Will Indian ink damage my brushes?

[Florence]

Hi all

I love using inks but I mainly use brushes, so I've never posted here. Forgive me if my first post is a technical question, but I am wondering about Indian ink.

So far I have mostly used watercolor inks and various kinds of brushes. I really like watercolor brushes but they are expensive so I try to be careful not to misuse them. Watercolor inks are OK I suppose, because they are water-soluble, but Indian ink is indelible when it's dry. Should I avoid using it with my expensive brushes?

Thanks in avance for your help!

Florence

[brushandknife]

Florence, I've been watching this hoping someone would answer. I'm wondering too. Hope someone helps us out!
Carol

[Florence]

Thanks Maybe I should ask the question in the watercolor forum?

[Jakeally]

You must wash your brushes very carefully. The ink seems to gather around the ferule and is almost impossible to get out sometimes. I wouldn't use your best brushes for this. Just get a cheap set.
Sorry I didn't get here before

[Florence]

Thanks Chris, and don't worry it wasn't that urgent

[sassybird]

Yep, buy a cheap set for your washes.

[Meisie]

Didn't see this earlier...sorry! I find that even with the best of intentions it is still impossible to always wash all the ink out, so eventually the brush gets ruined. Cheap or old brushes would be my suggetion

Meisie

[Florence]

Thank you Charissa and Meisie. Yes these thick watercolor brushes are impossible to clean completely. I'll keep them for watercolor then

[Merry Scribe]

I am a calligrapher and I always use watercolor ink because it has a better flow than indian ink. One you can always thicken watercolor ink and I use it exclusively. Indian ink you can not thicken also it is harder to scrape when you make a mistake. I make my calligraphy inks out of guash and it makes very sharp characters I will never use indian ink any more. I have the same problem with it even with my nibs. Indian ink is very difficult to clean. You will find that today most calligraphers use watercolor and make their own ink from it.

I hope that you have gotten the answer you where looking for. My suggestion would be to stay with watercolor ink and maybe use a speedball nib for the find lines in ink drawings.

[Florence]

Thank you, that's very interesting. I tried India ink because in some cases I wanted a very deep black and I thought watercolor inks were a bit too transparent. How do you thicken watercolor ink?

[Merry Scribe]

If you purchase watercolors in tubes like Winsor & Newtons Designer Gouache, Daler-Rowney aquafine (Georgian) Water Colour, or Liquitex glossies all of these are concentrated so when you add water you add more that you would use for watercolor paintings but you can make it at thin or thick as you want.

I hope that this helps you.

I use the Liquitex when I want my calligraphy to have a metal look and I use the others for any other color inks. Beleave me I have destroyed many a nib using indian ink and I have had to throw away many a project because indian ink does not work well on vellum and that is all the parchment that I use is vellum.

[Florence]

Thank you, that explains it. I use watercolor ink in bottles, I'll have to try gouache or watercolor in tubes like you suggested.

I'm not sure I will give up on Indian ink though, I like it. I don't mind the fact that it's indelible, and I can use it with not-so-expensive brushes. Anyway I bought a rather large bottle so I'll finish it first, then decide what to do next

[Ken Seymour]

I have seperate brushes for ink and for watercolor.

I don't think you can ever get all the india ink out of a brush and I don't want ink getting into my paint.

I bought a synthetic #10 round and and a smaller (#4 I think) round just for ink.