3 Oysters - Hwangto

3 Oysters Hwangto - Ink Drop

3 Oysters Hwangto is a beautiful, high-shading orange from the I.Color.U series. The name Hwangto comes from an ancient Korean cultural tradition. Meaning “yellow soil”, the special soil it refers to is actually found in several colors. Believed to have purification and medicinal properties, hwangto is sprinkled around locations prior to the start of traditional rituals to cleanse the site and protect against evil spirits. It’s also used for its medicinal properties as both an ingredient and a dye.

3 Oysters Hwangto - light to dark shading

Look at the incredible colors of the ink splash! In the wettest areas, a brilliant tomato red emerges with a dark spider’s web veining. These areas are covered by an ashy platinum sheen. 3 Oysters Hwangto is a wonderful shading ink. At its heart, it’s an orange. Depending on the nib and paper, it shows off colors ranging from a light orange juice yellow, to a kumquat orange, to the deeper red orange of mandarins. As you can see in the writing below the ink splash, written strokes can even appear an almost brownish red. It’s that rusty brownish red that I would label the most common color of actual hwangto soil. Strokes are clean, crisp, and easy-to-read.

I love a nice orange, especially when it shades into a good range of lights and darks, but in this case, it comes at a price. In drier, finer nibs, you won’t have a problem, but this ink does not play well with really wet nibs. In extreme examples, it simply doesn’t dry. The lighter parts of words will dry almost immediately, but other areas will remain wet for a long, long, long time. It's a very attractive ink, but that's a bit of a problem.

Mixed drying times

If you plan on using Hwangto in drier, finer nibs, then I think you’ll enjoy it immensely. If not, you may want to look elsewhere. I haven’t had this problem with other 3 Oyster inks, but here it may be something to consider.