I am glad you mentioned that you find the whole ink swatching thing therapeutic - same here. I don’t even post pen content, yet spend an astounding amount of time fiddling with record keeping. 🖊️ 📔 ❤
I love using a water brush with my inks. I sketch something, usually a flower and then soften the lines and move the color with the water brush. It’s sooooo relaxing and fun!!
I use the Wearingeul Swatch Cards with that little plastic organizer and it’s just great!! I was drawn to it for the same reasons you mentioned. It has worked wonderfully!!!
I have a personal sized ring binder with 3 sections and Tomoe River Paper in 52 and 68 gsm. The first section is my pen collection sorted by brands (4 pens per page, double sided, with the current ink listed under the pen incl. the date I put it in), the second is my pen collections sorted by color of the current ink in the pen (just a list and I cross out the old combo), the third is all my bottled inks sorted by color (8 colors per page, single sided to avoid bleedthrough contamination;). This system is working really well for cataloging everything. In addition to that I have a Hobonichi Weeks where I use the weekly pages to document all my inky happenings, new pens, ink changes, refills… and on the right side I list the pens for the current week (I use just one color per week in my planners and put together a number of pens with matching inks;). In the monthlies I swatch the inks I put in a pen… just to have a colorful page at the end of it. ;) And in the notes section I have another list area for pens by brand where I just list and cross out… so quite messy, but nice to look back on. I love listing my pens, because that helps me re-discover the ones I might have forgotten over the past couple of weeks or months.
I just can't love that tomoe river paper... I try.. but it just feels so thin. Good Luck with your ink swatches. I think your new system looks great. And yes. Please show us what you do on the tomoe river paper.
I'll let you know - I started in the Hobonichi and it is ghosting pretty bad. Which is weird because the ink journal I showed that is a mess is also Tomoe River and it doesn't ghost at all. They did switch the paper a few years ago - maybe I have some old and new in the different notebooks. Rhodia is another paper I like if you haven't tried that.
I love your beautiful mess! It’s a journey and in the end it’s like phoenix rising from the ashes! 🎉💕🖋️
I am glad you mentioned that you find the whole ink swatching thing therapeutic - same here. I don’t even post pen content, yet spend an astounding amount of time fiddling with record keeping. 🖊️ 📔 ❤
I have been enjoying it more and more!
I love using a water brush with my inks. I sketch something, usually a flower and then soften the lines and move the color with the water brush. It’s sooooo relaxing and fun!!
Great idea! I always forget to paint with my inks - I love that and I love using waterbrushes! Thank you!
I use the Wearingeul Swatch Cards with that little plastic organizer and it’s just great!! I was drawn to it for the same reasons you mentioned. It has worked wonderfully!!!
Yay! I'm glad it's great for you - I'm thinking it will work out for us too.
I have a personal sized ring binder with 3 sections and Tomoe River Paper in 52 and 68 gsm. The first section is my pen collection sorted by brands (4 pens per page, double sided, with the current ink listed under the pen incl. the date I put it in), the second is my pen collections sorted by color of the current ink in the pen (just a list and I cross out the old combo), the third is all my bottled inks sorted by color (8 colors per page, single sided to avoid bleedthrough contamination;). This system is working really well for cataloging everything. In addition to that I have a Hobonichi Weeks where I use the weekly pages to document all my inky happenings, new pens, ink changes, refills… and on the right side I list the pens for the current week (I use just one color per week in my planners and put together a number of pens with matching inks;). In the monthlies I swatch the inks I put in a pen… just to have a colorful page at the end of it. ;) And in the notes section I have another list area for pens by brand where I just list and cross out… so quite messy, but nice to look back on. I love listing my pens, because that helps me re-discover the ones I might have forgotten over the past couple of weeks or months.
Sounds like a great system! I love the colorful pages from the ink swatching!
I just can't love that tomoe river paper... I try.. but it just feels so thin. Good Luck with your ink swatches. I think your new system looks great. And yes. Please show us what you do on the tomoe river paper.
I'll let you know - I started in the Hobonichi and it is ghosting pretty bad. Which is weird because the ink journal I showed that is a mess is also Tomoe River and it doesn't ghost at all. They did switch the paper a few years ago - maybe I have some old and new in the different notebooks. Rhodia is another paper I like if you haven't tried that.