Thank you to Dromgoole’s for letting me review this set and feel like I can be part of the cool crowd.

I never did have those markers. Either I was too old when they were introduced to the market or I wasn’t cool enough – I’m not sure. However, now I can relive that disappointment with a new set from Monteverde – Color Changing Inks.

The set comes in a nice magnetically closing box that looks great on a bookshelf, saving you space in your ink drawer. It consists of 9 colorful inks and one clear color changer bottle.

The color changer ink is a bit thicker than normal inks but has little to no odor and leaves no trace of a mark on paper.

I decided to start with filling up a few Kakimori refillable felt tip pens, but I swatched the following cards as I normally do – paintbrush and a dip pen.

This part was so fun! Each color changes differently with the addition of the color changer ink. Some, like the black and brown, change rather slowly and can take several minutes to fully change. Others, especially the Green and Blue, change as soon as the color changer touches them.

I learned through trial and error that you should let the first ink totally dry before adding the color changing ink. Also, be careful if you go back over your clear ink with a second coat as it can spread.

The color changer ink acts almost like a bleach pen, but not as harsh to the paper.

You can see in the swatch below that the color changer pushed slightly to the edges of the heavier swatch. A fun effect to watch.

As a graduate from Virginia Tech, I deeply appreciate the Burgundy to Orange color since it is the school color combination.

You can see a dark version of the color changed pink haloing the entire swatch of the Dark Blue ink below – almost like the deep blue portion shrank back to reveal the color underneath.

The Fuchsia ink was nearly bleached to white with the color changing ink, but the ink itself feathered quite a bit in the swatch below – Cosmo Air Light paper.

The Pink that came from the color changing ink on Green ink is a unique combination – the pink comes through as rather dark at first but lightens over time.

I also loved the Purple to Yellow combination – a very dark ink that lightens dramatically to Yellow.

The Red ink seemed to be closer to orange than actual red.

You can see on a few of these swatch cards that some colors performed poorly in the feathering department, although this is not enough for me to not use the ink.

Below is the Monteverde Color Changing lineup on Midori MD paper:

The Monteverde Color Changing lineup on Tomoe River (TR7) 52gsm paper:

Finally, the Monteverde Color Changing lineup on Cosmo Air Light paper:

The set as I have shown it is available at retailers who carry Monteverde inks for $124 or $13 per ink bottle and $7 per bottle of color changer.

Which color duo is your favorite combination?

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items in this review were provided at a discounted rate for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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Colorverse “Golden Gate Bridge” is the “Show ink” for SF pen show 2023. I was excited to see how Colorverse would interpret such an iconic color,  which can be hard to pin down. Is it orange? Red? Red-orange?

As a Bay Area native, I learned early that the paint color is called “International Orange” (only do an image search on that if you are wearing sunglasses), but as it appears on the bridge itself, it is a deep and rich vermillion. This color is not-red, not-orange, not-pink, an elusive beauty much like the deeper shades of coral.

In this review, I compare the ink with others in my collection, write on a few different papers with a fountain pen, and paint with the ink using a brush in my Art Test.

What is the color like?

The ink is a saturated, non-shading color. I found it to really resemble the bridge color when the ink is wet, but dry to a more magenta-leaning shade.

Some Col-o-ring comparisons

The closest “red” shade I have is Kyo-pro “Flaming red of Fushimi”. This comparison shows how much more saturated, GGB is, and how it has leans away from the yellow-orange tones.

I thought KWZ Grapefruit would be a good match. In this comparison, more shading is evident in Grapefruit, as well as the yellow-orange tones.

Possibly the closest match from the inks in my collection is Pelikan Edelstein “Star Ruby”. This ink to my eye is straight-up magenta. GGB next to it appears just a bit more a true red, but matches the saturation level really well.

To further illustrate this point, I have an entry from my Hobonichi Techo, which shows lines in a Fine nib of GGB to the left, a short sentence written with Star Ruby in a Fine nib to the right of that. For extra credit, the rubber stamps were inked with the Ranger Archival Ink stamp pad in the color Vermillion! In a Fine fountain pen nib, there is very little difference in perceived shade of the two inks.

Note: The owl rubber stamp is part of a collection I bought from the Hobonichi  store, and the lovely ink bottle stamp is of course from the Well-Appointed Desk! One of my favorites in there. But I digress.

Standard Paper tests

So far we have seen the ink with Col-o-ring paper, and Tomoe River paper. What if all we have are a standard Field Notes book, or some copy paper?

In the Field Notes, I detect a little bit of feathering, if I look closely. Slight show-through on the back, but usable on both sides for sure.

As for the copy paper, I have HP 24lb bright white inkjet paper for my own printer. I found the ink to behave pretty nicely on this paper, with a little bit of feathering visible and minimal show-through.

The Art Test

If we have met before, you knew this was coming! The best way I know to discover the true range of an ink, is to paint with it. I use the ink direct from the bottle, as well as dilutions with water. The paper is cold-press watercolor paper. For this piece, I started out with pencil, then used various dilutions of ink and water for the light wash effect. I built depth and shading with straight ink, and when dry, drew fine details with the ink in my fountain pen.

From the lightest light that I could get with dilutions of water, to the darkest dark with fully saturated ink, there are not too many middle shades in this one. This tracks for me in how saturated a color it is in the pen.  I also see clearly in the painting, how magenta the lighter shades are. The darkest areas looked more vermillion and had more orange tones when wet. With the detail lines in place, I can see there is a bit of sheen on this paper, which shows more of the warmer hues. I have posted a VoiceOver narration video  of my process YouTube while painting this piece over on YouTube, for those curious to see the painting unfold in real time.

TL;DR

Colorverse Golden Gate Bridge is a bright, saturated color. It writes well on a variety of papers. The wet shade is an orangey vermillion, which dries to a magenta-leaning red color. There is no shading, but a bit of sheen can be detected with more intense applications.

Julia van der Wyk is an artist, classical musician, knitter, and professional web developer (The Web Atrium). She teaches an Ink Painting class at the SF Pen Show, and resides in Santa Cruz, California, where she can draw Pelicans with Pelikans, and brag about the weather. Follow her adventures on Instagram @juliavdw and Juliavanderwyk.com. Also check out her Ink Wash Painting Class!

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I discovered the entire Teranishi ink brand at St. Louis Art Supply where the ink is offered in 40mL glass bottles for $21.50 (about $0.54 per mL) or in 1.5mL samples for $2.50. Because I have used samples for this review, there is no photo of the actual bottles but refer to part 1 for a look at them.

Taisho Roman Modern Red is a well-saturated red with a hint of shading and a touch of sheen occasionally.

However, I was surprised at how Modern Red reacted to various types of paper. Sometimes this ink shows as a bold, bright red. Other papers reveal the orange and brown undertones of the ink. The ink can also show very different textures on each paper.

Teranishi Taisho Roman Modern Red on Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper:

Teranishi Taisho Roman Modern Red on Tomoe River (TR7) 52gsm paper:

Teranishi Taisho Roman Modern Red on Midori MD paper:

Teranishi Taisho Roman Salon de Violet is the second ink in today’s review. This purple also has a bit of shading and plenty of blue in the undertones.

Teranishi Taisho Roman Salon de Violet on Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper:

Teranishi Taisho Roman Salon de Violet on Tomoe River (TR7) 52gsm paper:

Teranishi Taisho Roman Salon de Violet on Midori MD paper:

Which of the Teranishi inks is your favorite?

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were purchased by me for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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Each of the inks in the Write & Draw line come in a 50mL glass bottle for $17.33, about $0.35 per mL.

The Write & Draw inks are all named for the color and an animal – none that match the usual color of the animal, however! Yellow Zebra, Brown Penguin, and Brown Colibri are up first.

Red Duck, Orange Skunk, and Pink Gazelle:

Pink Alpaca, Red Turtle, Pink Owl:

Violet Raccoon, Violet Bee, Violet Lion, and Blue Chameleon:

Octopus Write & Draw inks on Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper:

Octopus Write & Draw inks on Midori MD paper:

Octopus Write & Draw inks on Tomoe River 52gsm (TR7) paper:

Octopus Write & Draw inks on Midori Cotton paper:

Next week I’ll show the remaining 12 Write & Draw inks along with a look at the level of water resistance offered by these pigment inks.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided at a discount by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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I chose to review two inks in the Ink-cafe line – #536 Shikon is the first. This is a deep blue-purple ink, very saturated, and it sheens a bright gold on most paper types. As you can see in the photo above, I had a bit of trouble with the ink rubbing off the swatch and onto the rest of the card. This wasn’t actual smearing, but it is something that can happen with heavily saturated inks. I did not have the same issue writing on the paper samples.

Only a touch of the sheen shows up with Kuretake Ink-cafe #536 Shikon on Midori MD paper:

The gold sheen shows a bit of green with Kuretake Ink-cafe #536 Shikon on Tomoe River 52gsm (TR7) paper:

The sheen is fairly metallic with Kuretake Ink-cafe #536 Shikon on Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper:

The second ink I chose from the Ink-cafe line is a bright red #532 Araishu. This is a vivid red with slight orange undertones – not quite as bright as Monteverde Strawberry Shortcake.

Kuretake Ink-cafe #532 Araishu on Midori MD paper:

I was surprised at how much of the orange undertones showed up with Kuretake Ink-cafe #532 Araishu on Tomoe River 52gsm (TR7) paper:

A faint silver sheen can be sheen with Kuretake Ink-cafe #532 Araishu on Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper:

I was able to pick up a sample of each of these inks from St. Louis Art Supply – a store that is new to me! The samples are quite small – only 1.5mL – but cost on $2.50 each. Dip pen nibs, Kakimori nibs, and glass nibs (most) all fit into the tiny sample vials, but I don’t know of many fountain pens that would be able to draw from them.

The ink is priced at $17.95 for a 20mL bottle – $0.90 per mL. This may be a bit steep for a new ink line, but I am interested to try the remaining colors. I do love how bright Araishu is without blinding me.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were purchased by me. Please see the About page for more details.

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I appreciate the minimal packaging with all Troublemaker inks – a simple card stock box and large plastic bottles that are dark enough to protect the ink from most light.

Troublemaker Nenita is a dark burgundy red – not so dark that it appears black in writing, though.

The sheen is what makes this ink pop, however. A green-gold sheen shows up in the correct light. The sheen is a bit muted – this keeps it from overwhelming the base color and keeps the ink from smearing after it dries.

Troublemaker Nenita on Tomoe River 52gsm (TR7) paper:

Troublemaker Nenita on Midori MD paper:

Troublemaker Nenita on Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper:

Troublemaker Moon River is quite different from Nenita. This is a multi-chromatic ink that shows plenty of shading with a color somewhere between grey, pink, and green. It brings to mind other recent multi-chromatic inks like Sailor Studio 123 and Sailor Yurameku Seki, but I think it is more helpful to show it compared to other standard inks. The swatch is close to Vinta Pangtangi but in writing, Moon River appears as a dusty rose.

Troublemaker Moon River on Tomoe River 52gsm (TR7) paper:

Troublemaker Moon River on Midori MD paper:

Troublemaker Moon River on Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper:

I love the degree to which Moon River changes from paper to paper.

Troublemaker inks can be a bit hard to find in the US, however, it seems that more retailers are beginning to stock the ink. At $0.28 per mL, I would definitely recommend picking up a bottle!

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were purchased by me. Please see the About page for more details.

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First, a comparison of colors. Blue-ringed Octopus blue is a bright cyan that sheens red occasionally. It reminds me of Pelikan Edelstein, but when I compared the two, Blue-ringed Octopus is noticeably darker.

Bobtail Squid green is a bit brighter than Robert Oster Jade, and not quite as yellow. I love the shading in this ink – the difference between the dark and light shades is dramatic.

Vampire Squid red is a wonderful bright red that is dark enough to not hurt your eyes. You can see a touch of the gold sheen in the lower right corner of the swatch card below.

Cuttlefish brown is a very interesting ink – when used with a wet-writing pen or nib, it appears off-black. When Cuttlefish is used in a fine pen or a dry pen, it appears as a light, muddy brown with hints of yellow. Montblanc Wood & Tobacco is the closest color I have to Cuttlefish and even the Montblanc ink isn’t quite as dramatic.

Below are the four inks on wheat straw paper from my swatch booklet. There was no feathering and no show-through but also no sheen on this paper.

Below is Tomoe River paper. I’ve slightly smeared each ink below to show some of the properties of the ink although please note that the green in the Blue-ringed Octopus smear is from inky fingers, not from the ink itself. TR paper shows the Bobtail ink shading and a bit of the shading in Cuttlefish, but the nibs that I used for Blue-ringed Octopus and Vampire Squid were too narrow to show sheen. You can see a hint of sheen in both in the smeared ink at the bottom of the page, however.

Shading is better on the Cosmo Air Light paper below, especially in Bobtail Squid. Cuttlefish showed no real shading here and I continued to not see sheen in Blue-ringed Octopus or Vampire Squid. The smear tests with the blue and red both showed the sheen, however.

Midori MD paper light seems to have a flattening effect on each of the four inks although you can see more of the color variation in the Cuttlefish smear. I saw no sheen on this paper.

Out of the four types of paper I used in these tests (five if you count the Col-o-ring cards), there was no feathering, no bleed-through, and no smearing (except where I smeared on purpose!). Out of the four inks, Cuttlefish and Bobtail Squid are absolute favorites because of their unique colors. Blue-ringed Octopus is a beautiful cyan and I am going to try a wider nib for better sheen. Vampire Squid red is one I would probably pass on – the color is not quite saturated enough for my taste and was too dry.

All four inks I have shown in this post do feel slightly dry on paper but flow well through the pen. I didn’t experience hard starts or railroading, but the feel on the page was similar to writing on slightly toothy paper. I rather enjoyed the feel of the drier ink! I have several wet-writing pens that will be great to use with Anderillium inks to balance the flow.

Check back next week for more Anderillium ink testing!

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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This post today will be giving a first look at the two ink lines: the Cephalopod Series and the Avian Series. I will dive deeper into reviewing the characteristics of the inks in further posts, but I wanted to give an overview of the colors as soon as I could.

The first Series is Cephalopods. This line consists of Bobtail Squid Green, Colossal Squid Dark, Flapjack Octopus Orange, Vampire Squid Red, Blue-Ringed Octopus Blue, Spirula Green, Cuttlefish Brown, and Flying Squid Blue.

The Avian Series consists of Common Loon Black, Shoebill Stork Grey, Roseate Spoonbill Pink, American Goldfinch Yellow, Purple Gallinule Purple, Green Kingfisher Green, Pompadour Cotinga Burgundy, and Indigo Bunting Blue.

I was sent 0.5 ounce bottles of each ink – these are sold for $14.50 in 1.5 ounce bottles at various retailers.

Cephalopods:

Avian:

On Col-o-Ring cards, the only smearing I noticed was from my own clumsiness.

• Above: Cosmo Air Light paper

• Above: Cosmo Air Light paper

I attempted to remove the sticker that was used to close the bag ofCepholapod samples, but my clumsiness showed up again. I did want to show off the wonderful drawing on the sticker, however. Just ignore the fact that it is in pieces…

The Avian Sticker came off in one piece, though!

Cosmo Air Light shows plenty of shading and hints of sheen in Flying Squid, Blue-Ringed Octopus, Vampire Squid, Roseate Spoonbill Pink, and Common Loon Black. Haloing is also showing up in several colors.

• Above: Tomoe River Paper

• Above: Tomoe River Paper

The same five inks sheen on Tomoe River paper as well where the colors are softer and shading is less pronounced.

• Above: Midori MD Light paper

• Above: Midori MD Light paper

I love the depth of these inks on Midori MD Light paper. Vampire Squid sheens quite a bit here and Cuttlefish has a fascinating variety of layers.

As I said above, this is only meant to be a quick teaser of the Anderillium ink lines. In the coming weeks, I will dive deeper into how these inks perform. Don’t forget to check back next week!

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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Maple is an orange red, almost tomato-colored, much like the orangey-pinky-red leaves in the fall. While it appears as a darker red in heavier droplets, it ranges from red to orange in writing, and shades a bit. Maple is one of the Standard inks,  meaning it has no special finishes, just glorious color.

When I went through my ink stash to see what I had that might compare, I was a bit hard pressed to find something that was just right. Papier Plume’s special Heart of Gold Ink came close, but Maple has a touch more brown in it. Monteverde Ruby is close in the darker areas, but Maple is definitely lighter in color in writing samples. Sailor Shikiori Yodaki might be a good match, although it’s got a gold sheen to it so it’s not quite right. And Birmingham Pen Co. Duquesne Incline Station Red is a bit more red, and definitely more saturated.

The ink went down beautifully and dried fairly quickly, even in those heavy ink drops. Overall I’d say this is a fun ink if you’re looking for a little of that fall color!

• Papers: Maruman Mnemosyne N182A Inspiration Notebook A5 ($10.50), Crossfield Journal ($24.00), 
• Pen: Delike Glass Signature Pen ($37.80)
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10) and Col-o-Dex Rotary Cards ($15)
• Inks: Dominant Industry Maple No. 108 (25mL for $15)

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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I’m starting with the first three inks: Cielo Cruel, Rey Jaguar, and Tierra Colorada.

According to their packaging, the colors chosen by Monarca were inspired by Mexico. The first ink today, Cielo Cruel, represents a cloudless day that will bring no rain – a “cruel sky”. Cielo Cruel is a rich, shading medium blue that leans toards the purple end of the color. It is in the same group of colors that include many blue-black inks but a few shades lighter.

The second ink today is Tierra Colorada, referencing the red soil of Northern Mexico. Every time I’ve written this out, I need to force myself not to spell out Colorado instead! Tierra Colorada is a bit lighter than Monteverde Canyon Rust and is a good shading ink. The reddish brown ink is subtly different from most office inks but would still be appropriate in a professional setting.

Monarca Rey Jaguar is the last ink I’ll be covering in this post. This is a special edition ink, named in reference to the King Jaguar, is a a run of only 600 bottles and Monarca states that a significant portion of the profits from Rey Jaguar will go to habitat restoration campaigns.

Rey Jaguar is a lovely shading golden brown ink with gold sparkle. It is a bit more saturated than Callifolio Yalumba and lighter than Diamine Golden Brown. The sparkle in the ink fell out of suspension a bit quicker than I expected, but didn’t need much aggitation to resuspend. The flow was a bit on the wet side – a pleasant change from sparkle inks that tend to run dry. My dip nib was the issue with the blob on my card below!

The sparkle in Rey Jaguar is bright when it catches the light. This swatch is shown on Tomoe River paper:

This swatch is on Cosmo Air Light paper.

Although I’ve only covered three inks today, I’ve included all nine Monarca inks, first on Tomoe River paper:

And again on Cosmo Air Light paper.:

In order to see the difference in color, shading, and texture between the two paper types, here is a photo of Monarca inks on both Cosmo Air Light paper (left) and Tomoe River paper (right).

There is a little surprise Monarca includes with each ink . Each bottle is packaged with it’s own wooden bottle holder/pen rest. A small bit of foam has been attached to the inside of the bottle holder so it keeps the bottle held securely – I was able to lift both the holder and bottle out of the box together. I appreciate this innovative detail that makes the packaging useful!

The cost of Monarca inks varies from $20 to $29 for 30mL (and a pen rest), bringing the ink to $0.67 to $1 per mL. While still not as expensive as some specialty inks, the price is on the higher end. However, the color and quality of the ink will not disappoint!

DISCLAIMER: The ink included in this review was provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Some items were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.

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