If you know a little bit of Chinese characters, you’ll know that the Chinese character ink “墨” is a combination of black “黑” and dirt “土”, which indicates that ink is made of black dirt. Actually the most common ink is made of the soot of pine tree, tung oil, or urushoil.
What’s the difference between pine soot ink and oil soot ink?
Pine soot ink is black and full, which is suitable for practicing calligraphy. Oil soot ink is mild and with rich color levels, which is suitable for painting.
What ink do calligraphy and painting artists use?
The authentic way is to use ink stick, which required to be ground with a ink stone. In this way the rich color levels of ink will be expressed perfectly on the paper. But nowadays we mostly use liquid ink instead. What’s the difference between ink stick and liquid ink? In the first section of producing, high quality liquid ink follows the same procedures as the ink stick . But then some chemicals will added into liquid ink, to keep it as liquid and won’t be perishable. However, the chemicals will destroy the glue, so it’s difficult to show different color levels of the ink if you write with liquid ink. In addition, the chemicals are acidic, which will reduce the toughness of paper, therefore it’s not good for the preservation of paper.
What ink is suitable for beginners?
I don’t suggest beginners to use very expensive ink. In China many artists use two brands of liquid ink “红星Hóngxīng” or “一得阁Yìdégé” for practicing , which may cost 3 to 20 dollars per bottle. Good liquid ink will be with natural pine tree or oil fragrance, while a low quality ink will be smelly. Good quality ink sticks are mostly for creating artworks.
Redstar Liquid Ink for Chinese Traditional Calligraphy and Brush Painting (Black&1pcs180ML)
