Does Anybody Else Stick With Just One Color?

[madden11]

I use just one color ink, brown (with the exception of my recently purchased Diamine Oxblood, which is pretty similar to some of the browns in my samples), so my collection is only about six bottles deep. I'm curious if anyone else uses a single color or hue, besides the ubiquitous blacks or blues, and if so what color? As for you polychromes, what purposes do your various colors serve; is it just for aesthetics? color-coding, say, green for journaling, red for note-taking? I'm curious because I'm thinking of branching out...just a little.

[Wolverine1]

I use blue ink all the time. Have no desire to try out any other color.

[dunhamsa]

I have a bunch of colors, but use blue-black 80% of the time! and darker blues about 10% of the time. Blue-black just looks right to my eyes.

[inkstainedruth]

Definitely aesthetics. I like color (well, predominantly blues, pinks, purples and greys, but I have tried greens, reds and browns).

I started a new journal over the weekend. So far, entries have been (IIRC) in Iroshihzuku Tsutsuji, Organics Studio Blue Merle, Organics Studio Red Rubber Ball (but diluted, since I was too lazy last week to flush the pen out), and Noodler's Liberty's Elysium. No special reason, just what I felt like using. Tomorrow might be Noodler's North African Violet, or vintage Quink Brown, or De Atramentis Rose. Or, if I decide I'm in the mood to fill another pen (different from the ones already in rotation) with something tonight, it might be another ink altogether....

I do somewhat limit what inks I use for important stuff like writing checks to pay bills, because I'm concerned with water resistance (especially for envelopes) -- so those tend to be written with fairly permanent inks such as Noodler's Kung Te Cheng or El Lawrence, or with iron gall inks. Other than that, it's whatever pen(s) is/are inked currently inked up with whatever I was in the mood for, or wanted to try.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[knarflj]

I used only blue for years - in fact, I lived with only one bottle of ink at a time for years. I branched out gradually from blue or blue-black to other colours I liked the look of, so yeah, mostly aesthetics.

 

I normally just write with whatever colour strikes my fancy or suits my mood, but I always grade papers in red, and on the rare occasion that I'm at a conference or something like that, I'll colour code my notes and stay consistent throughout the conference - for instance, I might use a blue for the main notes, red for really important stuff (or action items), and green for titles of books that are mentioned. If I'm on staff for a production at the community theatre and need to take notes at rehearsals, I'll switch colours every night (if we run an act twice in one night, I'll usually also switch between run-throughs), so that I can quickly see what goes with which day and/or whether the same mistakes were made both times through; and I'll also have one colour (any bright one works, but usually red) which I use throughout a given production exclusively to make note of things I need to do, so that a quick skim through the notebook shows whether I have any un-checked-off responsibilities.

Edited April 22, 2014 by knarflj

[FayeV]

A unicolor world would bore me to death. I currently have inks in blue, black, green, purple and turquoise (which I guess would fall under blues LOL). I'm looking to add some red colors to my small ink collection. I've been writing in a notebook where I may use one color and then change it after a page or two, or sometimes I may even use 2 or 3 different colors on the same page.

[Blue_Moon]

I use blue ink all the time. Have no desire to try out any other color.

One color blue, or multiple shades of blue?

[HandLikeAFist]

J. Herbin, Violette Pensee, five or six years now, as my solitary ink. I have tried a few others, liked them OK, but VP is the ink for me. Never grow tired of its look, and it performs beautifully.

[Runnin_Ute]

I have not less than 3 of 10 pens inked with blue black right now. All different blue blacks. (Diamine, Pelikan 4001, Noodler's 54th Massachusetts)

 

I have 8 different bottles of ink.

in addition to the above:

Diamine Sherwood Green

Diamine Steel Blue

Diamine Classic Red

Noodler's Apache Sunset

Noodler's Bulletproof Black (no pens have this right now)

 

I have half a dozen or so samples right now.

Edited April 23, 2014 by Runnin_Ute

[DaveBj]

For decades I used Parker Quink black (my younger son would have said, correctly, that I was boring). I have just started using some Online brown that I just found, and I have four bottles of various Diamine colors coming.

 

I'm turning into a wild man.

[Inkydinkydog]

For me limiting ink to one color would be like always ordering one flavor in an ice cream parlor. For me trying and discovering new shades of ink is a big part of the joy of fountain pens. I enjoy varying the colors day by day in my journals and calendars as well as using various inks in drawings, etc.

[madden11]

Well...I made a daring move and ordered a bottle of Noodler's Army Green and some samples of Edelstien Amber. I plan to use them in my journal, where I can be more creative, but with the thought that I can always go back to my monocromatism, where life feels safe and balanced and structured.

[JBat]

I get tired of the same color after a while. There's just too many cool fountain pen inks out there to restrict myself to just one.

[_Stormin_]

I get tired of the same color after a while. There's just too many cool fountain pen inks out there to restrict myself to just one.

 

This 100% of the time. I usually won't use the same color twice in a row a majority of the time (thinking about it, my most recent refills on all of my inked pens have been with a color change) but I may be so bold as to use a different SHADE of the same color. I always have a blue, a black, and a blue/black inked up, but even in those three colors there is a lot of variation to be had. The variety of colors and shades is one of the things that draws me to use a fountain pen in the first place.

[DaveBj]

For me limiting ink to one color would be like always ordering one flavor in an ice cream parlor. For me trying and discovering new shades of ink is a big part of the joy of fountain pens. I enjoy varying the colors day by day in my journals and calendars as well as using various inks in drawings, etc.

You mean ice cream parlors have flavors other than chocolate?

Edited April 23, 2014 by DaveBj

[swanjun]

I love all colors, and have the sprawling ink collection to prove it. I love blue, blue-black, and pink especially.

[lapis]

I use all colours possible, although I do have my favourites like blue-black and blue, although I'm now getting into greys. A few blacks won't hurt, either....

[Blue_Moon]

I gravitate toward certain colors for a time - weeks or months. Currently, I'm loving dark reds and browns (especially reddish browns). I do use multiple colors now, but I could use nothing but Diamine Oxblood and be happy. However, at some point that will wear off and I'd move on to another color.

[choijanggun]

I tend to stick to one color at a certain period of time, although I noticed that most of the colors I pick are blues. Right now I have quite a number of ink samples of different hues, but I mostly just try out the blue colors and easily get tired of other colors (with an exception of Diamine Syrah, which is such a lovely ink that I will never get tired of). After my mom bought me a bottle of black Quink (it's the only ink she's familiar with, having used it when she was younger) I tried using it for writing short stories but found I just could not stick with black ink at all and immediately switched to a blue ink.

 

My daily journal is, however, very colorful, something I wish I didn't do. Once I use up all the pages of my current journal I plan on sticking to one color for the entire book--let's hope I don't quickly get tired of whatever color I choose.

[ethernautrix]

My daily journal is, however, very colorful, something I wish I didn't do. Once I use up all the pages of my current journal I plan on sticking to one color for the entire book--let's hope I don't quickly get tired of whatever color I choose.

 

As much as I like black ink (and I like it the most - and at least two pens are always filled with it), I also like to have a non-black in the daily carry pack (currently one gorgeous blue and a lovely grey).

 

I have played around with using other colors as the predominant color for my notebooks - for a while, it was Noodler's Walnut.

 

I have tried switching inks for a day or several, because I like the look of pages and pages of one foundational ink (with a different color for a sentence or quotation, so that it stands out), but I usually revert to black, cos it looks the best and is the easiest to read.

 

I have one notebook in which I used only black ink - every page, every word. I also used only one pen with the same black ink for the duration of that exercise which took about a month. That was kindv cool, but I don't know if I could do it again. (That was pre-fpn, pre-introduction to so many colors.)