As I venture into more non-standard ink colors, I'm discovering that I really have an affinity for red and green inks in particular. They've become the main focus of my obsession lately, and I don't see any signs of it losing steam. One of the first inks I tried in this vein was J. Herbin Vert Réséda.
Vert Réséda is a light-medium green ink that makes me think of spring bloom. It's a happy, beautiful color and always puts me in a better mood when I start writing with it. It seems silly, but it's actually a real "property" of the ink in my book.
I don't have any pure greens to compare this ink to, but this one is a well-behaved easy-going ink that has worked perfectly in every pen I've tried – even the ones that tend to write on the dry side.
It's a well-lubricated ink that never stutters or skips, and it does a great job of not bleeding through the page. Even the ink swap I did in the writing sample is hard to see from the other side of the page. I haven't seen another ink do that. Most of them bleed through a bit.
There are some things it lacks, however, and I call those things "flair." Saturation, sheen, and shading are light or non-existent in this ink. I don't know enough about this color range to tell you if that's normal, but for this particular ink, it's very lightly-saturated, has no sheen, and has very light shading properties. The shading is hardly there at all in a regular nib, but it comes out more in the 1.5 mm nib I used. Personally, I would love more shading in this beautiful color. I think it would give it more character. I'd love to find a similar ink with more shading properties.
Overall, I've been very pleased by this ink. When I ordered it, I didn't think I would use it very often, but I've actually used it quite a bit for general writing and notes. It's an everyday ink for me. It's not eclectic enough to take a backseat for special occasions.
I'm happy with my initial dive into the green inks, and I'm pretty sure I'll be trying more. I think I'll set my sights on some of the Diamine offerings next.
(You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution, Twitter, and App.net.)
