The many faces of shading inks, or my love affair with dry inks
There are many ink properties to explore down here at the bottom of the fountain pen ink rabbit hole. Sheen, shimmer, shading, viscosity, permanence, saturation. The list goes on.
But shading is, far and away, my favorite ink quality.
As such, I reflect on shading — and the variations of shading in inks — quite a bit. Three of my favorite qualities: those with hard shading, those with gradients, and those that halo.
Who knew there were weeds this far down a rabbit hole?
Hard shading leaves a clear, noticeable line between the lighter and darker areas of a line. The sharp contrast between lights and darks makes a prominent statement. Sharp dressed inks.
Gradient shaders also offer noticeable differences between light and dark shades of an ink’s color. However, gradients make a smooth transition between the poles. More subtle. The tuxedo of shading qualities.
Smooth (caramel colored) criminal
Haloing is an altogether different beast. Inks that halo show off their darkest shades along the outside edges of lines. As if you outlined your writing with a thin blade. The eyeliner of ink qualities.
High shading inks generally seem to share one polarizing quality: they lean dry. Mike at Inkdependence and Audrey at Franklin-Christoph have a fun phrase for such dry inks: “they write like pants.” Descriptive without judgement. You can feel the threads in your paper and the edges of your nibs. The texture of denim. Especially during longer words where your pen writes on the page for multiple letters before being picked up.
I enjoy pants. My penchant for extra fine nibs manifests in enjoying feeling the page as I write. Add to this equation that I form small letter sizes. Writing within a 3.7 mm grid is comfortable for me. Drier inks help to narrow the lines from wet feeds — especially in broader nib sizes. That ensures my tiny letter remain legible. Joy in all shapes, sizes, and ink wetness-es.
And don’t even get me started on how awesome chromo-shaders are.
This week’s Inked Tines update includes my most recent currently inked writing tools.
Toolset
Pens. No single combo stood out to me this week. Teamwork. There is no “i” in pen.
Karas Kustoms (EF) — 1/6. The wet and broad Bock EF squeezed fun shading out of Shimbashi. Forgiving round nib made awkward writing angles for scratch notes and pocket notetaking enjoyable. Wrote every time. Fun combo. Pocket carry, scratch notes, journaling, lesson plans.
Sailor Pro Gear (MF) — Empty. The new pen on the block. Blues make me smile. Reliable MF nib. Reverse EF makes the pair excellent in meetings and reading notes. Journaling, reading notes, lesson plans, meeting notes.
TWSBI Vac700R (F CSI) — Full. Forgiving nib for an italic grind. Excellent gradient shader. Comfortable during long reflective writing sessions. Journaling, teaching reflections, scratch notes.
Conklin Mark Twain (F CI) — ?? Defying physics and logic this pair continues to write on. Dig it. I used this pen for recording discussion notes during my LGBTQ Studies course lectures. The kids got a kick out of the look of the rose gold crescent filler. Took intention to maintain the proper angle for the narrow italic nib. Also: journaling, lesson plans, some scratch notes.
Pelikan m805 (F CSI) — 1/2. Secondary daily driver. My primary meeting combo. Reliable so long as I’m writing seated. Italic grind works best with careful attention to my writing angle. Task management, meeting notes, journaling.
Franklin-Christoph 46 (EF SIG) — Feed. An italic EF is a finicky, wonderful, frustrating, glorious writing nib. Reliable writer at the proper angle. Quick to dry. Fun shading. Task management, lesson plans, lecture notes, scratch notes.
Narwhal Schuylkill (F) — Empty. Great pairing. Healthy shading. Narrow F line. Comfortable size for both quick jottings and long writing sessions. Journaling, reading notes, margin notes.
Notebooks. Work bujo. Musubi Cosmo Air Light 83 (A5). Eight new pages this week.
A two-page weekly, written in a combination of Sailor’s 223 and Bungubox’s Melancholic Gray. And pink Mildliner to denote asynchronous lessons within the class tracker at the top of the spread.
Contained and organized … and messy
Two pages of lesson plan outlines. Melancholic Gray holds down the structure of each page. I tapped Bondi Blue and Shimbashi for the outline notes as these spreads face one another. Light and murky blues look good together.
The week’s pages conclude with three pages of meeting notes — and a full page of lecture notes on the origins of Queer Theory. The TWSBI offered accent purple ink against the mid-toned Melancholic Gray. Theory is fun.
Just as fun as these hills of blues
Journal. Stalogy 1/2 Year Editor (A6). Journaling took center stage this week. 22 new pages, spread across six entries. A6 pages. Translated to A5 pages, I accomplished 11 pages of writing.
Five longform entries dominated my personal writing. Reflections on events from my days, global events, and one targeted reflection.
In order, I tapped: the TWSBI (Edo-Murasaki) and Pelikan m805 (Sailor 223); Karas Kustoms (Shimbashi); Conklin (Sacrament) and the TWSBI again; Sailor Pro Gear (Bondi Blue) and the TWSBI a third time; The Mark Twain and Sailor Pro Gear, each for a second time; and, finally, my Baron Fig Squire for a short jotting Friday evening. A non-fountain pen: le gasp.
I’ve taken to recording my pen and ink pairings at the ends of entries
Written dry. The end of a marking period generates a healthy amount of notetaking, meetings, and written reflections. I rotated pen and ink pairings often throughout the week. The result: three empty pens. I was a productive pedagogist.
So empty: Echo … echo … cho … o …
The Sailor Pro Gear ran empty while journaling on Thursday night. Minty Comfort tea, a Chillhop playlist, and my Stalogy anchored me to writing. When a Sailor nib works, it really shines. The MF nib even brought out an audible “cool.” Success, Sailor.
The Franklin-Christoph lasted all week. Only the ink in the feed remains. Enough for a page or so of writing. Not enough to feel confident heading into a full work day.
The Narwhal ate it Wednesday afternoon while I wrote reading notes on a textbook I’m using in my elective class. The quality acrylic and design Narwhal offers at their price point is impressive.
Newly inked. No newly inked pens this week. Down-sizing achieved.
The collection
Incoming / new orders. Had a breather this week. A welcome change after last week’s show-stopping Sailor Pro Gear’s arrival.
Outgoing / trades or sales. One of the best parts of slowing down into analog writing is sharing inks that no longer derive joy. Watching good people play in inks that make them smile is — nearly — as rewarding as writing myself.
I fielded a text from one of my best friends on Thursday. She shared that she’s loving Diamine’s Ruby Blues. In response, I brought my bottle of Ruby Blues and a surprise bottle of Night Shade as gifts to her. Night Shade is a similar color to Ruby Blues — if sans sheen.
What’s better than a free bottle of ink? Two free bottles of ink. It’s science.
I struggle to find love inside the blurple slice of the color spectrum. Only too glad to move these blurples onward and into a home where they’ll be appreciated.
Currently reading and listening
Fiction. Mossflower was a rare sight this past week. 26 iPhone-sized pages. Enough for about two chapters. I stand at the beginning of Chapter 30. Some weeks, rain. Other weeks, deluge.
Outside of Mossflower, Martin and his trio took on a waterfall and faired poorly. Within Mossflower, the revolution is underway. Exciting.
Nonfiction. 124 pages out of a lovely introduction to Queer Theory by Barker & Scheele (2016). My journey to this text has been years in the making. It’s quite challenging to find explanations of what I call “deep theory” that are inviting to young minds. I believe I have a winner.
I used a blend of the Narwhal (inked with Stormwater Runoff), my second-favorite Blackwing 602, and a Mildliner to pre-annotate for my students and annotate for myself.
Smells like reading … at an angle
I like to use an unsaturated ink when annotating for my teaching. My marginalia serve to help me locate important ideas. Summarizing and reflection are work of good old-fashioned pencil. Because: erasing is magic.
Music. I had a sequence of six energetic evenings this week. My music followed suit. St. Paul & The Broken Bones served as soundtrack to my scribblings.
Haunting lyrics and powerful vocals presented over boozy blues-swamp-rock arrangements. And those awesome shoes. Brilliant.
Edited: Mar 5, 2022 @ 7:00 pm — Added ink names to images
