Are Gray Inks Worth Buying?

[zwack]

And how it appears to you IRL will be different to how I perceive the colour. If it's "not as good" then........what? :-)

She will give it to me...

 

I am sure we will like it.

[Drawing61]

I use grey inks for sketching because of their nuance and because I can draw over them later saying "of course this is what I meant from the inception".

[stonezebra]

Y'all are absolutely lethal to one's budget. Just bought Oster's Purple Rock and samples of a few of his other inks that struck my fancy.

[inkstainedruth]

Y'all are absolutely lethal to one's budget. Just bought Oster's Purple Rock and samples of a few of his other inks that struck my fancy.

 

Yeah, and I got a sample of it. Along with some other ink samples from KWZI and Papier Plume, and a bottle of (no longer grey ) De Atramentis Albrecht Dürer.

It will be interesting to compare Purple Rock and KWZ Grey Plum....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[haruka337]

It is absolutely worth it.

As there is no single shade of blue, but many, so is it with gray inks. Don't shut out this color range--explore it.

[migo984]

It is absolutely worth it.

As there is no single shade of blue, but many, so is it with gray inks. Don't shut out this color range--explore it.

 

Wise words.

 

This is one of the last colour groups for my in-depth ink exploration & it's fascinating. I had a few different greys before but this year I'm really immersing myself in them. Not literally of course! :-)

 

There are some beguiling shades & far more variety than I rather nāively expected.

[zwack]

I had a few different greys before but this year I'm really immersing myself in them.

Now that is an interesting visual...

 

[migo984]

Now that is an interesting visual...

Well I did say "not literally"......... :-)

 

However, apart from the hair colour, the receding hairline, the wrinkles, the bushy eyebrows, the eye bags, the shape of the nose & eyes, the colour of the eyes, the facial hair, oh, and the gender, that's pretty much exactly what I look like! ;-)

[inkstainedruth]

Well I did say "not literally"......... :-)

 

However, apart from the hair colour, the receding hairline, the wrinkles, the bushy eyebrows, the eye bags, the shape of the nose & eyes, the colour of the eyes, the facial hair, oh, and the gender, that's pretty much exactly what I look like! ;-)

 

And -- presumably -- apart from the skin tone as well....

Isn't that the "Blue Man"? The guy who ingested so much silver it changed his skin pigmentation? I remember him doing the talk show circuit a few years ago (I thought it was weird then, and I still think it's weird now -- I think it was silver poisoning that caused the pigmentation issues, but as for *why* he was eating silver, I don't recall now).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[migo984]

And -- presumably -- apart from the skin tone as well....

 

Oh no, the skin tone is spot on. I really must stop "immersing myself".........😉 Edited August 27, 2016 by migo984

[ENewton]

I'm happy you like my sketch, Ruth. Oster Purple Rock is just gorgeous & to me it is exactly like a wet slate roof. Lots of shades of grey & purple.

 

It amazed me when I first used it for a sketch. It's like one of those kids' magic painting books - just add water & all the colours appear. It is just as lovely straight from the nib, and is very easy to clean in my experience - a bonus for a "purple" ink.

 

You must get a bottle ;-)

 

I secured a bottle today, at the San Francisco Pen Show. In a wet pen, it looks more like a purple black than a gray, but I look forward to further experiments.

[migo984]

I secured a bottle today, at the San Francisco Pen Show. In a wet pen, it looks more like a purple black than a gray, but I look forward to further experiments.

On Tomoegawa I find it lightens after a few hours drying to a mid-dark grey, and the purple hues become more apparent. Definitely more grey than black to my eyes, using a wet semi-flex nib :-)

Edited August 28, 2016 by migo984

[ENewton]

On Tomoegawa I find it lightens after a few hours drying to a mid-dark grey, and the purple hues become more apparent. Definitely more grey than black to my eyes, using a wet semi-flex nib :-)

 

Yes, now I see. Thanks for drawing my attention to this ink, which I can see being appropriate for diverse uses. There were about twenty Oster inks to try at the SF pen show, but this wasn't one of them. I bought a bottle on your recommendation and am glad I did.

[inkstainedruth]

Well, I just got a sample of Purple Rock in the mail yesterday, along with a sample of KWZI Grey Plum -- I want to do a side by side, but at the moment I have too many pens in rotation (and haven't gone through my last *two* sample orders yet... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[senzen]

Back when the only ink I used was black, and it came out grey, I would have thought the same; but I finally got R&K Verdigris and it's drop dead gorgeous, so other grey inks probably are too.

[ENewton]

Back when the only ink I used was black, and it came out grey, I would have thought the same; but I finally got R&K Verdigris and it's drop dead gorgeous, so other grey inks probably are too.

 

On what kind of paper does R & K Verdigris appear gray? I have it in a pen right now, and it's consistently a very dark teal on all the papers I have used. I always enjoy the variation in how the same ink looks on different papers, and I would be intrigued to see Verdigris in its gray aspect.

[WaskiSquirrel]

Several years ago, I got curious about gray ink so I purchased a bottle of Omas Gray. It was a pale ink and very disappointing. So, it has been collecting dust. Over the summer, I found an Omas Ogiva at a decent price (and extremely like the one I was loaned to review on my YouTube channel, so I knew I would like it). For some reason, I inked it with the Omas Gray.

 

It turns out that it really has a character of its own. It's not just a washed out black. As others here have mentioned, gray inks are their own animal. This one was just waiting for the right pen.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Waski_the_Squirrel

[Mauricio]

 

Writing sample made with a vintage Waterman 452 pen in sterling silver filigree overlay, fitted with a wet noodle nib, and filled with Diamine Gray ink

[Sasha Royale]

OF COURSE THEY ARE !

Get some and try. If you like it, glory to you. If not, sell it, trade it, or share it with others. I have found that a small (fountain pen) generosity yields great returns.

[zwack]

And -- presumably -- apart from the skin tone as well....

Isn't that the "Blue Man"? The guy who ingested so much silver it changed his skin pigmentation? I remember him doing the talk show circuit a few years ago (I thought it was weird then, and I still think it's weird now -- I think it was silver poisoning that caused the pigmentation issues, but as for *why* he was eating silver, I don't recall now).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Yes, he is suffering from argyria... Some people claim that colloidal silver is good for you (it has some antiviral effects) but they neglect to say that it has some bad effects too.