I splurged and got both sets of
Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay India Ink last week. I've tried most of the colors and thought I'd share my sentiments. These are just my sentiments, and I advise you to take it with a grain of salt given I'm just a newbie to this.
When I started I've always practiced and used
Yatsumo Sumi Ink. As you probably know, that has a very thick consistency. I got used to its rich black color. Then I started using Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay India Ink. I tried a few colors in the start and was surprised that the consistency is not as thick. I also find that I'd have to keep re-inking. I shook the bottle and all, but some colors are just a bit watery. I find the darker colors to be more the consistency of the Sumi Ink.
I recently stumbled
Kristina Werner's blog post where she put all her Dr. Ph Martin's Hydrus watercolor in an ice cube tray. Since getting these ink sets, I've been uncapping and capping the ink bottles and using the dropper to reink again and again. A friend of mine suggested I move some to a bottle with wider mouth, and that way it also lessens the chances of contamination. But so many colors and I don't want to end up with 24 different bottles so I thought this was the best idea of all.
The
ice cube trays were from Amazon and they come 4 in a pack. I did about approximately 7 drops of ink per well, that is deep enough for me to dip my pen in. And in case you are wondering, each well holds about half an oz of ink. So with this process I've pretty much transferred close to half a bottle. But I'm sure this will last me longer, and it takes up less table space than the 2 huge sets it originally comes in.
I really love these colors, but I should've heeded my friend's advise and gotten just a few colors. Unfortunately the OCD in me just can't fathom the idea of not having a complete set. I'm sure a lot of you out there also feel the same way.
I hope this OCD'ness of mine helps some people out there. I've noticed that some colors you can live without as they are so close to another.
I think you can zoom in and check out the colors yourselves. I think between Magenta and Red, you can pick one, Crimson/Cherry Red/Red Violet, you can also just pick one. Orange and Tangerine are pretty close too with Tangerine being a tad darker. I was not a big fan of Terra Cotta since I felt like the consistency is way too think and sort of clogged my nib.
I recommend getting the Grass Green though. That is one pretty pretty color of green. Aqua/Teal/Turquoise are also a toss up as they are also too near. Brown and Van Dyke Brown too are close to each other.
So far my favorites are Cherry Red, Bright Red, Yellow Ochre, Golden Yellow, Tangerine, Grass Green, Turquoise, Blue, Van Dyke Brown and Sepia. I left out black and white since those are generic colors you can't go wrong with.
I've pretty much narrowed it down to half. Hopefully this saves some of your some time and dough if you want to try this out.
Happy Writing!
