Author: KeeJoon

Review Title: An ‘essential’ dark sepia ink

My long quest for a perfect dark sepia ink may be over. I had found a great dark sepia with the Maruzen Athena Sepia ink but you must order it from Japan and it is getting increasingly expensive to do so. After trying many different sepia inks (e.g. Iroshizuku, Diamine, Sailor, Noodlers, Robert Oster, Lamy, Pelikan, Montegrappa, etc), I have concluded this Herbin Terre d’Ombre comes as close to ideal as I have found. It is a dark sepia with wonderful shading so that it cannot be confused with an almost black ink. Like the other Herbin inks in this collection, it writes very smoothly and does not feather in good paper. Another great sepia ink is the Herbin Caroube de Chypre, which has a slightly more red hue. But the Caroube is a shimmering ink with gold glitter that can clog up fine nibs and not really meant for everyday use. So, the Terre d’Ombre is my choice for everyday use.