Ink Drawing and Painting sets come in an enormous variety of type and quality. Make sure you choose the right product for your needs - drawing pens for drawing, calligraphy pens for writing. Some sets have inferior brushes, but are worth buying for the box and ink - simply replace the brush with a better one. The same applies to other materials. Most materials can be purchased individually, so you can replace items which are used up, worn or lost.
1. Holbein Sumi Suzuri Painting Kit
This kit is a lot simpler than some sumi sets - perhaps even austere - no fancy carving, no red ink. But it has a lovely large grinding stone with a large well area which will allow you to do big washes, and the box folds up to make a brush-holder. Comes with three bamboo brushes, black ink stick and water bottle.
2. Sennelier Drawing Ink Set
These Sennelier drawing inks come in a wooden box with brass fittings - a real pleasure to use, a bit of old-fashioned luxury. Comes with a bamboo pen and brush - you'll probably want to get a good-quality dip-pen to complement the set.With gold, silver, red and green inks, this set suits greeting-card and decorative art rather than pure pen-and-ink drawing, though you could create some lovely baroque embellishments with the metallic ink....
