What is the difference between an acrylic ink and an acrylic paint?
- Thread starter Patyrn
- Start date
Garshnak
New member
Acrylic ink is pigment suspended in a thinner medium than acrylic paint. This allows for doing washes that are less translucent than you would have with acrylic paint thinned down to the same fluidity. They also are more useful for airbrushing.
Also, because of the difference in the medium, it ends up glossier when dry and thus mostly appears darker. This can also be useful.
Next to that, they are often more lightfast as well, but that's something generally not worried about. And not much of an argument, since acrylic paints are mostly fairly light fast as well.
Also, because of the difference in the medium, it ends up glossier when dry and thus mostly appears darker. This can also be useful.
Next to that, they are often more lightfast as well, but that's something generally not worried about. And not much of an argument, since acrylic paints are mostly fairly light fast as well.
QuietiManes
New member
Generally, it's the pigment size, it's much smaller in inks as they need to fit through a pen tip. It may not be much smaller compared to the super fine pigments in some of the higher end airbrush paints, I've never compared the data.
Inks used to be dye based colours (some still are) but pigments seem to be taking over these days.
I think inks are used when you need a more fluid medium and/or a more saturated colour. They're also popular to deepen/brighten/increase contrast/etc.
You've probably seen miniatures painted white then layered with yellow ink to give a really nice, rich yellow armour, Eldar and SM's do that sort of thing all the time. This works due to their transparency, it works well with browns and blacks for fur too. It does most of your shade, mid, highlight work all in one go. It wouldn't work the same on a large flat panel/canvas but...yeah.
Inks used to be dye based colours (some still are) but pigments seem to be taking over these days.
I think inks are used when you need a more fluid medium and/or a more saturated colour. They're also popular to deepen/brighten/increase contrast/etc.
You've probably seen miniatures painted white then layered with yellow ink to give a really nice, rich yellow armour, Eldar and SM's do that sort of thing all the time. This works due to their transparency, it works well with browns and blacks for fur too. It does most of your shade, mid, highlight work all in one go. It wouldn't work the same on a large flat panel/canvas but...yeah.
Einion
New member
Was there a specific ink you were asking about Patyrn or just generally?
The above posts I think cover the subject pretty well but just to highlight something, an acrylic ink should have higher pigmentation than an acrylic (or vinyl) paint at the same viscosity. But there are no guarantees, it does depend on the quality of the ink and what paint(s) you're comparing it to.
Einion
The above posts I think cover the subject pretty well but just to highlight something, an acrylic ink should have higher pigmentation than an acrylic (or vinyl) paint at the same viscosity. But there are no guarantees, it does depend on the quality of the ink and what paint(s) you're comparing it to.
Einion
Well, I mostly meant generally, because I assumed they were all the same.
The ones specifically I got for mixing my own washes were these http://www.dickblick.com/products/daler-rowney-fw-acrylic-water-resistant-artists-ink/
I'm blown away by how insanely high the pigmentation is compared to normal paint, and was curious if the differences were simply a matter of degree, or if they were a fundamentally different animal than acrylic paint.
The ones specifically I got for mixing my own washes were these http://www.dickblick.com/products/daler-rowney-fw-acrylic-water-resistant-artists-ink/
I'm blown away by how insanely high the pigmentation is compared to normal paint, and was curious if the differences were simply a matter of degree, or if they were a fundamentally different animal than acrylic paint.
