Mandarin Pelikan Edelstein fountain pen ink is a well-balanced orange color, perfect for sketching autumn leaves. This ink is not water-resistant, and when I applied water with a paint brush it became a peachy-orange. When the ink is heavily applied it has the appearance of a dark orange, almost red. When I use this ink in a fountain pen for handwriting, it’s a fairly consistent orange, without a lot of shading to it.
I used J. Herbin’s Terre de Feu fountain pen ink for the background contrast. Upon first glance Terre de Feu looks like a chocolate brown, with a closer inspection I can see that it has a reddish undertone to it.
I chose an on off-white/ivory 100g Exacompta paper to complement the warm autumn ink colors. It was interesting to create this sketch using a glass pen. At times it was a little bit difficult to control the ink flow. Sometimes where would be too much ink and sometimes too little. I really enjoy the freedom of using a glass pen – it’s extremely easy to clean, easy to write with and rather fun to keep dipping it into your ink bottles as you run out of ink. When the paper was wet with a lot of ink, it did scratch the paper a bit which you can see if you look closely at the photo below.
What are your favorite fall shades of fountain pen ink?
Do you like to change your stationery supplies with the change of the season? I do! Now that autumn is here the ink in my fountain pens changes to warm, rich fall colors such as orange, gold, maroon and brown. Of course, it is necessary to select a harmonizing pen and notebook to complete the ensemble. Here are some of our fall stationery favorites:
Yellow & Gold: One of my favorite everyday writing tools is the LAMY Safari fountain pen which is available in a cheery bright yellow that reminds me of the autumn color of some maple or birch tree leaves. Yellow ink is not practical for regular handwriting writing, so I like to use a golden amber shade such as J. Herbin Ambre de Birmanie fountain pen ink. If you’re new to fountain pens, and you’re going to use bottled ink in your LAMY Safari or Al-Star pen, you’ll need to get a LAMY Z24 ink converter.
LAMY Safari Fountain Pen in YellowJ. Herbin Ambre de Birmanie Fountain Pen Ink
Orange: I love seeing all of the colorful autumn squash in the supermarket this time of year. The star of this fall’s orange fountain pens is the limited edition copper-orange LAMY Al-Star pen. This relative of the LAMY Safari fountain pen is made from light-weight aluminum with a metallic finish. LAMY created special copper-orange ink cartridges just to match this fountain pen. A couple of my favorite orange bottled inks with nice shading are Noodler’s Apache Sunset and Noodler’s Habanero ink. Want a paper notebook with an orange cover? Go no further than Rhodia‘s famous orange notepads available in all sorts of styles and sizes with fountain pen friendly paper.
LAMY Al-Star Copper-Orange Fountain PenR by Rhodia Notepad with an orange cover and a Pilot Custom 74 Fountain PenNoodler’s Ink Apache Sunset
Red & Maroon: Doesn’t this orange Rhodia notepad look stylish next to these red Japanese maple leaves? The color of these leaves makes me think of the deep burgundy red color of the clear resin Bourgogne Platinum 3776 Century Fountain Pen. Pilot Iroshizuku Fountain Pen Ink in Momiji or Autumn Leaves is a red shade emulating the bright red leaves that are iconic of a Japanese autumn landscape. The ivory paper inside the red Quo Vadis Habana Journal complements the warm, autumn shades of ink that I use this time of year.
J. Herbin’s Bleu Pervenche fountain pen ink is a bright summery turquoise blue color. It makes me think of the mountain bluebirds I used to enjoy seeing when I worked in the hills just outside of Portland, Oregon. This drawing was created with Bleu Pervenche ink using a Kaweco Liliput fountain pen (fine nib) on Exacompta 100g paper.
Stormy Grey Fountain Pen Ink is the latest addition to J. Herbin’s 1670 Anniversary Ink collection. The deep coal gray (anthracite) color with flecks of gold was inspired by J. Herbin sailing the stormy seas, encountering dark and wild oceans. The fine golden flecks in the ink are meant to invoke both strikes of lightening across the water, and also its dark and mysterious depths.
Why would anyone want to write with grey ink when there’s plenty of blue and black ink to go around? We’d like to share 12 reasons why we love to write with grey fountain pen ink:
If you’d rather write with a fountain pen, but want your writing to look like it was done with a pencil, which gray fountain pen ink should you choose? Pencil lead varies in width and softness/hardness making your writing appear darker or lighter in color. Also the kind of paper you’re writing on and how hard you press down on the pencil can influence the appearance of the line that is produced. Fountain pen ink is similar – the results vary depending on the width of the fountain pen nib and the paper you are writing on.
Pilot Iroshizuku Scotch Mist InkNoodler’s Ink Lexington Gray
Three other gray inks that are cool shades of gray are: J. Herbin Gris Nuage, OMAS Gray Fountain Pen Ink and Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun Old Man Winter/Rigor of Winter. When placed right next to writing done in pencil these inks have more of a “silvery” appearance (they are not actually metallic) because graphite pencil lead produces a warmer color of writing. On their own, away from any actual pencil, these inks still do have a pencil-y appearance.
J. Herbin Gris Nuage Fountain Pen InkOmas Grey Fountain Pen InkPilot Iroshizuku Rigor of Winter Ink
We’ve scanned some samples of writing done on Clairefontaine French ruled paper in both pencil and ink for you to compare. What do you think? Are there any of your favorite inks you’d like to add to this list?
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