Van Dieman’s - Tiger Snake

Van Dieman’s - Tiger Snake - Ink drop

Tiger Snake is from Van Dieman’s Inks. This is one of the four summer inks in their season 5, Tassie Seasons collection. The name comes from the Tasmanian Tiger Snake, with its golden-yellow stripes that keep it hidden amongst summer foliage.

Van Dieman’s - Tiger Snake - Color Range

Visually, this is a really interesting ink. The longer I look, the more I see, and the more I like! Van Dieman’s describes it as “a golden rich brown bordering on yellow.” To me, there are strong yellows and browns, but it’s the struggle between greens and browns that captures your attention, and I definitely consider this as much a green, as a yellow. In writing, they compete to define the visual character of the ink. Tiger Snake is a nice shader, especially on coated papers. In written strokes, words, and passages, there is a constant shift from light to dark, blending from lemon grass green to caramel brown. I really like the multi-chroma nature of this ink.

Van Dieman's - Tiger Snake - Ink Swatch Card

This is a solid writing ink, as well. It’s neither too wet, nor too dry. On all papers tested, strokes were clean and crisp. It’s a versatile, well-behaved ink. Shading was stronger on coated papers, but showed nicely on uncoated premiums and office copy, too. Despite the dark edging seen in the splatter, there was no sheen in writing, and very little stroke halo. Drying was quick across premiums at 10-15 seconds, and 5 seconds on office copy. I liked Tiger Snake on all papers tested.

I knew Van Dieman’s Tiger Snake was going to be a good-looking ink, but I didn’t expect to be so impressed with its performance as a reading and writing ink. With so much shading and color-shifting, it’s a great creative ink, too!