Inktober 2025 Skirmishes, Week 1

I always want to participate in Inktober, but I often find it difficult to do so. Last year, if my memory serves me correctly, I took part in Inktober Tangles. However, I really had to push myself, and often found I didn’t have enough time to really relax and have fun.

So, this year, I’m using Inktober to work on my resolution to get rid of some inks. I haven’t done anywhere near as well with it as I’d like to. The result: Inktober Skirmishes! The goal is to remove one ink from my collection for each skirmish, but if the two inks are different enough, I’m open to keeping them both.

These will be similar to Ink Battles, but faster. No scoring, just final judgment. I haven’t even included a scribble section. My plan is to write out the first chapter, one skirmish at a time, of as many of my favorite books as necessary to get through 31 days. The first book pick is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Yes, there will be 31 skirmishes, one for each day of Inktober, but I’m going to post once a week. I’m not sure yet if I’ll stick with Fridays. I may mix it up just for giggles and post on a different day each week. We’ll see.

I’m using F Jowo nibs because I want to make sure that whatever inks I use are dark/saturated enough to actually show up with the nibs I use most often. The paper is lined Maruman loose leaf.

Now, on to the skirmishes!

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The Pens

Let’s start with a quick mention of the two pens that housed the nibs and inks for the below battles.

Walltown Pens Watts in Glacier Bay

Custom Scriptorium Pens Exemplar in Dark Cenote

October 1, Soft Snow of Ohara & Tang Pyeong

My first skirmish is between Kyo-Iro Soft Snow of Ohara (odd rows) and Colorverse Tang Pyeong (even rows). Both are muted purple inks.

I’m keeping Tang Pyeong and booting Soft Snow of Ohara. Tang Pyeong is that little bit lighter that will ensure that it doesn’t look like black when used in wetter and/or wider nibs.

October 2, Vert Empire and Hwang Cho

Next up is a skirmish between J. Herbin Vert Empire (odd rows) and Colorverse Hwang Cho (even rows). Both are muted green inks.

I thought these two were more similar. But, from the second line, I knew I would be keeping both inks. Ah, well. I’ll try to be better about comparing inks that are more similar for the rest of the month.

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What do you think of Ink Skirmishes? Do you agree with my choices? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.

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