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Robert Oster 1980 - Whisper Red Robert Oster is an Australian ink maker that is well-known for its unique range of colours. With this mini-series he gives us a conglomeration of colours inspired by the anything goes world of the 1980s. The inks include muted pastel-type colours along with some eye-popping disco-style hues. Definitely an interesting series. In this review the spotlight is on Whisper Red - a muted pastel-like rose-red that is easy on the eye and works quite well as a writing ink. Personally, the colour brings back memories of plastic toys that looked exactly this shade of muted red. For a Robert Oster ink, it feels well-lubricated and lays down a sufficiently contrast-rich line with all nib sizes, even with the finer ones. That being said, I personally don't see much use for this ink. I occasionally use it in my journal, and have also used it as an ink to mark-up and annotate reports at work. But I don't see myself using it on a daily basis. To show you the impact of saturation on the ink's look & feel on paper, I made some scribbles where I really saturated portions of the Tomoe River paper with ink. This gives you a good idea of what the ink is capable of in terms of colour range. As you can see, Whisper Red ranges from a faint wispy rose to a well-saturated rose-red at the dark end of the spectrum. This relatively broad tonal range reflects in the shading properties of this ink - Whisper Red shows some really nice aesthetically pleasing shading, especially in broader nibs. Like most Robert Oster inks, Whisper Red has zero water resistance. Short exposures to water completely obliterate the text, leaving next to nothing on the page. This is also apparent from the lower part of the chromatography. The chroma clearly shows that the dyes migrate away with the water, with only some smudges remaining on the paper. Definitely not a water-resistant ink. I've tested the ink on a wide variety of paper - from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. On every small band of paper I show you: An ink swab, made with a cotton Q-tip 1-2-3 pass swab, to show increasing saturation An ink scribble made with an M-nib Lamy Safari fountain pen The name of the paper used, written with a B-nib Lamy Safari A small text sample, written with an M-nib Lamy Safari Origin of the quote, written with a Pelikan M101N Bright Red with F-nib Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib Lamy) Whisper Red is a well-behaving ink on most paper types, with only a little amount of barely-visible feathering on lower quality paper. The ink dries quite quickly around the 5 second mark (with the M-nib Lamy Safari). Saturation and contrast are really good across all paper types in my test set. The ink also shows some nice shading, even with finer nibs. All in all a very pleasing writing experience. Writing with different nib sizes The picture below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing. All samples were written with a Lamy Safari, which is typically a dry pen. I also added a visiting pen: a wet-writing Pelikan M101N Bright Red with F-nib. Whisper Red can effortlessly handle the complete nib-range, from EF to broad and italic calligraphy nibs. Contrast with the paper is excellent, and the ink retains its muted character across this broad range of nibs. Nice and consistent, making it a fine writing ink. Related inks To compare this Whisper Red with related inks, I use my nine-grid format with the currently reviewed ink at the center. This format shows the name of related inks, a saturation sample, a 1-2-3 swab and a water resistance test - all in a very compact format. Inkxperiment – gladiator fight With every review, I try to create an interesting mini-painting using only the ink I'm working on. This really forces me to explore all colour-range nuances that are present within the ink. Often quite challenging, but always real fun and my favourite part of every ink review. For this drawing I used HP Photo Paper. To create the background, I put a wet paper towel on the photo paper, and painted ink on top of it with a brush. The ink then migrated through the paper towel to the photo paper below, resulting in a nicely textured background. The photos of the drawing phases were taken with my phone under artificial light, and definitely show a much too orange hue. I next drew the arena with the fighting mouse and mousetrap using my M-nibbed Safari. The cats in the audience were painted in with fountain pen and brush. The resulting mini-picture shows what can be obtained with Whisper Red as a drawing ink. My personal experience: red inks are really difficult to draw with. The result is - well - too red and busy and in-your-face. Definitely not my favourite drawing colour. Conclusion Robert Oster 1980 Whisper Red is nice muted rose-red, that works really well as a writing ink: nice shading and good contrast with the paper in all nib-sizes. Personally, I'm not a red ink fan, and don't typically use this colour for daily writing. I can see myself using this ink mainly for annotating reports and papers. A nice ink to try, but by no means an extraordinary one. Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari, M-nib Back-side of writing samples on different paper types

Robert Oster 1980 - Clearwater Rain Robert Oster is an Australian ink maker that is well-known for its unique range of colours. With this mini-series he gives us a conglomeration of colours inspired by the anything goes world of the 1980s. The inks include muted pastel-type colours along with some eye-popping disco-style hues. Definitely an interesting series. In this review I take a closer look at Clearwater Rain - an eye-popping electric cyan-blue, reminiscent of the blazing disco-lights on a 1980's dancefloor. To be honest, this is not my type of colour, but I will do my best to give it an honest review. For a Robert Oster ink, this one feels well-lubricated, and it lays down a wet and well-saturated line, even with my dry-writing Lamy Safari test pens. No complaints there - this ink works really well for writing, even with the finest nibs. If you like your inks vibrant with popping colour, this Clearwater Rain certainly fits the bill. You can't go much more vibrant than this ;-) To show you the impact of saturation on the ink's look & feel on paper, I made some scribbles where I really saturated portions of the Tomoe River paper with ink. This gives you a good idea of what the ink is capable of in terms of colour range. As you can see, Clearwater Rain is well-saturated at the light end, and becomes a darker cyan-blue on the most saturated parts. The ink doesn't have a very broad tonal range, which already gives a clue that it is less suited for single-ink drawings. Like most Robert Oster inks, Clearwater Rain has zero water resistance. Short exposures to water completely obliterate the text, leaving next to nothing on the page. This is also apparent from the lower part of the chromatography. The chroma clearly shows the blue & green components of the ink. I wouldn't call it a teal though, cyan-blue is a better term. Personally, I would describe this as the result you get when you move a sky-blue cerulean-type colour towards the green - not a scientific expression, but that's how I consider this Clearwater Rain. I've tested the ink on a wide variety of paper - from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. On every small band of paper I show you: An ink swab, made with a cotton Q-tip 1-2-3 pass swab, to show increasing saturation An ink scribble made with an M-nib Lamy Safari fountain pen The name of the paper used, written with a B-nib Lamy Safari A small text sample, written with an M-nib Lamy Safari Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib Lamy) Clearwater Rain is a well-behaving ink on most paper types, with no visible feathering. The ink dries quite quickly around the 5 second mark (with the M-nib Lamy Safari), which surprised me because it writes really wet. With Moleskine paper, there is a tiny bit of feathering, and a fair amount of see-through and bleed-through. Saturation and contrast are really good across all paper types in my test set. The ink also shows some nice shading, even with finer nibs. All in all a very pleasing writing experience. This is my first ink review for 2020, and with a new year comes a new set of quotes. The quotes below come from Terry Pratchett novels. If you love English tongue-in-cheek humour, you can't go wrong with Pratchett's writings. I'm a big fan of his Discworld novels ! Writing with different nib sizes The picture below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing. All samples were written with a Lamy Safari, which is typically a dry pen. I also added a visiting pen: a wet-writing Parker Sonnet with M-nib. As you can see, Clearwater Rain has no problem with even the finest nibs, exhibiting good contrast, saturation and shading with the EF-nib. This excellent performance remains across the complete nib-range, making it a really fine writing ink. Related inks To compare Clearwater Rain with related inks, I use my nine-grid format with the currently reviewed ink at the center. This format shows the name of related inks, a saturation sample, a 1-2-3 swab and a water resistance test - all in a very compact format. Inkxperiment - row, row, row your boat With every review, I try to create an interesting drawing using only the ink I'm working on. Limiting myself to one ink allows me to showcase its colour-range nuances. It's often quite a challenge, but always great fun. For this drawing I used 300 gsm rough watercolour paper. I painted in the sky with heavily water-diluted ink. The boat uses pure Clearwater Rain, drawn in using the tip of a cotton-swab. I then added the waves and the sun with a Q-tip, using multiple water/ink ratios. The resulting picture gives you an idea of what can be achieved with this cyan-blue as a drawing ink. The limited tonal range of this ink made it a difficult one for drawing. I personally appreciate it much more as a writing ink. Conclusion Robert Oster 1980 Clearwater Rain is an eye-popping cyan-blue, that works really well as a writing ink. It is well-saturated, provides great contrast with the paper, and shows prominent shading even with the fines nibs. Personally I'm not a fan of the colour, but if you happen to like it I'd say go for it! Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari, M-nib Back-side of writing samples on different paper types