Pennonia Danuvius : Blue and Green Multi-Shader Ink

[Matthew TWP]

I love the idea of multi-shading inks, but I don't buy many of them because I'm always afraid that they won't actually be useful in real life and they'll just sit on my overloaded ink shelves. But, while I was looking around at Shigure last week buying some Japanese papers, I saw two Pennonia ink bottles and decided to give them a try. This one, as you can see, is Pennonia Danuvius (the Latin name of the Danube River). I also got Balaton-kek. These Hungarian-made inks come in 50ml brown glass bottles and cost $12.50 each.

 

 

 

When I first swabbed them on my various ink rings, I found that when I used a dip pen to try to label them, I got almost no flow at all. I had to scratch and twist the tip of my glass pen to try to get the ink to make contact with the paper, and even then, I had to dip multiple times per swatch. However, when I actually put the ink into a pen, the flow was perfectly fine. A little on the dry side, but not bad. And later on, when I used a Speedball B-3 nib (which has a reservoir), I also had pretty decent flow.

 

These papers are, from left to right, Tomoe River 52gsm, Colo-O-Ring, Rhodia plain, HP Premium32 copy paper, Cosmo Air Light, and Rhodia dot.

 

 

 

The color of the paper really determines which colors are most prominent in the ink. Cooler colored papers give more blues, and on warmer colored papers, I see more greens. Not surprising, I guess, but it was noticeable.

 

Again, I don't have a lot of inks to compare these to. Sailor Manyo Haha is significantly more saturated and has more separation of colors when shading. The Ink Institute is not really a multi-shader, but it seemed to fit into the group anyway.

 

 

The ink shows up a lot better than I expected when writing with a fountain pen, but it would still be tricky to read in some circumstances. I like the amount of shading that I get, but with a broad nib pen I didn't get any color variation while writing. I only really saw color variation when using a big Speedball B-3 nib, and even then it's mostly only visible on the Tomoe River.

 

 

 

 

 

So, this is an ink that I might play with when I'm doing some larger letting, but it will not be an everyday writer for me. That's OK, though... I don't mind having a few extra bottles of ink just to play around with now and then.

 

[LizEF]

Thanks for another great review!    Paler inks don't really appeal to me, but those swatches sure are pretty.

[mizgeorge]

Great review! I love this range from Pennonia - and use them both for writing and drawing. I think they're phenomenally good value as well (especially bought direct from Pennonia!)

Thank you

[Matthew TWP]

4 hours ago, LizEF said:

Thanks for another great review!    Paler inks don't really appeal to me, but those swatches sure are pretty.

Agreed. They just don't seem very useful to me... but obviously I can't help myself sometimes. I guess not everything in life has to be useful 😉

 

4 hours ago, mizgeorge said:

Great review! I love this range from Pennonia - and use them both for writing and drawing. I think they're phenomenally good value as well (especially bought direct from Pennonia!)

Thank you

 

I agree that they're a great value... and they would be especially if I were in the EU. As it is, shipping to the USA makes ordering from Pennonia impractical (an extra $20+ in shipping per order). I'm an ink addict, but even so I rarely spend the 200 Euros necessary per order to reach the free shipping threshold there. 🙂

[A Smug Dill]

Absolutely awesome review! Thank you so much.

 

I have ordered a bottle of this from a Dutch retailer, shortly after it got added to the retailer's catalogue, but I don't know when I'll be receiving it. 😒

[yazeh]

Thanks for a great review

I learned the hardware, that while I enjoy these inks on screen, I utterly dislike writing with them....

 

[namrehsnoom]

Love the review! Thanks for that.

This looks like an ink that is not a good candidate for everyday writing, but that looks great in the really broad nibs (i.e. for birthday cards etc), and I suspect that this ink will also be lots of fun to experiment with in a more artsy context. 

[Tincansailor]

Vanness carries Pennonia ink, I have a bottle of the Pennonia Kékfény Blue Light, which I like.

[Matthew TWP]

3 hours ago, Tincansailor said:

Vanness carries Pennonia ink, I have a bottle of the Pennonia Kékfény Blue Light, which I like.

That Pennonia Kékfény is on my list. I'm such a sucker for vibrant blue inks 🙂 

[Loke]

30 minutes ago, Matthew TWP said:

That Pennonia Kékfény is on my list. I'm such a sucker for vibrant blue inks 🙂 

 

Thanks for the review!

 

You won't be disappointed by Kékfény, my new favorite blue (previous were Colorverse Supernova and Diamine Blue Velvet).