tips. They come not only in standard Black Indian Ink, but also Sepia and Sanguine variants. They're great for urban sketchers and inkers.
The acid-free, archival ink is smudge proof, waterproof and won't bleed through paper.
Faber-Castell Indian Ink Pitt Artist Pens - Hand Lettering (9pcs)
A wallet of 6 Faber-Castell India Ink Pitt Pens with pigmented drawing ink. The inks feature high light resistance, are odour and acid-free, and are pH neutral.
Thanks to their unique formula, there's no need to pump or shake to prepare them. These pens are ideal for creative hand lettering.
Set Contents:
- Brush Nib Black - 199
- Warm Grey V - 274
- Warm Grey III - 272
- Cold Grey IV - 233
- Cold Grey I - 230
- Fineliner S; 0.3 mm Black - 199
- Fineliner 1.5 mm Black - 199
- Metal Sharpener
- Castell 9000 B with Eraser Tip
Faber-Castell India Ink Pitt Pen Wallet (4pcs) - METALLIC
Pigmented drawing ink. High light resistance. Odour-free, acid-free, pH neutral. No need to pump or shake.
Colours Included in the Metallic Set:
- Gold - 250
- Silver - 251
- Ruby Red Metallic - 290
- Blue Metallic - 292
Faber-Castell Indian Ink Pitt Artist Pens - Hand Lettering (6pcs) - PASTEL COLOURS
A wallet of 6 Faber-Castell India Ink Pitt Pens with pigmented pastel drawing ink. The inks feature high light resistance, are odour and acid-free, and are pH neutral.
Thanks to their unique formula, there's no need to pump or shake to prepare them. These pens are ideal for creative hand lettering.
Contents:
- S; 0,3 mm Black - 199,
- Cobalt Green - 156,
- B; Brush Width Light Yellow Glaze - 104,
- Pink Madder Lake - 129,
- Cobalt Turquoise - 154,
- Light Phthalo Green - 162
Pentel Pocket Brush Pens + 2 Refills
The Pentel Brush Pen is the ideal medium for a variety of stylised design work including calligraphy, cartoon illustration and graphic design.
Especially suitable for the fine art of traditional Japanese illustration and calligraphy, the Pentel Brush Pen allows the user to achieve a quality of expression previously attainable only with the use of a conventional brush and India ink. With a refillable barrel and a brush tip that maintains its shape, Brush Pen gives constant, yet controlled ink flow to produce fine detail and the authentic long, sweeping strokes of traditional oriental artwork. The convenient refill cartridge is supplied with dense black pigment ink which can be used on almost any surface, from artboard to handmade paper.
For best results we recommend a smother drawing surface such as rice paper for traditional style calligraphy and ink drawing techniques or watercolour paper and Bristol board for more illustrative projects.
Artists' Marker Pens
Marker pens are used by artists to add a splash of colour to their illustrative work. As with all inks, the ink in these pens can be water-based, alcohol-based, or even acrylic. They usually feature a high-quality, porous felt tip that allows ink to be evenly applied onto paper, canvas, or – in the case of acrylic markers like POSCA – almost any surface you can think of!
Check out the full Marker Pen collection here.
Winsor & Newton Promarkers
Promarker offers alcohol-based streak-free coverage so you can achieve flawless, print-like results. Promarker is twin-tipped: a broad chisel and fine bullet nib, that allow you the freedom to flip easily between shading larger areas and precision detailing.
Uni POSCA Markers
POSCA is a range of markers containing richly-pigmented, water-based acrylic paint that produce vibrant, poster-like colours. They can be applied to virtually any surface – from paper to to leather to glass – without bleed. Available in a wide range of nib sizes, Posca markers are ideal for various artistic applications, such as wall art, textile painting, posters and sign writing.
Liquitex Professional Paint Markers
Liquitex Paint Markers are an outstanding range of professional water-based acrylic markers for artists. Lightfast and permanent, Liquitex Paint Markers offer the widest selection of brilliant colours and choice of sizes with precision nibs for ultimate control.
Because they match with the rest of Liquitex's colour spectrum, they can be used in conjunction with Liquitex's popular range of acrylic paints and inks.
Ink Conclusion
Throughout its long, storied history, whether as a tool for studies or for the final artwork, ink has proven itself to be one of the most popular and reliable mediums for artists to use. If you take the time to study the effects and techniques possible with ink, you'll quickly realise just how versatile of a medium it is!
We hope this article has taught you something about the rich world of ink, and inspired you to start creating your own artwork with this wonderful medium. Don't forget to tag us on social media using the hashtag #ColouringTheNation so that we can see the inkredible illustrations you create!
