Review: Winsor & Newton Black India Ink

Winsor & Newton produces two black inks: Black Indian Ink and Liquid Indian Ink.

The Black Indian Ink is part of the Winsor & Newton Drawing Inks series which features a total 26 colours. The Liquid Indian Ink is the water based solution of traditional Chinese stick ink, in short very much like sumi ink.

Let's just focus on the Black Indian Ink.

The ink comes in a small 14ml square base glass bottle. They can be applied with a brush, dip pen or airbrush.

It's difficult to find information on whether this ink is pigmented, but I suppose so. Note that the other coloured inks are dye-based and hence not lightfast. Winsor & Newton does state that this black ink is permanent to light.

Here are some tests

The ink flow is good and it dries extremely fast to a rather even wash.

The major downside to the ink is it does feather a tiny bit at the edges.

When dry, it's waterproof and resistant to erasing.

Conclusion

The ink flow is nice, it's dark, dries fast but unfortunately it feathers a bit on the edges so use it with caution.

The bottle is only 14ml which is half the size when compared to most other ink bottles.

When buying, be careful not to mix up with the Liquid Indian Ink because the packaging and design of the bottle look rather similar.

Also check out other black inks I've reviewed

Availability

Find more reviews at Dick Blick Art Materials (US) | Jackson's Art (UK)