INK ::
Ink is very important in Chinese painting. There are various kinds of ink, but the best type for painting is soot ink made from carbon and mixed with glue. It is black and lustrous; even light tones rendered with it have a spirited appearance. The darkest ink is lacquer soot ink, of which the chief ingredient is lacquer; it is used to depict the prominent parts, the 'highlights', of a painting, but should be used only in moderate amounets.
Chinese ink is solidified and supplied in the form of small sticks, which are easy to store and handle. Liquid ink for writing and painting is prepared by grinding an ink stick in clear water on a stone slab called an inkstone.
The best ink sticks are fine grained and low in glue content. They have a slight bluish-purple tint and a fresh odour. Though old ink sticks are often of better quality, the glue tends to deterriorate with age, causing the surface of the stick to crack and tiny bits to flake off. To prevent or slow down this process of deterioration, ink sticks should be kept in a dark, dry palce.
You should only grind as much ink as you need at any one time. The ink stick should be held perpendicular to the inkstone with one hand; it should not be allowed to slant. A large ink stick can be capped with paper to avoid staining the fingers during grinding. (The old Chinese adage, 'an ink stick can be bround at both ends', is only a joke, not a technique to be useed in practice. Surplus ink left overnight is never very good, except when you want to create a particular effect . If the weather is not too hot, it may not make much difference, but when painting on fans, gold paper or sild, only fresh ink should be used.
The consistency of ink may be varied in order to give different shades of black. Concentrated, or gluey, ink (jiao mo) is made by grinding the ink stick on an inkstone with a few drops of water until the water becomes a thin paste. Thick ink (nong mo ) is slightly diluted gluey ink. Heavy ink (zhong mo)contains a greater volume of water than ink paste. Light ink (qing mo) is made by adding just one or two drops of ink paste to a cup of water; when brushed on paper, it is barely discernible.
Ink is also now avaiable from Japan in liquid form ,but is no substitute for freshly ground ink. Liquid writing ink is not suitable for painting.

The kind of ink