Colored Inks - What am I doing Wrong?

[Andy.G]

Hi Team, What am I doing wrong?

Inks in Question:

• Dr. Martins Iridescent Copper Plate Gold & White
• FW Gold & White

Nib in Question:

• Nikko G

I have had some issues using the above colored ink and need some help from the community. I have searched the site, but only find experiences where people have had great success (though I did only search a few pages  )

Over the past week I have been attempting to use Colored Ink to create a gift, however I am not having the greatest of luck. I correctly prepare the nib, cleaning it before each use (I use windex before using and a small drop of toothpaste to clean afterwards)

The ink blotches up and/or runs out super quick and the hairlines are non-existence, also a lot of the time, the ink just refuses to transfer to the paper! A Serious Test of my patience! I am sure the ink is just laughing at me as we speak! 

I have used 65lbs & 85lbs black cardstock from Michaels and my normal 27lbs Rhodia practice pad, but still no luck!

Any help will be greatly appreciated! A little at my whits end with this one!

[Bianca M]

Andy,

I'm wondering if you need to add a drop or two or three to your ink.  I find that when using inks with G nibs, they need to be a little more viscous than what is needed with most of my other nibs.  Try adding a drop of water at a time to a small batch of your ink until you can get a flow.  Alternatively, do you have any other nibs you can try to see if there's improvement?

Good luck!

[KristinT]

@Bianca M has some great suggestions.  I've used the nib-ink combo of Nikko G and Dr. Martin's Iridescent Copper Plate Gold.  The ink definitely performs a bit better (especially for those hairlines) with a bit of added water.  If you don't want to dilute the whole bottle, you could consider using another surface/container and getting a small paintbrush involved.

I actually tend to have issues with the Nikko G with several inks, and a propensity for not starting or else dropping all the ink, especially right after I've cleaned it.  I have better luck if I get some saliva on it before applying ink.  Best of luck!  Please let us know how you do, or consider sharing your project for us to admire!   

[Andy.G]

@Bianca M & @KristinT  - Thank you both for your input. I do apologies, I forgot to mention that I did use a separate container and added a small amount of water. I did get better results, but the result were very sporadic at best. I did get to a nice consistency with the FW ink as I added water, but by that point the ink was so think it would run out after one down stroke and the hairlines still struggled.

I had forgotten about the Saliva trick thank you. I used to do this before I moved to Windex to clean. I will give that a try and see how it goes! 

[Kei.haniya]

Like @Bianca M said, i add a little water to these inks when I have to use them. You do have to clean often as they behave like acrylic (FW is for sure) and will gum up nibs. I find using a Gillott 404 nib with metallic inks to be the most forgiving. Medium flex, not a super fine hairline, but the ink will flow better than with the g nib. It’s also smaller, so you’ll need to use less ink on the nib, reducing issues with it falling all over the place. If you add too much water, just add a little more ink until you find the right balance. I feel like I spend half my time doing this when testing ink. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, etc.  Remember to prep any new nib before getting started regardless of ink.

Warmly,
Kei