Diluting ink (蒼苔 from 古梅園)

In calligraphy, ink can be diluted to achieve a light colour as well as a different effect.

For example, I tried diluting 蒼苔, which is a "blue" ink (青墨) from 古梅園. Although 青墨 (blue ink) usually refers to ink made using soot from burning pine wood, in this case, this ink was made using soot from burning oil, and added with indigo to give it a more pronounced blue colour. (Related post: About calligraphy inks, liquid and solid)

First, I made "normal" ink using 2ml of water. Then, I diluted it with different amounts of water. The photo below shows the results. The "normal" ink is at the top left, followed by more and more diluted versions going down the left, then continuing on the right.

Left: Normal (made using 2ml of water) -> +5ml -> +10ml -> +30ml -> +40ml -> +50ml

Right: +60ml -> +70ml -> +80ml

If you zoom in, you can see that when the ink gets diluted, there is a "blurry" edge around the darker "core" line. This "core" is the part that is actually written by you, and the blurry edge comes from the ink soaking into the paper and spreading out. The blurry edge is most pronounced above when 20ml of water was added to the ink. When the ink gets too diluted, it does not have a very distinctive blurry edge anymore, because there is not enough animal glue to help carry and spread the ink.

I also tried writing the character for dragon, 龍, using the diluted ink (+80ml of water), to see how it looks. You can see the pronounced bluish tint.

Actually, I conducted this mini experiment because I am thinking of creating a piece with diluted ink for an upcoming exhibition. Let's see how it goes.