Robert Oster School Blue

This is the first of LOTS of RO inks that I have to show you. This is a brand that's very new (like, April?), and it came out in a big way. There are something like 40 of them in the collection, and I have samples of most of them. There are so many that I have no idea how this one guy (and I think it's a one-man operation) keeps up with all of them.

This is a blue that I loved almost instantly. It's got the perfect flow and the color is outstanding. It's a rich, blue that doesn't lean purple. There's some shading, but not too much. There's some sheen, but not too much.

On the other hand, it's not the most well-behaved ink out there. There's a little bit of feathering and a little bit of bleeding on copy paper with this ink in this nib. They probably wouldn't be a problem, but they would be even less of a problem if you used a drier or finer nib. It's slight enough (and the color is nice enough) that I'm willing to overlook it. You can see how it acts, below.

You might notice, if you scroll down far enough, that this post is presented in a slightly different order than they usually are. I've got a ton of color comparisons in this post, so I decided to put them all at the end of the post.

Thanks goes out to Anderson Pens for providing the sample for review!

Written Review!

Close-Ups!

You can see a little bit of the sheen in the picture above. There's not a ton of sheen, but it's a nice addition when it shows up on the page. It never seems to overtake the base color, though.

Copy Paper Test!

See? A little bit of bleed and a little bit of feathering. It's not too bad, though. With a slightly sturdier paper you could totally use both sides of the page if you want to.

Pen Habit Currently Inked Journal!

I had this ink in an FC Model 20 for a while, but I ran it dry pretty quickly and I kept track of some little squiggles as I ran through it. The final squiggle is from the dregs of that converter-full, and it's a good bit darker. I don't know why, but I suspect it was just a little dried out or condensed by that time.

I'm really into this shading.

Ink Journal Tomoe River!
I actually took this just after I wrote the sample. It's still a little bit wet, but it looked cool, so I snapped the picture. There's more sheen on Tomoe River, but even this paper doesn't let the sheen overwhelm the blue.