Swatches – Ink – Page 3

Day 9: My Vermilion Reds

Today’s Diamine Inkvent color is Cardinal. This is a lovely standard medium bright red ink. Here is T’s inky swatch. This appears to be a bold vermilion red color and not much else. Thank you T for taking the time to create and share your swatches with me.

It was fairly easy for me to find similar red colors from my collection. Here are my top matches.

An angled view of my swatches. Red Robin and Red Candy have a bit more personality and shows some green sheen around the edges.

Since I have a few bottles of red ink, I will not be adding this one to my wish list.

Ink swatches: Diamine Red Inkvent Red Robin. Robert Oster Rubine and Red Candy.

Day 8: My Bright Rosy Magenta Pinks

Okay, I’m back on track. Today’s lovely medium pink is called Jingle Berry. This is lovely bright standard ink.

Here is T’s writing sample and swatch. I’m enjoying her interpretation and her creativity.

I have a decent collection of this rosy pink magenta color. Here’s what I came up with. For my workshop friends, all the colors presented here create lovely pen & ink washes.

I have to include this angled view to show off each ink’s personality.

There are two other colors that I have, but I did not include here: Sailor Shikiori Okuyama and Vinta Inks Makopa. Both of these inks had an overabundance of green sheen just like Cardona. I decided to add Cardona and show off its lovely shimmering gold particles.

If I had to narrow down my choices, these would be the three colors that come close to Jingle Berry.

Here’s another view.

There’s no need for me to add Jingle Berry to my wish list. I already have large bottles of All the Best and Party Time from last year’s calendar.

Ink swatches: Diamine Red Inkvent Party Time (shimmer), All the Best (shimmer), and Raspberry Rose. Robert Oster Hot Pink. Diamine Amaranth. Monarca Cardona.

Day 7: My Lovely Green Swatches

Note: Yesterday, was a busy day for me and I forgot to publish my post. Today, I’m catching up.

Today’s Diamine color is Alpine. Alpine is beautiful green color with lovely silver shimmers.

I enjoy using a good green color and this one I would not hesitate to add to my wish list.

Here is T’s swatch for today.

There’s lots of silvery shimmer in this ink.

It did not take me too long to come up my matching inky swatches.

It was hard to choose just three swatches for the closest match, but I managed. Vert Atlantide (gold and silver shimmers), Sydney Darling Harbour, and Oklahoma City are my favorite green ink color for writing and sketching.

Just for fun I pulled out three swatches from my collection of watercolor paints.

How would I describe Alpine? It’s appears to be a mossy/sage green color with a bright teal blue underlying inky color and lots of silver shimmers.

NOTE: Since I included Enchanted Woods in my comparison, I wanted to provide a warning that Van Dieman’s had changed/reformulated most of their inks. I have a blog post about this ink color. Click on this Enchanted Woods link. Here’s a picture from my post.

Ink swatches: Jacques Herbin Vert Atlantide. Robert Oster Sydney Darling Harbour and Oklahoma City. Van Dieman’s Ink Hail Storm and Enchanted Woods.

Watercolor swatches: Daniel Smith Cascade Green, Jadeite Genuine, and Perylene Green.

Day 6: My Moody Gray Swatches

Today’s Diamine Inkvent calendar color is Ghost. It appears to be a gray standard ink with some interesting undertones.

Before I get started, I wanted to give T a shout out: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Here is T’s swatch for today and her inky notes: “Day 6 – I used an automatic pen for the first time for these swatches. It took a while to learn to avoid scratching the paper. This very wet standard ink was great for practicing. All of the swatches came out very differently. The image with 5 blooms is the only one done with a paintbrush”.

After I looked at T’s swatch and several others, I managed to find a few of my swatches that have similar personalities to Ghost.

I had to include two neutral gray swatches (Moon Dust and Shoebill Stork Grey) to show how much more vibrant Ghost and my comparison swatches are.

I know Antique Sepia leans quite a bit towards green, but I wanted to show the similar underlying colors. This is a beautiful color to use in sketches.

Here are the three colors that look very similar to Ghost.

Ghost is very similar to last year’s inky color called Ash. I can see some pinkish and bluish undertones.

In some of the online swatches I’ve seen, Ghost appears to lean a bit more towards a purple color. I believe the blue underlying color adds to this purplish personality.

My Autumn Forest ink contains some lovely rose gold shimmers and I think I will stick to this ink color. No need for me to add Ghost to my wish list.

Ink swatches: Diamine Red Inkvent Ash. Dominant Industry Autumn Forest. Robert Oster Australian Opal Gray. Birmingham Pen Co Antique Sepia. Anderillium Shoebill Stork Grey. Diamine Shimmering Moon Dust.

Day 5: My Red Swatches

Today’s Diamine inky calendar color is called Spiced Apple. This medium red ink has a “chameleon” personality. This ink shows quite a bit of green sheen with golden shimmers.

Here is T’s swatch with the beautiful green sheen. I do see a bit of blue along the edges which might be a bit of blue shimmers.

I originally pulled out several of my red inky swatches and then narrowed down my selection to these four colors. When I was looking at several Spiced Apple swatches online, the medium red color leaned more towards a warm red and in a few swatches I saw the red lean towards cool. This depends on the lighting.

Here’s a different angle of the swatches and each ink’s personality.

My sample of Communication Breakdown (from Ms M) has the similar green sheen that is in today’s color.

Based on the inky writing samples and sketches I’ve seen using Spiced Red, I would add this one to my inky wish list. Who does not love a chameleon color?

Ink swatches: Diamine Red Inkvent Red Robin. Diamine Communication Breakdown, and Red Lustre. Robert Oster Red Candy.

Day 4: My Inky Greens

Today’s Diamine Inkvent calendar color is called Spruce. This emerald green colored ink is a scented ink. Since I’m not physically involved with the unveiling of this year’s calendar, I will have to rely on others for their interpretation of the scent.

At first, Spruce appears to be an emerald green color and especially when I see the color on the bottle’s label. On T’s swatch, I can see some other inky qualities of this lovely color.

Looking at other swatches, I can see some blue undertones which can make this ink appear to be a dark teal color. All of this depends on the paper used and the lighting. There is definitely a large amount of red sheen that appears in this inky color.

As usual I went through last year’s calendar to find some close comparisons. I came up with these two colors which are heavy on the sheen.

Here’s a better picture of the sheen.

Of course, I had to go through my Robert Oster swatches and I came up with these two. I also pulled out another Diamine green color to round out the swatch comparisons.

I think a combination of these three swatches is a close match to Spruce.

River of Fire is showing similar blue underlying color as seen in Spruce.

A few of the Spruce swatches I have seen shows a dark green ink color and I assume it’s because of the heavy sheen. I’ve also seen a few pieces of artwork where the underlying colors are bright green that leans a bit more teal.

Ink swatches: Diamine Red Inkvent Garland (shimmer) and Black Ivy. Robert Oster Peppermint and River of Fire. Diamine Holly.

Day 3: My Blurples (Blues/Purples)

Today’s Diamine inky color is called Solar Storm. It’s a “chameleon” ink which contains oodles of shimmering particles with lots of sheen.

My friend “T” has provided her lovely inky swatch to include in my blog post for today.

I asked myself several times this morning, what base color do I see? What are the underlying colors I see? What shimmering colors do I see? Finally, what is the sheen color I see? Many questions that took me some time to ponder what inky colors I had in my collection.

Last year, I looked at the Diamine label to see the predominant base color I would expect to see. Then without shaking the bottle, I would look at the bottom of the bottle to see the predominant shimmering color.

Just to let “T” know as well as others who are following along with me, I’ve been relying also on two other swatches from other folks. I take into consideration if the swatch picture was taken under a lamp light or natural daylight. That helps me to cover the gamut of colors I see.

I came up with several blurple inky colors from various ink brands.

Here’s a more angled picture to show some sheen and sparkles.

Here are the swatches I think come closest to Solar Storm or maybe a combination.

Storm has a bit of green sparkles while Silver Dawn has silver shimmers.

From what I can tell, Solar Storm is a dark blue and dark purple ink. It has some major sheen that appears to be red-brown. There also appears to be two shimmering colors of green and gold. This beautiful Solar Storm inky color is truly a chameleon that contains what I call different personalities based on the paper used and of course the lighting.

This Solar Storm ink color is unique and is at the top of my inky wish list for next year. I do not have this specific color and with all its inky personalities it’s a must have. I’m happy I’m participating in this year’s daily inky activities by doing my own comparisons. This gives me a chance to analyze the colors and qualities at a distance without getting too emotional with all the colors like I did last year. This makes it simpler for me to pick and choose the colors for my future wish list.

Ink swatches: Diamine Red Inkvent Storm (shimmer). Robert Oster Silver Dawn (shimmer) and Dragon’s Night. Sailor Shikiori Shigure. Anderillium Inks Purple Gallinule.

Pausing for Station Identification: Most of My Swatch Cards

Today is day 3 of the Diamine inky calendar. I’m pausing my blog as I need to spend some time tackling today’s unique chameleon inky color and find some decent matches from my collection.

Speaking of my swatch collection, I wanted to share with my readers what I look at when I typically see a color I’m interested in. Do I have this particular color in my collection? For example, for the first few weeks of December what swatches come close to the daily colors I see. What is the base color? What are the underlying colors? Is there any sheen and how much? If it’s a shimmering, what color(s) do I see?

I process a lot of color information in my head and as a watercolor artist who enjoys mixing paint colors, I tend to see a range of colors that an average person may not see or recognize at first. Okay, let’s get back to my blog post on swatch cards.

I create and keep swatches of the many bottles of inks I have in my collection. The pictures in this blog post does not include the sample ink vials I also have. Awhile back, I’ve stopped swatching the many vials of ink as they were a waste of time for me and resources. If the color did not appeal to me, why create a swatch card?

Let me introduce to you to my largest swatch collection on a rather large binder ring. Here is my Robert Oster Signature swatch ring.

Yes, I am a big fan of Robert Oster inky colors. I’ve lost count on the number of bottles I have. I’ve probably used half of his colors in one of my many pen & ink wash sketches. My RO shimmering colors are at the front of my ring (upper right) and stop at the white Col-o-ring card. This rather large collection is organized by colors. I enjoy using these inks for writing in my journals and for my pen & ink washes on a variety of art paper.

My next largest binder ring is a collection that contains several of my favorite inky manufacturers. This ring is organized by ink manufacturers and colors. This ring includes Birmingham, Colorverse, Diamine, Jacques Herbin, Platinum, Private Reserve, Rohrer & Klingner, Sailor, Taccia, Van Dieman’s Ink, and Vinta Inks. These are the inks I would use for both writing and sketching in my journals and art papers.

My next largest ring contains a smattering of bottles of inks I have, but may not use the ink on a regular basis. Many bottles/colors end up on this ring which I would use for writing in my journals and not necessary use in my inky sketches. This ring is organized by ink manufacturer and color.

Here’s is my swatch family together.

I do have smaller rings of swatch cards. For example I keep all my Red Inkvent swatch cards on a smaller 1″ binder ring. I keep a small ring for my shimmering inks organized by color. That ring includes shimmering inks from various ink manufacturers. My Anderillium test swatches are still in its own ring.

When I have a few minutes later today I’ll try to remember to capture pictures of the other smaller rings I have and update this blog post.

In the meantime, I need to pull out my swatch cards for today’s chameleon inky color.

Day 2: My Inky Brown Swatches

Today’s Diamine inky color is called Yule Log. This is a medium brown ink color with gold shimmers.

My compare swatches are based on T’s swatch and a few others I’ve seen on social media. I look for and compare any underlying colors that appear as well as sheen. A few of my compare swatches may include shimmering particles.

When I flip through my swatch cards, I always start with last year’s inky Inkvent colors. I immediately gravitated towards Winter Spice.

Here’s another angle to show off any shimmers and sheen.

From the previous picture, I can see how much my swatching technique has changed over the last three years.

I think Cocoa Shimmer and Aussie Brown are a close match to Yule log. Maybe a combination of both colors.

Ink swatches: Diamine Winter Spice (shimmer) and Cocoa Shimmer. Robert Oster Aussie Brown. Jacques Herbin Caroube de Chypre.

Yule Log photo by “T”

Day 1: My Turqoise Inky Swatches

Update 12/02/22: After I saw several people posts their Bliss swatches online, I started to see a teal green color appear on their swatches. I went back through my swatch collection and pulled out two additional colors to compare with Bliss.

I know colors can vary when pictures are taken and also how colors appear on the screens can look different. I just wanted to make that comment as I do not have a physical swatch to make better comparisons.

Original Post

I was not able to purchase the 2022 Diamine Green Inkvent Calendar this year. I’ve partnered with my lovely friend “T” who has graciously offered to share her inky Inkvent photos with me. My plan is to compare my inky swatches with each daily color.

Today’s Diamine day #1 inky color is Bliss which is a standard blue color. From T’s swatch and other online swatches I have seen, the color appears to be a beautiful turquoise color.

Here are the color swatches from my inky collection:

Diamine Subzero (shimmering) was from last year’s Red Inkvent calendar. It was the first color that came to my mind as being similar to Bliss without the shimmy.

Bliss appears to be a gorgeous turquoise with no sheen or shimmer, but I would not be inclined to purchase this color as I have several in this color range.

A big thank you to “T” for her picture and for her assistance with my inky project.

Ink swatches: Diamine Subzero and Aqua Lagoon. Birmingham Pen Co Glassmith. Robert Oster Torquay and Australis Hydra.