Ink

We use ink all the time but rarely stop to think about where it comes from and how it’s made. Ink is what many people use to write or draw with. Printing, whether through manual processes or using modern technology such as ink-jet printers, is carried out using ink. Painting with ink has a long history, but we often think of paint as something different than ink. In East Asia especially, no line is traditionally drawn between ink and paint, as both painting and writing were carried out using a brush. The same type of ink used by schoolchildren is used by master calligraphers and the most highly skilled painters, although of different qualities. If we define ink as a substance that comes from a pen or printer, it can come in any color, and its defining feature is that it dissolves into a liquid. But historically, there are a few inks that were commonly used.

Making and Using Ink

One of the most common writing inks is iron gall ink, which was used for centuries in the Middle East and Europe and can be easily made from an iron salt and oak galls. When written with iron gall, ink is often a dark color, but it fades to the brown tones of rust (chemically, it forms the same compounds as rust). Several manuscripts in the museum’s collections were written with iron gall ink.

The most common inks in Asia are a carbon-based black ink. In Central and South Asia, this type of ink would frequently be bound with a plant gum; in East Asia, it would be bound with a protein-based animal skin glue. Both inks are soluble in water, making them easy to use. Unlike iron gall ink, carbon-based inks are still very common today. Inks used in laser printers and photocopiers, the colorant used in most black plastics, and even the pigment used in car tires are all made from carbon-based black pigments. In recent times, these carbon-based black pigments are specially made soots called carbon black, but historically they were made from burning vegetable or lamp oils and collecting the soot (lampblack). In East Asia, they were made by burning resinous pinewood and collecting the soot that was produced in special chimneys.

Black carbon-based ink is a highly versatile pigment with a small, regular particle size. This means it can be mixed and graded with a high degree of precision and can be used to create specific effects. Adding colors can provide further layers of symbolic meaning and decorative effect.

Throughout East Asia, ink was historically manufactured and traded in solid form, either as a stick or cake. It is made of pine soot or lampblack that is mixed with glue and pressed in molds to create a variety of shapes and sizes. To produce liquid ink, the artist grinds an inkstick with water on the hard surface of an inkstone. The resulting liquid ink varies in blackness according to the amount of water added. Inksticks are often decorated with molded designs or texts and are painted with gold or other colors. Artists use an inkstone both as a surface for grinding the solid ink into liquid form and as a reservoir to hold the liquid ink once it is made. The surface of an inkstone should be fine and smooth, yet abrasive enough for grinding the ink quickly.

Writing with Ink

While today it may feel unremarkable to pick up a ballpoint pen and jot down notes, writing with ink is historically far more complex. Materials were made with precision, long traditions of training in calligraphic techniques were developed, and writing and literacy were often wrapped up in questions of social status and class.

Although the development of major Chinese calligraphic scripts was virtually complete by the fourth century, the art of calligraphy continued to evolve over the millennia. Master calligraphers with years of training and dedicated practice were recognized for their personal styles, and later generations of artists often adapted brushstrokes and designs to their own style. This stylistic evolution of scripts continues to enliven Chinese calligraphy to the present day.

Calligraphy was an important mark of personal learning and aesthetic sensibility in Japan. Portable, lacquered wood boxes were designed to hold an inkstone and water dropper in the base, with trays to hold writing brushes and solid ink sticks. Inkstone boxes (suzuribako) could be easily carried to a pleasant location, even outdoors in fine weather, to write correspondence, diary entries, or poetry.

Painting and Drawing with Ink

Different schools of painting existed in China, the scholar-painters of Song-dynasty China generally preferred ink-based paintings over the more colorful, pigment-filled paintings produced historically and at the painting academy. Chinese painting manuals and commentaries from the Song and Yuan dynasties rarely mention pigments, possibly because it was assumed a painter’s skill shouldn’t depend on the use of colors.

Japanese artists are known for using media appropriate for the subject matter. Images depicting traditional Japanese narrative tales were typically rendered in opaque colors with outlines created in ink and later obscured by color overlay. Ink monochrome was closely associated with Chinese styles, particularly those transported to Japan via Zen Buddhism. Ink-based forms created with modulated strokes and layered washes suggested introspection and spiritual exploration.

Watch how the different elements of an ink painting combine to create a whole image:

The expressive potential of ink painting was channeled by artists who developed their own techniques for painting with ink.

Learn about several different ink painting techniques: