So, I got tired of fineliners and only having a narrow range of ink colours when using ballpoints. I learned that my passed down Sheaffer 440's nib is suffering from baby's bottom, and I got tired of it's shortness when unposted, and that it kept unscrewing itself. Not having much money to spend at the moment, I opened my AliExpress, and went on a shopping spree. I saw that the brands there weren't as documented and swatched in english as the main pen and ink brands. Here are my own swatches of almost everything I bought with a focus for drawing, and watercolours.



Additionnal Info:

I put comparable pigments for every ink to give you an idea of the colour. These are all scans from my phone, so keep that in mind. The last slide is a test on Baohong 100% watercolour paper. I started painting on top of my drawings 10-15 minutes after I put my last fountain pen down. The other tests were made on plain Canson sketch paper as I have a ton of it. Pleeze don't mind my typos, I made a few of them.



Lie de thé - J. Herbin (Sheaffer 440 - M nib)

Nothing is cheaper than what you already have. This ink has a beautiful shading. It definitely shows more on a medium nib. While it gets muddy when wet on watercolour paper, it stays put using a dryer brush, especially on my sketchbook paper. When the ink is diluted, it leaves a darker mark that makes it permanent on paper, and it dilutes to a light-medium tone brown orange.



Swing No7 - Tramol (Jinhao 777 (619) - F nib)

This ink has a nice dark green colour. It's always flowy, and dries quickly. I really enjoy using that ink.

The Jinhao 777 is fun to use for drawing as it draws pretty smoothly. It's so cheap, I really recommend it. The triangle grip is not a problem to me. I find it helps me find the "front" of the pen more easily. For writing though, the pen is smooth too, but it makes my hands and fingers tired because of it's ergonomics.



\[Violet-Rose - No-Name Pen Ink\](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009782936436.html) (Jinhao 777 (619) - EF nib)

I really can't tell what exact colour that ink is. As you can see in my slides, it's more like a maroon purple, but depending on the paper, it can look more like a brown to a earthy pink. Diluted, this ink is pretty bright pink with blue edges. This ink is very fugitive. If you drop water on it, even after while, nothing of your original drawing will remain. It's a downside, but you can also take advantage of this. It might not be very lightfast though.

The EF nib on the Jinhao writes pretty smooth. It's definitely a better experience than writing with a scratchy fineliner.



Blue-Black 232A (Iron gall) - Hero (Jinhao 51a - EF nib)

This ink was more waterproof on my Hahnemühle sketching paper. In fact, I got the blue to stop diluting in water after 5 minutes. It didn't happen on the paper I used for those swatches. Still, I am pretty at ease with painting on top of it. Unless I paint very wet (like on the baohong paper), it doesn't mix much with my colours.

I like the 51A better than my vintage hooded Sheaffer pen. The body is longer, and fits better in my hand. I hope the iron-gall from the ink won't eat up the metallic cap. The Ef nib is comfortable to write with, not too scratchy, just enough feedback. This ink and pen are a good combination for writing. The hero Blue-black flows very well, and the long EF nib let's you see what you are doing. It's almost like writing with a very smooth mechanical pencil. For the same reasons the two are excellent at cross-hatching.



Carbon Black - Ostrich writing ink (Jinhao 82 - EF nib)

This one has me mitigated. The ink itself is very dark, and shiny (less so on watercolour paper, and erasing gets rid of the shininess). It's so crisp that, on every paper, it looks like you are writing on porcelain. I guess it's because it sits on top of the paper, and doesn't get absorbed by it, as opposed to the Tramol ink. On my Canson paper, it took forever for the ink to stop mixing in water, but on my other papers, including the watercolour one, after 10 minutes, I can paint over it without any problem. Although, when the ink is dried, if I rub it lightly it still smears a bit of pigment. I can get rid of it with an eraser, but that's annoying. Another annoyance is that it gums up my nib with usage and dries on the pen very fast. Basically, every time I use the ink, I have to rub off some deposits on the nib. I also need to rub the nib hard on another paper to start the pen. It's worth a little more work for how gorgeous it looks though.

I don't like the Jinhao 82 that much. I find that all parts are a bit flimsy, and move just a bit too much when I apply pressure on it during long work sessions. I have a 992 that I haven't tried yet, and I think I'll prefer it over the 82. Also, it doesn't help that my 82 doesn't seal well.



I hope my tests help some of you. If you have tips for me I'm all ears

Low cost supplies for artists - showdown