I've got a lot of lovely blue, black, grey and teal inks that I use on a daily basis, but I'm looking for a bit of colour variety in the new year; preferably something that's interesting, but still practical for note-taking at work. I generally like a lot of shading in my ink, if possible.
Has anybody got any suggestions?
Posted Jan 1, 2020, 12:30 PM UTC · edited
Autumn Oak by Diamine has wonderful shading, but it is an orange/brown ink.
They do Safari and Terracotta, a dark olive green and reddish brown respectively.
Not quite sure what you mean by practical though.
Anyway, Monteverde do a California Teal which has a red flash on some papers which you might like.
It's a good question about what I mean by practical. I don't work in a very conservative environment, so it's not blue/black only, on the other hand, pink + sparkles might seem a little too silly.
I guess what I mean is reasonably good contrast for note taking, plus muted rather than garish colours.
In that case I'll add Diamine's Red Dragon and Imperial Purple to the list.
Red Dragon is one of my existing favourites; I tend to use it for markup more than everyday writing, although I guess there's no fundamental reason why not!
Waterman inspired blue is a fun happy ink.
Rohrer & Klingner Alt-Goldgrün. It isn't the best ink for work but still, a very interesting colour and a shade monster.
That is probably my favourite ink.
Too many options! :D to narrow it down to Diamine, because that’s what I know: Diamine Syrah, Oxblood, Classic green or Autumn oak. If you will consider more blues: ASA blue, and Majestic blue. Good luck!
I don’t get much shading with the Diamine inks i’ve used.
Hit an miss depending on ink.
Sargasso sea for example has no shading and some sheen. Same with wild strawberry. No shading with red dragon either.
Meadow, autumn oak, aurora borealis, all have shading however among others. Just varying saturation
I love Lamy's Beryl and Amazonite. I also suggest looking at the German Exclusive Diamine inks, in particular, Communication Breakdown, Smoke on the Water, and Skulls N'Roses.
I currently like the idea of very dark non-blue non-black inks. Some of the most impressive ones to me are from Sailor's Shikiori line like Doyou (which I have and I love), Shigure(has a lot of shading, probably the most among these and I'm looking to buy this one next), Oku-Yama (lots of sheen between gold and green), and Miruai. Yama-Dori is also a favorite among the general community but it's a bit too 'playful' for me, but it has tons of sheen as well. Rikyu-Cha is lighter than Doyou but also very complex and saturated like Doyou and its a rather unique color among the muted brown and green or even gray inks that exist. Has a lot of shading potential depending on the paper you use.
Some good ideas, thankyou. I love Miruai, so Doyou and Rikyu-Cha look quite interesting.
Update: I bought a bottle of Rikyu-Cha and it’s a lovely ink. Just what I was after, thank you.
If you don't mind another blue sheening ink, I'd suggest this one
Do you like shimmer? I’m really loving Troublemaker’s Copper Patina right now. It’s like, Statue of Liberty green with gold shimmer.
For non-shimmer, Sailor Blue is a relatively inexpensive ink ($12 for 50mL or so) that can sheen red.
Rohrer & Klinger Verdigris, Monteverde Green, Monteverde Blue Velvet Cake, Monteverde Brown Sugar, Diamine Green Black, Monteverde Pumpkin Cake & deAtrementis Baked Apple
Greys. They're my favourite.
Noodler's Lexington Gray, Graf Von Faber Castell Stone Grey, Diamine Graphite, Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun, Diamine Earl Grey.
They're not conservative but easily passable in business contexts. They're fascinating inks imo.
Yesterday, Amazon delivered a 4 Oz bottle of Golden High Flow Acrylic Paint Cerulean Blue into my waiting hands.
Not like anything I have ever worked with but I am really digging on it!
I like Robert Oster Green Diamond, Platinum Lavender Black (which is more of a red-black for some reason but it’s pretty with loads of shading) and of course the lovely Diamine Oxblood
Robert Oster's Crocodile green has great shading!
The Troublemaker shading inks (Abalone, Petrichor, Milky Ocean, and Kelp Tea) all have nice dual-colour shading and are dark enough in a wet pen for everyday use!
Oh, some of those looks very nice. I'll have to see if I can get them in the UK at a reasonable price.
Milky Ocean is also similar to Sailor’s 143 ink at a far more cheaper price per mL too. Maybe u/ShigureInks might do international shipping at a reasonable price?
Thanks for the call-out! We do try to have reasonable shipping costs to Europe (but please reach out if they are untenable and we can try to work with you).
We're currently out of stock with most TMKR inks, but working on getting more for the new year :). We also do made-to-order samples if you see anything in our shop you want to try, including all the TMKR inks (excluding Petrichor).