January Blues

It’s January now, so it’s time to pull out some new ink palette combos! This month I decided to pull the whole month’s worth into one post rather than posting 4 individual ones.

This first week I’ve been using blues and purples. I’m obsessed with Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi and have been looking for any excuse to use it.

I used Bank paper to create these trees. It really brings out the undertones of these two Sailor inks.

I love neutral inks so sometimes I love a palette full of nothing but neutral. Monteverde Moonstone, Sailor Jentle Black and Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun have all been long-time favorites of mine.

Train doodles make even the best inks better right?

This ink palette is all of my favorite colors. I love all five of these inks!

The Bank paper pulls a bit of the blue tone out of the Sailor Jentle Fuji-musume.

I love this combo so much! It would also work well for early spring.

I used a Waterman 452 1/2 V to draw these flowers, and a little bit of water and a paint brush to soften it up. I love the softer vibe with the pastel colors.

It seems I’m focusing on blues, purples and neutrals this month. What inks are you using lately?

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own. There are no affiliate links on this page, and this post is not sponsored in any way.

The PenThing Ink Swatch Plot Log

The PenThing is a pop-up pen shop in Chester, New Jersey. They just released their first self-branded product, The PenThing Ink Swatch Plot Log. It includes 48 pages of white, 120 gsm paper with categories to evaluate your inks.

Each page has spaces for the ink’s name, a swatch, the pen/nib used, date inked, date cleaned, remarks, as well as a 1-10 scale for: saturation, flow, shading, bleeding, feathering, dry time, sheen, halo, shimmer and overall. I like the paper-it’s nice and thick, with very little show through. Since the paper is so thick, the notebook does not lay flat on its own. I also like the categories, the only one I don’t use is halo-the average user doesn’t know the difference between sheen and halo so not everyone would find that category helpful.

Overall, I like this little notebook. It’s useful, has very little show through, and is great for keeping track of ink notes.

Disclaimer: This product was provided by The PenThing for the purpose of this review. All photos and opinions are my own. There are no affiliate links on this page.