Goulet Pen's November 2010 Ink Drop - Final

Finally, it is time to post the November Ink Drop Maze. This maze is three pages long. Each page was drawn using two different inks from the Ink Drop. All of the inks were brown of one sort or another.

The first page on the maze was done with Noodler's #41 Brown and Private Reserve Sepia. The latter ink was the bonus sample this month. The #41 brown is a rich dark brown which worked very well for the maze. When I think brown, this is the color I picture. The Private Reserve Sepia is very light and seems almost watery on the page. It will shade very well. Even with a fine nib the shading shows. For my mazes this ink is fairly useless though. I'm sure it will have its fans for different uses, but I'm not one of them. It is too variable to reproduce well.

Here is the first page:

The second page was drawn with Noodler's Walnut and Diamine Saddle Brown. The Walnut was my second favorite of this month's inks. It is a good deep brown that shows more shading than the #41 brown. It worked very well in my Pilot Fine nib. It dried faster than the #41 as well. The Saddle Brown was in the middle ground of these browns. A redder brown with more shading and therefore more variability than either of the two Noodler's inks. It is a good ink, I could use it.

Here is the second page:

The third page was drawn with J. Herbin Lie de Thĕ and Diamine Chocolate Brown. The Chocolate Brown is the best of these two and about even with the Saddle Brown above. The only draw back was the slightly longer drying time. I get sloppy with the longer dry time and I tend to smudge the linework if I'm not super careful. The Lie de Thĕ is not a favorite of mine. It is too light for me. It seems to fade when drawing at some angles. Again other people will differ, but that is the way I see it.

Here is the third page:

The bottom line for me is that either of the Noodler's offerings are great inks if you like brown. I would go with the Noodler's #41 Brown myself, although the Walnut is darn good. I'm running the Walnut out of a pen right now and I may have to try the #41 again to do a back to back comparison.

There you have it. If you need a hint on how to solve the maze, I gave it away in the previous Ink Drop post. Tomorrow I'll be taking a break to be back on Thursday with the next page of the first maze.

Jonathan