Ink Review: Colorverse Morning Star & Gravity Wave

Colorverse Morning Star & Gravity Wave have to be two of the most anticipated ink colors in all of the colors offered in the line-up. Morning Star #11 is from Series One: Spaceward ($36 for two bottles 65ml and 15ml both the same colors) and Gravity Wave #15 is from Series Two: Astrophysics ($36 for two bottles 65ml and 15ml both the same colors). For full details on the packaging and details about the whole series, please refer to my overview post.

I gave Laura the little 15ml bottle of Morning Star because I’m nice. I bought 20 bottles of ink and I gave away one bottle of 15ml of ink – I am so stingy! Anyway, once the glow of the new wears off I will probably be more generous but right now, I’m very much Gollum about the Colorverse inks. “My Precious!”

Morning Star and Gravity Wave are similar. But different. In the swatches, they look almost the same, but in the writing samples, they look totally different. Gravity Wave is much darker with more evidence of red sheen. Morning Star is much lighter, especially in a finer nib and the distinct reddish/magenta sheen is all but lost in a fine nib.

When I used a brush, its easy to see a bit more difference in the color tones and in the longer writing samples, the subtle differences become more evident. I used the same size nib for both writing samples. I got more sheen in the Gravity Wave sample though it is not as easy to see in a still photo. The shading and luminous quality of Morning Star is also more evident in person than in a photograph. Both are beautiful but in their own ways.

Both colors are very saturated so they may have hard-starting issues as a result. I left them sit in my Shark Pens for over a week to see if there were any hard starting issues. The only problem I had was when I did not properly cap one of the pens thereby allowing too much air into the pen and causing it to dry out. A quick dip into a glass of water had it up and running again in a matter of seconds and the color was full strength in less than a word or two. I’m finding as ink manufacturers continue to try to outdo each other with even more saturated and sheening colors, we may find that inks may become more hard-starting on occasion as the pigment-to-liquid ratio becomes more extreme.

When compared to other inks, Monteverde California Teal is a very close companion at a very competitive price. The small 30ml bottle is just $8 and while its a shade or two darker than Gravity Wave, it is a similar hue with quite a bit of sheen as well. Robert Oster Marine ($17 for 50ml bottle) is similar in color to Morning Star and I suspect there is probably one or two other colors in the copious range of blues and teals in the Oster line that might appeal as well with some degree of sheen and shading.

That said, these are two of my favorite Colorverse inks thus far. But its so hard to pick favorites. Maybe when I finish my reviews I’ll do a top five list of the Colorverse inks.

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TOOLS

• Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 16 with 6mm guide sheet
• Pens: Midori bullet pencil modified dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Acrylic nib pen (Approx. $15), Jinhao Shark Pens ($17 for dozen pens)
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Cards
• Brush: Blick Synthetic Round #0
• Ink:  Colorverse Morning Star #11 and Colorverse Gravity Wave #15 ($36 for two bottles 65ml and 15ml each with same color ink in both bottles)

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DISCLAIMER: These items were sent to me by Vanness Pens and Pen Chalet for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.