I painted some test sheets with different ink and couldn’t really see a difference in quality, I only saw a colour difference with different types of soot.
In the case of very cheap ink sticks, there are often coarse particles in them, they have a matt chalky appearance and do not smell as good as those that cost a little more money.
impractical that I don’t speak French 🤔
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If you can read classical Chinese, have a look on that :
It depends what you want to paint ! Landscapes, flowers or birds don’t need the same ink. The Qing Mo is good for some landscapes but not for all. #SumiEInk
Bonjour,
Three work well but there is a difference of colour. Wan nian hong is more “red”, like “vermilion” and the “zhusha” are more “dark orange red” as natural cinnabar. Chinese red was originally made from the powdered mineral cinnabar, but beginning in about the 8th century it was made more commonly by a chemical process combining mercury and sulfur, specificly for lake.
#DoubleLayerXuanPaper
For calligraphy, you need dark black and fluidity (not too sticky ink). The both inks Li Ting Gui and Royal ink are correct. I often use also japanese inkstick that are excellent but much more expansive. This is for oil soot ink. But if you want to copy ancient calligraphy masters on a « looking old » paper, I advice you to use a good pine soot ink, in order to get deeper dark instead of too glossy strokes, particularly if you practice xiaokai on a shuxuan paper, because when the ink does not penetrate the paper and dry on the surface, it becomes more brillant. #CalligraphyInkstick
I agree. These inksticks are very “basic”. It can work, of course, but it is not excellent. #Inkstick
we use the Chinese illustrated ones: 
This classic book is published in Chinese (4 volumes) and in English, French… translations. Which one do you use ?
I did several vidéos on how to select inkstiks on my Youtube channel. You may have a look on them :
You cannot use always the same style of calligraphy to sign or to write other things on your paintings. Sometime, you have to use xingshu, sometime xingkai, sometime caoshu. But if you want to have a good calligraphy, even to write few words, you need to study calligraphy and begin by the beginning. I don’t think that you may only “copy” a model of the calligraphy of your name and do a calligraphy that looks well if you have not an internal feeling and experience of calligraphy. Another advantage : if you study calligraphy, your painting will become better. Chinese calligraphy and painting have the same root : 書畫同源 ! #CaoShu #CursiveScript