Painting with Ink

2003-5-10

One of the painting techniques I've read a lot of questions about in recent times on various Forums is the use of inks. One answer that made me smile was a respondee stating that inks are 'just thinned down paint', which they are most definately NOT . Most acrylic paint certainly can't be used with ruling pens, technical pens or airbrushes - ink can, although I'm not going to get any more advanced than a simple paint brush in this article.

So, inspired by these many misconceptions and misleading answers I though I'd disseminate some basics from my own repertoire...


Now before going any further I must state that I'm not trying to re-invent the wheel or anything quite so profound, just pass on some general tips for using inks that I've learnt for myself through experimenting. Also for simplicity, I'm going to limit this article to acrylic inks because of their ease of use & compatibility with acrylic model paints.







Using different media, such as inks, is an area of painting miniatures that most people will have heard about but not necessarily have an understanding of how to achieve a desired result. Folk-lore and old wives tales spring to mind of how 'inking' produces fantastic miniatures like magic. Well, sorry to dispell these thoughts but ineptly applied inks can pretty much destroy a reasonable paint job.

In this aricle I'm going to discuss five techniques that I use on a regular basis and the principles behind them. The accompanying photographs are just simple examples of the effects achieved by each technique and are not intended as specific painting guides.




1. Thinning paints - mixing the same colour ink with a paint gives a much more fluid material to work with than paint alone, acting like a flow enhancer. The advantage of this is no loss in pigment density when applying thin coats so colours are much more vibrant. This technique is very useful for basecoats when you don't want to obscure detail on the model but get a good even coverage of colour without using many coats. Thin coverage preserving detail and high colour density gives a good base coat to work on later, particularly for colours that tend to have poor covering power like yellow, red and white.







These two model parts have been photographed together in the same lighting conditions, the paint thinned 1:1 with water & 1:1 with ink to give a comparison.




Ink also doesn't dry as fast as model paint, which can be an advantage for certain techniques when more working time is needed by acting like a mild drying retarder.



2. Washes - using flood washes so that the ink creates a 'natural' shadow is a relatively simple technique. Thinned pigment applied generously flows into the recesses & detail on the model to create a general shading effect over an area.






Plan where you want the wash to go and apply reasonably carefully to avoid spilling over into areas that are different colours or do not want the wash to go. Careful application is also necessary to avoid leaving part of an area uncovered that can result in 'tide marks'.




The degree of thinning depends on the effect required. A bit of practice soon gives a feel for the level of dilution needed. Dilution also depends on the colour being used. For example, an orange ink wash over yellow is usually thinner than a maroon wash over red. In general, darker colours need a more aggressive ink wash or multiple washes for a more subtle graduation.



3. Glazes - similar to a wash, thinned pigment of a lighter tone than the base colour is applied to blend between successive highlights to reduce 'chalkiness' & smooth out colour difference between layers. Glazes can also be used to alter the tone of underlying colours, in a more subtle way than a wash. Glazes are painted onto a model carefully to apply the colour in a specific & controlled manner. Note that transparent ink is best for glazes.



4. Tone - by toning I mean altering the colour of paint. This technique is particularly useful for darkening base colours, without using a wash, for a more accurate and subtle effect. It can sometimes be quicker to get subtle shading via a tone then re-establish the base colour. Very useful for light colours such as yellow, grey and white.







Ink tones can be an ideal base for metallics as well. Heavily applied metallics can look terrible, not in keeping with a model's scale at all. It's much better to have an appropriate base colour showing through, particularly with gold. Black undercoat for gold metallic makes it look dull, a brown undercoat gives it warmth and realism.

The example shows a blue/black ink as a base for silver to simulate steel. The other example showing colourising of metallics uses a warm chestnut ink as an undercoat for gold.








4a. Colourising metallics Acrylic silver and gold metallics are ok, bronze tends to be a little dull, but other coloured metallics tend to be rather poor. The colour in the paint tends to deaden the metallic sheen because it has to cover the aluminium flakes in the paint. Using ink, silver metallics can easily be made into red, blue & greens etc. the slight shininess casued by the ink complimenting the metallics giving a nice effect. The silky shine should be preserved by using a satin varnish (personal preference plays a large part in this, I think gloss varnish is too much)

The weapon on the miniature shown to the right was painted in silver over a chestnut ink (on white undercoat), which was colourised with chestnut and yellow inks as the highlights were developed using the silver metallic. The sword was also colorised using the 'blue base' method and a little ink mixed into the silver.




5. Painting with inks - definitely a more advanced technique because ink does not have the covering power of opaque paint, even when applied neat. Inks dry more slowly than paints allowing some interesting blending effects to be developed. Whilst it is not practical to paint a whole miniature using ink, specific effects such as skin flesh tones, marbelling & lightning can be done very effectively using ink.



...Last Words...

Illustrations are to aid description :






A specific point about undercoat. In order for ink to adhere to a model in an even covering when painting the undercoat needs to be slightly porous. However, too much porosity in the undercoat and the 'roughness' will show through.









A 'normal' smooth undercoat won't work for inks directly because they will pool in the recesses just like very thinned paint. Conversely, that is exactly what a wash is intended to do, hence it works on smooth paint.






Many inks are transparent - this opens up a whole new world of possibilities…





Ink colour allows painted detail and underlying colour to show through, subtly modified. Inks tend to dry with a satin finish unless a matting medium is used. Both these properties of ink allow interesting permutations, all you need is a little imagination and time to experiment...


As always, questions may be asked & answered in the Total Model Forum.