Ink Matching a Nakaya Midori (Shikiori Miruai look-alikes)

[arcfide]

I picked up a Nakaya in the Midori color recently and I'm quite smitten with the color. While waiting for a number of samples to arrive of green inks to try, I found a sample of Shikiori Miruai that I had and found that it was a remarkably close color. Unfortunately, the custom grind of the nib that I have on this pen didn't play well with the wetness of the ink, leading to constant hard starts that are still under investigation. I discovered that the drier inks seemed to start up more reliably in the pen, so I went about playing around with matching. Here's what I've found so far:

 

1:1 Mixture of Platinum Classic Forest Black and Blue Black with White Lightning to taste. This is quite close, but it relies on the IG component to achieve the appropriate blackness, so it is susceptible to color shifts depending on the amount of ink laid down onto the page. This makes the choice of the amount of White Lightning used quite important. Too dry a written line will lead to a mixture that has a bit too much yellow in it (coming from the Forest Black dye). 

 

1:1:1 Mixture of Platinum Black, Aurora Blue, and Leaf Green. Remarkably, this is *very* close, and the ink seems to write better than many other inks in this pen in terms of maximizing reliability. It's quite a magical color in my book, and I'm quite taken with it. Again, White Lightning to taste will help to tune the overall flow to match your needs in terms of color with the particular nib you are working with. 

 

I don't have any photos yet, but I want to get some, and I want to make a more thorough test of the inks in different lighting conditions to see how the lighting will affect the color match between the pen and the ink. 

 

Otherwise, this now gives a water-resistant and a water-soluble option for a nice color match for this pen! And the price is cheaper than what I can get Shikiori Miruai for. 

[amberleadavis]

We look forward to the pictures!

[arcfide]

Okay, I've taken a set of swatches that includes my ink mixes in my attempt to find a good green that I wanted to use with my Nakaya Midori Desk pen. They are available here:

 

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvaVLzoc2_8MtY5RnVnSZLgHwBXeJg?e=Ecz7x8

 

Miruai is a little more yellow than both my mixes, which are 1:1 blue:green mixes in either dye or IG mixes. However, it's easy to get a little closer to Miruai by shifting the ratios to be a tiny bit (and I mean a *tiny* bit) towards the green instead of an even match. However, in my lighting conditions, the shine of the Midori seems to give off this subtle blue-ish tint that merges with the base green of the pen, and I wanted to bring that out in the inks, so I chose to keep the mixes closer to 1:1. This puts them a little more towards Diamine Dark Forest than Miruai, but I think you can get the idea of how they might relate. 

 

The drier IG mix has a higher potential for shading if that is your thing, but if you want that very dark color, then you need to really lay it on heavy, which might necessitate a little White Lightning or the like. 

 

I still haven't decided if I like any of these colors enough, but a surprise for me has been Lamy Crystal Peridot, which was surprisingly good in the pen and very nice on the page. I didn't expect to like that ink as much as I do. The Herbin inks are also really good. 

[amberleadavis]

6 hours ago, arcfide said:

Okay, I've taken a set of swatches that includes my ink mixes in my attempt to find a good green that I wanted to use with my Nakaya Midori Desk pen. They are available here:

 

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvaVLzoc2_8MtY5RnVnSZLgHwBXeJg?e=Ecz7x8

 

Miruai is a little more yellow than both my mixes, which are 1:1 blue:green mixes in either dye or IG mixes. However, it's easy to get a little closer to Miruai by shifting the ratios to be a tiny bit (and I mean a *tiny* bit) towards the green instead of an even match. However, in my lighting conditions, the shine of the Midori seems to give off this subtle blue-ish tint that merges with the base green of the pen, and I wanted to bring that out in the inks, so I chose to keep the mixes closer to 1:1. This puts them a little more towards Diamine Dark Forest than Miruai, but I think you can get the idea of how they might relate. 

 

The drier IG mix has a higher potential for shading if that is your thing, but if you want that very dark color, then you need to really lay it on heavy, which might necessitate a little White Lightning or the like. 

 

I still haven't decided if I like any of these colors enough, but a surprise for me has been Lamy Crystal Peridot, which was surprisingly good in the pen and very nice on the page. I didn't expect to like that ink as much as I do. The Herbin inks are also really good. 

 

 

Here are the pictures attached.