TIM BAKER

Weird to be presenting lightfast tests in the darkest time of the year but since last summer I have been testing the various inks I use for lightfastness, and here are the results. Lightfastness is the way pigments and dyes react to UV light – if they aren’t lightfast they fade or shift in colour – really not great if you want to sell pieces or want them to last. Most artists* in watercolour and oils are aware of this, but it seems less known in the fountain pen (FP) world, where ink-painting in non-lightfast inks are currently vogue.

For the record most FP inks are not lightfast as they are dye-based, and are meant to stay in a notebook, they are usually not permanent or waterproof either. The ones I am testing here are the permanent, mostly waterproof, supposedly archival, document/registry inks such as recommended for legal signatures – but as we find that doesn’t necessarily mean lightfast.

*Although I have had a salty artist claim that only people whose work is not worth preserving care about this issue! Grr. I do hope their commisions they are selling in lockdown aren’t using the fugitive watercolours I warned them about, although that would be sweet karmic revenge for such toxic bitchiness. Very rude and really misguided, and unless you know your work will forever live in the dark, like in a sketchbook it is always at risk of fading. And how many now-famous artists in the past skimped on materials because ‘who cares, I’m not famous’ and now their work is falling apart and is a nightmare to conserve? Quite a few. Don’t be like these people.

I threw in a few cheap wildcards as well, and was surprised. It seems price isn’t always an indicator.

Fountain pen inks tested for lightfastness :

• Hero 234 – nanoparticle ink – waterproof
• Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa – iron gall ink
• Rohrer & Klingner Sketchink ‘Marianne’ – nanoparticle ink – waterproof
• Rohrer & Klingner Sketchink ‘Lotte’ – nanoparticle ink – waterproof
• Rohrer & Klingner Dokumentus Black – ISO rated – waterproof
• Diamine Blue Black Registrar – iron gall ink
• Rohrer & Klingner Salix – iron gall ink
• Koh-I-Noor Document Black – waterproof
• Koh-I-Noor Document Blue – waterproof

Drawing inks tested for lightfastness – not for fountain pen use, for dip pens, brushes etc.

• Jackson’s Indian Ink – waterproof
• Winsor & Newton Liquid Indian – non waterproof
• Winsor & Newton Indian Ink – waterproof
• Classmates Drawing Ink – ?
• Daler FW Black – acrylic ink – – waterproof

So here are the results – the left side was exposed to light for 5-6 months and the right side folded and covered. I did a wash of each ink in case that affected the results – sometimes dilution can affect lightfastness, at least in watercolours so I wanted to test that in each ink. I didn’t have space to test that in the Classmates ink. This was on 170gsm cartridge paper from Artway, and I folded it over with cardboard between and sealed the covered part with tape sandwiched between that and another piece of cardboard!

That worked well until the damp got to the July one – the windows get damp here in winter – and slightly opened it, as you can see. Luckily I checked it last year and can confirm the results are the same. I guess this is also now a dampness test – and that some inks also have a problem with damp.

Most of the inks did great in the test, and put my mind at rest – I was sure that the ISO-rated lightfast inks like R&K Dokumentus would ace it, as would probably FW, Sketchink and traditional indian inks. But the likes of Hero 234 ink – a really cheap Chinese nanoparticle ink – i.e. it has tiny suspended bits of carbon in it – were real unknowns as was the Koh-i-noor Document ink and Classmates. All aced this test.

BTW the lighter bit on the Jackson’s is the paper not being straight while scannned, it hasn’t faded. The Jackson’s ink was another unknown – way cheaper than W&N and others, it is well worth getting. Classmates is the cheapest gunkiest smelliest drawing ink – you can get it at educational places by the bucket load in all it’s brown-black gungy glory. I included it for a laugh as I had a bottle…only to find it is fine!

The white part was me not letting it dry – it takes hours to dry as well. No idea what it is like in a wash, but glad my abstract stick drawings with it are safe! It is great for experiments and sploshing ink around in paintings, as long as you don’t mind the weird texture. Art students – get this or Jackson’s for non-FP ink work.

What was the surprise even at month 2/3 – I peeked in October – the Salix wash had faded completely and shifted to a brown/yellow, as did the part of the full strength bar, Also given later on damp got to this sample, it seems either this ink is sensitive to damp and UV or something odd is happening. Certainly I know that washes with Salix will fade even if dry, and that the full strength might be fine but never store your work with it in a damp space, it will ruin it.

This ink and Scabiosa are described by R&K as ‘permanent, the historical term being “archivally safe”.’ – I don’t call this safe or permanent at all?

Next up in the gallery of miscreants is the other two iron gall inks – including amazingly Diamine Registrar’s which is used for wedding and legal signatures, and Scabiosa. They were already showing signs of fading by October before seemingly that part got damp – rest of the page is fine, compare it to the Koh-i-noor ink below and the non-waterproof W&N ink above it which is fine – but really shocking that Diamine has faded.

Scabiosa’s ‘permanent and archive quality’ and ‘indelible’ is laughable – but that is in part the weasel words around inks. Permanent or indelible does not mean waterproof even though both suggest that. Archival can mean anything from ISO rated – to weirdly worse than document quality (looking at you De Atramentis) – to now partial fading/total fading in washes? And I personally would expect some resistance to damp in something archival quality rather than spreading or fading when exposed to water. And unlike the July one, this got very little exposure to water with a few drips of condensation, max.

Well as a result of this I have stopped using iron gall inks – simply cannot trust them not to fade in washes, and even used neat they’ll fade and even damp attacks them. Be warned!