this is how i mix ink... i'm not sure if this it the "official" printer's way of doing it, but this is how i was taught... i start off with a clean marble slab and my putty knife {i've read that some printer's use a large piece of glass and some even use paper plates to mix their ink}
i like to make sure i have enough of the same color, so i use a good sized amount of ink... i plop the ink on the marble slab...
i clean off the putty knife and plop my second color on the slab and mix away...
and after i add more of color 1... more of color 2... a little more... a little less... wa la... the desired color
after i'm done, i put the ink into little tin canisters so it's all ready for future use...
i know... it's not rocket science, but it's not always easy getting the color you want. some printers use a pantone color guide that tells them the ratio of how much of each color to use to achieve the desired result, but i like to eye ball it and play around and pretend i know what i'm doing. sometimes, i make mistakes and no matter how much of color 1 and color 2 i add, i still don't get the right color and then i end up with ink that i don't need, but of course i keep and store it in hopes that i'll need that specific color. like in the example here... i wanted the green color on the left, but in my first attempt, my result was a christmasy green...
and here... 3 attempts to make the color purple... i ended up with dark purple, burgundy, and chocolate brown...
this past weekend i mixed ink, took inventory, made some samples, and tidied up my creative space... i'm gearing up to open shop soon my friends... soon... woohoo!
