Speedball 4 - Color Pigmented Acrylic Ink & Pen Cleaner Palette Set

I bought this ink pack as my first round with ink. I had no problems with the packaging or shipment time, but the ink itself... almost isn’t really ink. It works fine and you can get some good work out of it, (I’m leaving a picture of something I’ve made with it) but if you set it down and go back to it the next day... all of the “ink” is at the bottom of the bowl. And I know it says “Acrylic” in the name, but it still is just a watered down product that’s not recommended to any professional.Regardless of all this, the ink works fine if you’re on a low budget or new to dip pens.

Good inks.I opened the tiny bottles just to check them out, I closed the lid in all of them and left them in a storage for 18 months, all of them evaporated, Gold and Silver remained runny though, I diluted them (black and white) with botteled water and worked fine, you have to find out the right amount of water so they don't get too runny though.I used a brown folder for a test, black is shiny, white is mate, gold and silver look awesome, I used a dip pen (Joseph Gillott 404).I give it 4 stars because it evaporated, probably was the weather because it gets like 40°C and there was no AC in the storage where I had my inks. :D

I recently decided to pick up calligraphy, so that I can start making my own birthday/holiday cards. I googled a few options and ended up picking this Speedball Calligraphy Ink Palette set for ink, paper (it definitely doesn't bleed as much as regular 'printing paper'), Nikko Manga Pen Nib N-Gpen, and the Tachikawa Comic Pen Nib Holder. These were recommended for beginners on a few sites, so that's why I went for those. I think they all work great. I can tell the nib is for beginners, it is a bit stiffer than I imagined (the split part). I'm sure there are other, more delicate options, but feel that it is good for my level (afraid of breaking the little metal nib). The ink is what I expected it to be, inky. Doesn't leak with the paper I got to accompany calligraphy practice.

These were purchased as a gift for a young artist who has worked in oils, watercolors, and colored pencils, but not yet in pen and ink (she also received pens and nibs, obviously).Speedball's quality is excellent, and as an introduction to a new medium these five colored inks will open her to yet another form of expression... If she gets the time before summer to use them! I failed to consider just what her being a full time student would have on her artistic endeavors.Still, she's looking forward to starting with them, and I to her results, knowing the sort of beautiful calligraphic art that Speedball artists are capable of producing.

These inks work well. As with others, I have had a little bit of an issue with them gunking up nibs, but it's as easy to deal with as just dipping the nip in the cleaner and wiping it off. These little jars are super tiny, which is great if they're colors you won't use as often (like silver or gold). I do wish, however, that there were more cleaner fluid. I'm going to have to start making my own soon.Also, the gold is a little orange and you sometimes have to shake or stir the metal flakes so they'll go back into the suspension.

Overall a pretty good kit of ink for the price, the metallic inks (which is what I bought it for) settle pretty quickly in my opinion and need to be shaken in order to re-distribute correctly (not mix with your nib). The cleaning fluid is a nice addition as well but I would've appreciated more of it.

The black and silver seem too thin, but the gold is just right. The nibs are somewhat inconsistent in terms of how well they write. Some are more prone to blotting and skipping, but at least half of them work. Overall, decent for the price. Worth it for the gold ink, nibs and holder anyway.

The ink is lovely, but arrived very messy. Two of them were leaking and had drained into the packaging, so I lost most of the gold before I even got to use it. Once I cleaned it off, I noticed there was also a lot of solid pigment around one side of the jar. I don't know if this is because so much of the liquid leaked out, or because they simply need stirred after sitting for a while.

What you see is what you get, four small vials of coloured ink and a small vial of nib cleaner, which you must use if you want ink to flow through your various nibs. This would be a great sampler if you wanted to try calligraphy or pen and ink drawing.