Blackstone Cmyk Inks - Cyan

[Jamerelbe]

A few weeks ago now, I noticed that the folks at JustWrite Pens / Blackstone Inks had released a new line of mixable inks - available in 30 ml dropper bottles. The four base colours - cyan, magenta, yellow and black - are sold together, at this stage they're not available for individual purchase.

 

I purchased a Mixing Kit (which includes the four inks, plus vials, bottles, syringes etc) with my own funds, and have not been compensated in any way for this series of reviews. I do receive sample and prototype inks and pens from JustWrite/Blackstone from time to time, but I didn't get a preview set of these inks, so this is the first I've seen of them. So far I've tested three of the four inks - I've only just inked up a pen with Black, so that'll come a little further down the track.

 

Three of the four base inks I believe can be used as inks in their own right - Cyan (see below) is a pleasant, moderately-saturated turquoise colour, magenta is quite a vibrant reddish-pink, and on first inspection the black looks fairly black! Yellow, on the other hand... you can wait for the review to see how that looks!

 

These inks have all of the characteristics I appreciate in the other three Blackstone ranges (the Barrister inks, Colours of Australia, and Scents of Australia): they have smooth flow and good lubrication, and are completely trouble-free in my pens. They are formulated from a completely different set of dyes, though, to facilitate their mixing qualities - I didn't ask for more detail than that, but it goes without saying, you mix *between* the colour ranges at your own risk.

 

These inks are highly water soluble, and therefore not very waterfast. In every other respect I think they're great - and I'll look forward to experimenting with mixing colours down the track.

 

In the meantime, and without further ado, here's Cyan - a scan (which on my screen is just a bit more "true to life"), and a photo taken with my Sony xPeria:

 

 

 

Congratulations to the Blackstone team on this new line of inks - feel free to ask any questions, and I'll do my best to answer them!

[dcwaites]

The CMYK inks are less saturated, and less intense than 'normal' inks, but this is a good thing. When you blend a couple, the resultant colour is subtractive, and so looks darker and more intense than either of the two or more contributing inks.

 

Somewhere I put up some simple recipes using these inks, but I quite like them, and the blend I call Royal Blue is a nice, well-behaved every-day ink.

[Jamerelbe]

The CMYK inks are less saturated, and less intense than 'normal' inks, but this is a good thing. When you blend a couple, the resultant colour is subtractive, and so looks darker and more intense than either of the two or more contributing inks.

 

Somewhere I put up some simple recipes using these inks, but I quite like them, and the blend I call Royal Blue is a nice, well-behaved every-day ink.

 

I'd agree with that re the cyan and yellow - though the Cyan wasn't a million miles away from Waterman South Seas Blue or (probably) Lamy Turquoise, which are mainstream but also less heavily saturated inks. The Magenta I found quite bright and relatively saturated, at least in my Pilot Metropolitan.

 

Would love to know what combination (and ratio) you used to create your own Royal Blue - that's one colour Blackstone haven't yet produced, and I'd like to give it a try!

[dcwaites]

 

I'd agree with that re the cyan and yellow - though the Cyan wasn't a million miles away from Waterman South Seas Blue or (probably) Lamy Turquoise, which are mainstream but also less heavily saturated inks. The Magenta I found quite bright and relatively saturated, at least in my Pilot Metropolitan.

 

Would love to know what combination (and ratio) you used to create your own Royal Blue - that's one colour Blackstone haven't yet produced, and I'd like to give it a try!

 

 

From my review - https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/325791-blackstone-cmyk-mix-kit/