Welcome back to Inktober Skirmishes. As a reminder, I’m using Inktober to work on my resolution to get rid of some inks. 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.
Skirmishes are similar to Ink Battles, but without scoring, just final judgment. I am writing out the first chapter, one skirmish at a time, of as many of my favorite books as necessary to get through the 31 days of Inktober.
This is my last set of skirmishes for Inktober. I chose one of my favorite poems, The Chaos, by Gerard Nolst Trenité. The version I copied from is quite a bit longer than what I’ve included below, but I got to Halloween and decided to jump to the last two lines. Side note: this poem is written for British English pronunciation, not American English.
NOTE: For some reason, the images look different on my computer upon upload than they did during editing. I’m not sure how true-to-life they’ll look on anyone’s screen. The close-up images seem to look more true-to-life than the full page images.
Reminders: 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. I’m alternating inks as I write. The ink used for odd rows (first row of writing, third row, etc.) is listed first, with the ink used for the even rows listed second.
The Pens
With another new publication, we get another set of pens.
18111 The Night Snow
Franklin-Christoph Model 31 Cosmic Dust
Now, on to the skirmishes!
October 23, #80 and Lights on Ceres
First up are Kobe #80 — I’ve seen four different names for this ink, so I’m just going to go with its number — (odd rows) and Colorverse Lights on Ceres (even rows). Both inks are in the fuchsia family.
These two are different enough to keep both. #80 was recently gifted to me, and I wanted to see how close it is to Lights on Ceres. Answer: not very. But, it’s so vibrant it makes Lights on Ceres look dark.
October 24, Ambre de Birmanie and Rising Reflections
Next, we have a gold battle with J. Herbin Ambre de Birmanie and Colorverse Rising Reflections. Both lean heavily toward yellow.
These two are identical. While I want to keep Ambre de Birmanie, there really is no reason to do so since I’m going to keep Rising Reflections for the shimmer.
October 25, Vert de Gris and George Kerr
We continue with desaturated teal inks J. Herbin Vert de Gris and Lennon Tool Bar George Kerr.
Once again, we have dupe inks. Because I love how J. Herbin inks perform, I’m keeping Vert de Gris, even though I have fewer Lennon Tool Bar inks.
October 26, Prussian Blue and 75t Rocket Engine
Next up are Diamine Prussian Blue and Colorverse 75t Rocket Engine. Both are what I like to call blue/grays — blue/black, but paler.
These two are almost dupes, but 75t Rocket Engine is slightly more saturated. Usually, that would mean it’s the one I keep. However, I have one of the 5ml mini bottles, so it’s getting relegated to my samples for dupe testing and I’m keeping Prussian Blue.
October 27, Anubis and Antique Sepia
Now we have desaturated brown inks, Wearingeul Anubis and Birmingham Pen Co Antique Sepia. Anubis has copper shimmer and Antique Sepia changes colors as it dries.
Antique Sepia leans toward purple, whereas Anubis leans a bit toward yellow. While these are different enough to keep both, I don’t love Antique Sepia, so it gets the boot.
October 28, Tudor Blue and Document Blue
Next up are royal blue(ish) inks Diamine Tudor Blue and DeAtramentis Document Blue.
This battle was more for Jim than for me. I hate the DeAtramentis Document line. The inks must be very wet, as they write wider than other inks and tend to feather on paper that other inks don’t. Jim agreed to let Document Blue go, and (BONUS!) was OK booting Document Green, too.
October 29, Cherry Blossom and Tyrian Purple
We carry on with Birmingham Pen Co Cherry Blossom and Diamine Tyrian Purple. Both are pink-leaning muted purples.
Based on my swatches, I thought these would be closer in shade than they are. While they’re very close in hue, there’s enough difference in shade that I’m keeping both.
October 30, Syo-Ro and Ku-Jaku
Switching gears to turquoise for the penultimate battle, we have Pilot Iroshizuku Syo-Ro and Ku-Jaku.
I gave the win to Ku-Jaku because it’s more saturated and we have more of it. However, Jim has a particular affinity for Syo-Ro, so we’re keeping both bottles.
October 31, Marigold and Puffin’s Beak
And finally, the last skirmish for The Chaos on Halloween — and to end Inktober — we have two oranges that don’t look orange when put together: Diamine Marigold and Ink Institute x Gourmet Pens Puffin’s Beak.
It’s funny how, when put next to each other, these look yellow. Yet, when apart, they both look orange. The brightness of Marigold mutes Puffin’s Beak to a gold. But that same gold makes Marigold looks like an orange-ish yellow. But I digress. These two are far too different to boot either of them. They both stay.
Winner Recap
- Kobe #80 vs Colorverse Lights on Ceres — Both stay
- J. Herbin Ambre de Birmanie vs Colorverse Rising Reflections — Rising Reflections
- J. Herbin Vert de Gris vs Lennon Tool Bar George Kerr — Vert de Gris
- Diamine Prussian Blue vs Colorverse 75t Rocket Engine — Prussian Blue
- Wearingeul Anubis vs Birmingham Pen Co Antique Sepia — Anubis
- Diamine Tudor Blue vs DeAtramentis Document Blue — Tudor Blue
- Birmingham Pen Co Cherry Blossom vs Diamine Tyrian Purple — Both stay
- Pilot Iroshizuku Syo-Ro vs Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku — Ku-Jaku, but both stay
- Diamine Marigold and Ink Institute Puffin’s Beak — Both stay
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.
Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed my post. Make sure to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Instagram so you don’t miss any posts. I generally post at least once a week.
