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Ink Shoot-Out : Robert Oster Muddy Swamp vs Papier Plume Bayou Nightfall A couple of months ago, I discovered Robert Oster Muddy Swamp – a beautifully complex ink, kind of a murky grey-green-blue – and one that totally fits my taste. I also noticed that it looks amazingly similar to Papier Plume’s Bayou Nightfall. Two great-looking inks that deserve a more in-depth comparison. I wonder which one I will like the most. The sun is slowly setting over the small village of Santa Maria. Soft golden rays sweeping through the open door of the local cantina; playful bajo music drifting to the street. Then a shadow falls through the door… a tall stranger enters and settles at the bar. His steely eyes fall on the raven-haired waitress, moving seductively through the room. “Hey Sheila,” he shouts, “that tequila has my name on it. Be a nice lass and bring it to Rick Dundee.” The bajo stops playing, silence falls. The slender Don Alejandro Vegas raises from his chair, and approaches the stranger. “Ola señor, in this town we treat ladies with respect. So please apologize, or else…” Eyes lock, fists get balled, a fight is in the air… Enter... the Ink Shoot-Out. A brutal fight spanning five rounds, where two inks engage in fierce battle to determine who is the winner. Tonight’s fight is a bare-knuckles special, set in Santa Maria’s cantina. In the left corner, the tall and strong stranger from Down Under – Robert Oster Muddy Swamp. In the right corner, the slender and fast-moving caballero from Southern America: Papier Plume Bayou Nightfall. The local crowd sets aside chairs and tables, forming a ring – anticipations are high, this promises to be an interesting fight. The barman approaches: “Caballeros, no biting, no hitting beneath the belt. May the best man win.” The barman claps his hands, signaling the start of the first round. May the best ink win… Round 1 – First Impressions Both inks make a stellar first impression. The colours are simply amazing, a murky mix of greys and greens and blues, mixed with a wonderful complexity. These inks look beautiful – both in written text and in swabs. I love the toned-down nature of their colour, which feels restful and relaxed. No eye-searing vibrancy, just a soft beauty that looks great on paper. Shading is elegant and aesthetically pleasing, firmly present but never too harsh. Great looking stuff! In this first round, both champions give their best, and both throw serious punches, trying to impress their opponent (and no doubt also that seductive señorita in the corner): Muddy Swamp definitely has the stronger swing. The ink writes wet and saturated, with a strong presence on the paper. Bayou Nightfall writes less lubricated, with a lighter colour tone that looks more soothing and subtle. The saturation swab shows that Bayou Nightfall has a broader colour span, which translates to stronger shading compared to its Robert Oster counterpart. Both inks make a great first impression. The Australian Muddy Swamp definitely writes more smoothly, leaving a more saturated line with a slightly darker colour. On the other hand, the Papier Plume ink shows a bit more character in its shading. But there’s also that flicker of uncertainty in Bayou Nightfall’s eye… take a close look at the text in the intro pic with the Fallout guys. This was done on 80 gsm HP Multipurpose paper – a medium quality print paper. The Papier Plume ink shows a tiny bit of feathering, best noticeable in the word “Papier”. Not much, but there is that flicker of uncertainty… A great first round, and both inks certainly impress the crowd. The Australian ink seems a bit more confident, but it’s too early to tell whether it will dominate the fight. As such, the first round ends with a draw. Both fighter’s are really closely matched! Round 2 – Writing Sample The writing sample was done on a Rhodia N°16 Notepad with 80 gsm paper. Both inks behaved flawlessly, with no feathering and no show-through or bleed-through. With the EF nib, Bayou Nightfall showed sub-par lubrication, and struggled with the paper. This results in writing that looks a bit too light, and shading that looks a bit too harsh. In contrast, the Robert Oster ink writes wet and smooth with good contrast, even in the finest nib. Rick Dundee’s fist connects with Don Alejandro’s chin with a snapping crunch. Ouch! That’s a punch that counts. The crowd jumps up and cheers, showing its approval. The Papier Plume ink recovers when nib sizes broaden. With M-nibs and above, the feeling of sub-par lubrication disappears, and the ink again feels well-balanced. Overall, Muddy Swamp looks a bit darker and more saturated, while Bayou Nightfall looks a bit lighter, and – to my eye – shows a bit more of a green tinge. This extra layer of complexity is evident when looking at the chromatographies of both inks. But in this round we don’t score looks, but focus on the writing, and here the strength of the Australian’s fist clearly dominates. This round is a definite win for the Robert Oster ink. The crowd is loving the fight, and even the raven-haired señorita can’t hide her fascination. A great display of testosterone-filled masculinity with fighters that still look closely matched. Round 3 – Pen on Paper This round allows the battling inks to show how they behave on a range of fine writing papers. From top to bottom, we have : Midori notebook paper, Tomoe River 52 gsm, Original Crown Mill cotton paper, Clairefontaine Triomphe 90 gsm and Paperblanks 120 gsm journal paper. All scribbling and writing was done with a Lamy Safari M-nib. Both champions did well, with no show-through nor bleed-through. But this round is not about technicalities, it is about aesthetics and beauty. Are the fighters able to make the paper shine? One thing is immediately apparent: these inks work well with both white and creamy paper. They also look stunningly similar. Bayou Nightfall is just a touch lighter, and shows a bit more character in the shading – due to its wider saturation span. But the differences are really minor. Both inks truly succeed in making the paper shine! In this round both champions really throw their punches, trying to impress the wide-eyed señorita. Rick Dundee relies on his strength, focuses on the attack and puts his weight behind his punches. Don Alejandro on the other hand brings his speed and mobility into play, evades the Australian’s punches and delivers some lightning-fast hits himself. What a fight! The audience is really enjoying the show. A great round, but no winner emerges – the fighters appear evenly matched. Round 4 – Ink Properties Both inks have drying times in the 15-20 second range with the M-nib in my Lamy Safari. The American ink dries just a tad faster than Muddy Swamp. To test their smudge resistance, I rubbed the text with a moist Q-tip cotton swab. Here, the Robert Oster ink shows a bit more smudging – probably due to its higher saturation. But in either case, the written word remains crisp and clear. To test water resistance, I dripped water on the grid and let it sit there for 15 minutes, after which I removed the water with a paper towel. Both champions can survive a watery accident, but it’s clear that Bayou Nightfall handles this case the best - there’s less spreading of the dyes. Overall, there seems to be a slight advantage here for the Papier Plume ink. Not a great round. The champions seem to be tiring. They keep circling one another, without much initiative from either side. But there is that slightly better water resistance with Bayou Nightfall, so it wins this round on points (although just barely). Round 5 – The Fun Factor Welcome to the final round. Here I give you a purely personal impression of both inks, where I judge which of them I like most when doing some fun stuff like doodling and drawing. And for this round, both inks are simply amazing. I did the drawing on HP Permium Plus Photo paper. The background uses heavily water-diluted ink, applied with a cotton pad. For the ground, I poured the remaining ink on the photo paper, and let it dry completely. The trees were drawn with the side of a plastic card, dipped in pure ink. As a final touch, I added the small people to the setting with a dip pen. Both inks are a pleasure to draw with. On the photo paper, Muddy Swamp remains true to its grey-blue-green character, but shows some purple tones rising to the surface. Bayou Nightfall on the other hand really surfaces those green undertones, which add some fascinating complexity. Both inks are great looking in this more artistic setting. I really enjoyed using them both. For this round, both fighters recovered completely, and gave their best, impressing the crowd with the intensity of their moves and punches. At the end of the round, the judge hesitates. Which fighter showed most artistry? The judge’s eyes drift to the side, falling on the señorita who clearly enjoyed all this masculine display. A seductive smile lifts her lips, clearly targeted at the tall stranger. At this sign, the judge lifts the Australian’s arm, declaring him the winner of this round. The Verdict Both inks are great-looking muted inks, murky grey-blue-greens that look fantastic on all types of paper. You can’t go wrong with either of these. I must admit that I was rooting for Bayou Nightfall at the start of the fight. But hey… in the end the beautiful señorita got her way, and so I declare Robert Oster Muddy Swamp the winner of this exciting shoot-out.

Robert Oster Muddy Swamp Robert Oster is an Australian ink maker that is well-known for its unique range of colours. On his website he describes our shared love quite eloquently: “Robert Oster Signature originates from one of the most famous wine producing regions of the world, the Coonawarra district of South Australia, an idyllic setting with great influence on the senses. There is my inspiration. It’s a joy to share it with you.” Well, we are certainly fortunate to have inspiring ink makers like Robert Oster to satiate our thirst for glorious inks. It’s been a while since I reviewed a Robert Oster ink, but recently I got me a bottle of Muddy Swamp, that really impressed me. This ink’s colour is totally intriguing… a murky mix of teal, blue-black, grey and green. Difficult to describe, wonderful to experience! To me, the closest I can come is to classify it as a dark teal-grey. The ink’s name is well chosen: it definitely breathes that muddy feel of dark swamp water, with bubbling eddies of weeds swirling around, frogs croaking, dragonflies zipping around… An ink that creates a pensive mood, ideal for an intimate journaling session in the evening. A nicely saturated ink, that is at home in all nib sizes. Also an ink with strong shading, but somewhat subdued and not at all harsh on the eye. This Muddy Swamp is right up my alley – one of the best inks I tried this year! The fairly heavy shading caused some problems with my scanner, which tends to exaggerate the contrast of written text. As such, I mostly present photos of the ink that more accurately show its real looks. 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 a strip of 52 gsm Tomoe River paper with ink. This gives you a good idea of what the ink is capable of in terms of colour range. This Muddy Swamp has a fairly broad dynamic range, ranging from a light grey-blue to a much darker teal-grey. This translates to prominent shading, but without a harsh contrast between the light & darker parts. Aesthetically very pleasing, and I like it a lot! On the smudge test – rubbing text with a moist Q-tip cotton swab – Muddy Swamp behaved really well, with only minimal smearing. Water resistance is also fairly good: a lot of the colour dissipates, but what’s left on the page is still legible without too much trouble. Even after 15 minutes of soaking, there’s still readable text left on the page. Not bad at all. The ink’s chromatography shows a complex mix of dyes: I see green and blue, grey of course but also some hints of purple. The bottom part of the chroma shows that the grey dyes are firmly attached to the paper, which explains the waterresistant properties of the 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 the M-nib Safari Origin of the quote, written with an Edison Collier with 1.1 stub Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib Safari) Muddy Swamp behaved perfectly on most paper types, with only a hint of feathering on the lower quality papers (like Moleskine), where you also get show-through and bleed-through, but not the worst I have seen. Drying times are mostly around the 10 second mark with the Lamy Safari. This ink is definitely made for pure white paper, where it truly shines. I personally find it a bit underwhelming on cream paper – still good looking, but the yellow tinge shines through and significantly breaks down the ink’s inherent beauty. My advice: avoid strong cream-coloured paper. I’ve also added a scanned image of some writing samples, just to give another view on the ink. The scanner captures the colour fairly well, but greatly exaggerates the contrast. That’s why I used photos to present the writing samples on different paper types. Writing with different nib sizes The picture below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing. Muddy Swamp writes a well-saturated line in all nib sizes, showing good contrast with the paper. The EF-nib already presents hints of shading, with shading picking up with F-nibs and above. The ink looks at its best with more dry-writing pens or broader nibs. With wet writers, the ink’s shading drowns away and becomes less prominent. But no matter the pen/nib combination, Muddy Swamp delivers, and gives you a stunningly beautiful result. Related inks To compare Muddy Swamp 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. This Robert Oster creation is different from other blue-green grey-toned inks in my collection. As such, it was a wonderful discovery. I just love grey-leaning inks with a bit of colour to them, and this teal-grey is really superb! Inkxperiment – Cityscape As part of my ink reviews, I try to create an interesting drawing that showcases the ink in a more artistic setting. I love doing this part: a real challenge at times, and a great way to improve my drawing skills. And besides, it’s just fun to use inks for more than just writing. Inspiration for this drawing comes from the original Blade Runner movie that I recently revisited. I especially love the scene at the end of the movie with Rutger Hauer sitting in the rain, uttering the unforgettable words: “… All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain…” Still gives me goosebumps. Rober Oster Muddy Swamp seemed like an ideal ink to depict a gloomy dystopian cityscape. For this inkxperiment I started with an A4 piece of HP photo paper, onto which I painted a background by applying heavily water-diluted ink through a piece of kitchen towel. I then used a piece of textured carpet anti-slip material to draw the city buildings, starting with strongly diluted ink in the background and building up with more pure ink for the city blocks in the foreground. A fairly simple drawing, but the result is quite good and shows what can be achieved with Muddy Swamp in an artistic setting. Inkxpired – computational art I love experimenting with pen/ink/paper and have added another layer as part of the hobby. I’m exploring computational art, inspired by the ink drawings I do during ink reviews. Another fun offshoot of the hobby… and all that starting with a few drops of dye-coloured water on paper. For this computational derivation, I made a square cut-out of the inkxperiment drawing, and applied a negative colour filter to it. Nothing more, nothing less. The result shows the city at night and looks amazingly well. I’m really pleased with it. Conclusion Robert Oster Muddy Swamp has a very unusual dirty-looking teal-grey colour, that is simply amazing. A gorgeous looking ink that works equally well for writing as for drawing. I enjoyed this ink immensely and can definitely recommend it. I you like teal or grey-leaning inks, this is a must-have in my book. Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari, M-nib Back-side of writing samples on different paper types