Ink Swatch Wednesday: Currently Inked for July

I didn't acquire any new inks this week, but it is the beginning of the month, so I thought I'd post my list of currently inked pens. I have a scan on Tomoe River Sanzen (a page from my Hobonichi HON), and a scan on Iroful paper, which is new to me:

The Iroful paper appears to be more absorbent than the Tomoe River, as several inks look more saturated on Iroful, and the line widths seem a tad wider. Interestingly, a few of the inks also appear warmer on the Tomoe River, like Ferris Wheel Press Moss Park Green, than on the Iroful. Also, a couple of the inks, like the Sailor Yuramekus, have completely different colors on the different papers, which is always fascinating to observe. Oh, I also did notice that my EF and smaller nibs dragged a bit more on the Iroful paper.

Some of you may have noticed that I have several inks that have carried over from last month's (or even from 2 months ago) currently inked. When you have SO MANY pens inked, it's tough to write them all dry in a month or two! 😅 Out of the whole batch, my current favorites are

• Colorverse Coffee Break
• Sailor Yurameku Kitsune Biyori
• Platinum Khaki Black
• Sailor Shikiori Rikyucha
• Troublemaker Foxglove

Normally I would've included Sailor Yurameku Date Gokoro, also, but it's been in the line up for a while, and I'm somewhat tiring of the broad nib it's in. I'll also mention I don't like Date Gokoro's color on Iroful compared to Tomoe River.

I keep experimenting with other papers and so far, nothing has beat Tomoe River as my favorite, since it displays ink attributes so well, particularly shimmer and chromoshading. Of course, it probably isn't fair that I use a lot of Asian inks that seem to be "tuned" to perform best on Tomoe River, in my experience. That being said, I haven't been testing different papers so extensively. I haven't tried bank papers, for example.

I'm slowly moving away from all browns and greens and have incorporated several blues, some purples and a bordeaux, and a couple grays. Not exactly summery colors, but this happens to be my ink mood for now. 😅 Perhaps next month I'll make a concerted effort to include a few more brighter shades, and maybe a shimmer or two. Please pass along any ink recommendations! I'm always open to trying more inks. ✌️