As mentioned in the previous post, Wearingeul are a new brand to me. I don’t know much about them apart from the fact that they are based in South Korea and are currently promoting a very nicely packaged range of 26 colours featuring standard, sheening, shimmer and duotone fountain pen inks.
I have been kindly sent two shimmer inks – A Watery Star and Stars in Autumn, one standard ink – Human Issue , one sheening ink – A Taxidermied Genuis and a duotone – Lost, to investigate.
Each bottle of ink comes attractively box packaged with a little swatch card, which is a nice touch for the creatives amongst you (see below), and just offers a sneak peak of the ink’s potential. But, if you want to see what these inks can really do, take a look at my swatch cards below them. These were swatch tested on a Bockingford rough watercolour paper.
I think the cards speak for themselves. The shimmers work well with some nice chromo from Stars in Autumn and Lost has a great colour reaction with bleach. The five colours all work well for handwriting.
The splats were created on Tomoe River paper which, surprisingly, dulls the colours a little. The abstract calligraphic alphabets were created on Seawhite cartridge paper which helps the colours to pop.
As mentioned, these are just five of the range and from other posts that I’ve seen, these may not be the best of the entire range. But as an entry collection, the inks I’ve tested appear to work well. I also like the names for each ink with inspiration taken from revered Korean writers and poets.
As a graphic designer, I can appreciate the attention to detail in both the packaging and the careful choice of ink type and colour. It all adds to attracting attention and creating a positive perception. I’ll be interested to see what Wearingeul do next.
The portrait of Benedict Cumberbatch was created with ‘A Taxidermied Genius’ on Seawhite cartridge paper – good tonal range and even that green sheen adds a little magic.
If you want to see my review of Wearingeul Jekyll to Hyde click here.
Many thanks to Wearingeul for sending. I know that they are in discussion with a couple of potential suppliers in the UK and assume that this will true for other territories too. In the meantime you can source Wearingeul ink on Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/wearingeul and from their website: https://www.abledesignent.kr/
And HEY! If you’re interested to know more about how to use fountain pen inks in more creative ways – whether it’s simply to observe their chromatic behaviours, or, to recreate one of my swatch cards, or, to learn how to use them in watercolour painting, illustration and calligraphy, why not check out my online course?
FOUNTAIN PEN INK ART 