I love Robert Oster inks, and his newest exclusives to Vanness are gorgeous!
*ps if they sell out they will restock but don’t wait too long; you can preorder!*

My sketches below were drawn with a dip pen on cold press watercolor paper,
then the lines were touched with water using a Pentel Aquash waterbrush.
The lines do not stay visible but quickly lose themselves in wet color;
These inks are highly soluble, which is good for me and ink-painting!

Remember that others review these inks just for writing;
I am also interested in how they are used for ink-painting!

Blue River is gorgeous clear blue that is perfection!
It has a permanent home in my PENBBS and it cheers me!

Hemp Green is a natural warm green that has yellows and rusts lurking
in its pigmentation… and I didn’t ask why they chose “hemp” for one of their colors!

Charred Hickory is a beautiful red-brown.  I also grew up seeing iron rich soils near my grandparent’s ranch, and this ink reminds me of those colors in the rain.

Properties of Robert Oster’s Vanness Inks:

This ink is well-behaved, and does not feather on any of the papers I normally use, even Post-its.  I consider it a medium ink, neither wet nor dry, and it evaporates quickly with a wet nib.  none of these have smeared on me during a sketch.  When hit with water it
moves easily with little no resistance, so is water soluble.

The paper towel test shows the chromatography of the various inks when hit with water!  Only the green reveals many colors; the other two appear a single pigment color.

Robert Oster is experimenting and testing lightfast properties…
MOST water soluble ink companies do not pay attention to these things
because most artists who use ink are making prints of their work.

Other Robert Oster Inks
reviewed in this manner to
date can be  found on this page: Robert Oster Signature Inks.

The non-toxic inks come in
50ml plastic bottles that
are environmentally friendly,
using recycled plastic.
They can be tippy, so I
usually put them in a more solid container to decant.
All my pens fit easily into the bottle opening to fill.

I bought Robert Oster
at Vanness.

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