Pen and Ink Sketch (Art Alternatives) India Black

[Iziem]

Pen and Ink Sketch (Art Alternatives) India Black

 

To begin, this is a fountain pen ink, regardless of what the name sounds like. I have no clue why they call it India Black, since it's not india ink, nor is it anywhere near as black. It is a very dark gray, but it's definitely a gray.

 

I bought it since I really needed a small glass bottle for mixing inks, and the only two craft/art stores I know of around here came up with nothing usable (and I want to stay away from baby-food jars.) The last store I visited had expensive airbrush bottles, and I figured I might as well be paying for an actual bottle of ink. At least I could leave with something. I ended up with this glass 30ml square ink bottle of black ink.

 

 

The nib cavity is very nice for converters, and it's removable (great for my intended use.) The cavity is made of plastic, and holds more than enough to fill my Lamy converter. The bottle is very shallow, but the mouth is wide, and it looks like tilting the ink into a corner will make filling painless, assuming I can manage holding the pen and tilting the bottle. Perhaps I'll mention more after I try out my new Lamy 2000 and a fresh batch of mixed ink.

 

As for the ink itself, it's permanent (waterproof) and lightfast. As mentioned before, it's nowhere near as black as I would expect a sketching ink to be. More than anything, it looks like a 70-80% gray ink wash. It seems to share similar fluidity and drying times in comparison to Noodler's Heart of Darkness Black. On my paper, it seemed to dry fairly quickly with minimal feathering or bleeld-through. Even though it doesn't have any shading, I really like it for writing. However, I'm keeping my ink sketches in the Noodler's HoD.

 

The following are on 24lb Staples InkJet Paper. They are scanned and unaltered from the scan. I forgot to include a cue-tip swatch, but it doesn't lend any more information than what the medium nibs already show.

 

 

Final comment: As a black sketching ink, I would go for anything else, but as a black writing ink, the slight gray color makes it easy on the eyes, and it looks rather unique. I like it enough that I can't just empty it into the sink.

[thibaulthalpern]

I have to say, I kinda like the colour of that ink! Thanks for reviewing it!

Edited December 24, 2008 by thibaulthalpern

[Lloyd]

Have you tested the waterproofness? If it is waterproof, I wonder of it could be a fine carbon ink like Sailor Kumaguro. Was it expensive?

[someonesdad]

Look in your phone book for a container store. I live in a small city area (< 0.25 Mpeople), yet we have one. They will have a gazillion types of plastic and glass bottles to choose from and will be pretty inexpensive. Of course, you can search the web and also find many places that sell bottles, but you'll also be looking at some potentially hefty shipping charges for small orders.

[biffybeans]

It's not expensive - only about $6 - BUT per Art Alternatives, it has NOT been tested to work with fountain pens other than their own. So even though it's a no-shellac India Ink, I would NOT recommend using it in a fountain pen.

 

PS - Much like Noodler's Bulletproof black, you CANNOT watercolor over this ink.

 

Per Laurie Seibold of Art Alternatives: "In regards to the India Ink’s compatibility with other fountain pens, Our ink has been specially formulated in the Shanghai University of Science & Technology - Special Ink R&D Department, for use with our 'Pen & Ink' fountain pens for artistic and archival purposes, where light fastness and waterproof characteristics are required. As this ink has been chemically engineered to be used in our feeder system, we are unsure if all other fountain pens would function correctly...it is likely they would... however without testing them all, we cannot say that the ink will work in every other fountain pen. The factory did not list specific type of fountain pens they tested them with. I think we would only officially approve ours since the ink was designed for the pen, but you are welcome to test the ink in other pens. We believe the ink will work on most other fountain pens unless they have an unusual feed system. However, since it I would not want the legal responsibility of ruining a very expensive pen, I would suggest it as an option to try, not a working guarantee."

[Melnicki]

are you saying you CANNOT watercolor over Noodler's Standard Black? What happens? Is there actually any waterproof ink that you've found to be good for watercoloring over? Why can't you do it with this one either?

 

Thanks for reviewing a non-mainstream ink. Their explanation is really interesting too.

[biffybeans]

Re: Noodler's BP Black & Watercolor - you will want to read this thread: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...c=87683&hl=

 

We just discussed this the other day.

 

 

are you saying you CANNOT watercolor over Noodler's Standard Black? What happens? Is there actually any waterproof ink that you've found to be good for watercoloring over? Why can't you do it with this one either?

 

Thanks for reviewing a non-mainstream ink. Their explanation is really interesting too.

 

[Iziem]

I wrote on a piece of sketchbook paper, and soaked it for 5-10 minutes with no problems. I haven't bothered to test anything else about it.

 

Well, in light of what Stephanie said, I'd hesitate putting it in any good pens. I admit that I have no idea how inks act in pens, except that india ink is a big no-no. Right now, it's in my Safari, with no problems. I assume it'd take a little while before anything negative happens. I'm not going to be loading it into anything else expensive.

 

I don't think I'd pay for this ink if I wasn't after the bottle. It was $5.50 in an art store, and it's under $4.00 online. For one oz of ink, Noodler has a better price, and much more agreeable ink. Incidentally, the bottle is very nice, and filling my Lamy 2000 was nice and easy.

[bluemagister]

My local art store has the pens on clearance for $9 and they write very well, so picking up a bottle of this ink would be ace. Thanks for the review! I'll probably get another pen and this ink to go with it as my first P&I FP has Bad Belted Kingfisher in it.

[bluemagister]

My local art store has the pens on clearance for $9 and they write very well, so picking up a bottle of this ink would be ace. Thanks for the review! I'll probably get another pen and this ink to go with it as my first P&I FP has Bad Belted Kingfisher in it.

 

 

My art store was out of the pens, but they DID have one last bottle of this and I snagged it and put it in my P&I Sketch Fountain Pen (EF nib). I flushed the BBK out and this ink hasn't shown any traces of blue. It looks like a matte black, slightly chalky like a Noodler's Polar ink, but has some nice gray inside of it. Depending on my writing speed, I can see some small traces of shading. I'll use this ink exclusively in the P&I pen and probably enjoy it greatly for letter writing and simple sketching. I'd recommend this ink, especially for the cost.