I have certain tools I use that are similar or distinct from Sumi painting. One of the main differences is rather than using traditional ink sticks, I also use Bister. The recipe for this ink thinner thinner is as follows:
Take one glass jar ( dark and shaded )
Activated or Firepit Charcoal
Rice or white vinegar
Honey and / or Gum arabic
Iron Supplement
Coffee filters
Rather than boil, let charcoal ferment in vinegar and honey solution for one week to a month away from light. You could also store this in the freezer provided there is enough honey for this not to freeze. Once this period is over, cold filter vinegar from the charcoal paste. Set charcoal paste aside, and keep vinegar. Charcoal acts as drawing paste. The darkened vinegar can be used to thin our acrylic ink or made into coffee ink:
Two tablespoons Instant Coffee
Two tablespoons honey
One tablespoon bister vinegar
You can refrigerate this to become thicker, or use as a watercolor. This forms the basis for other inks, such as blood red watercolor ink, red brown watercolor ink, muted green watercolor ink, other multimedia inks.
The ritual other than this, is similar to Sumi painting. Although in this method you can also use Winsor And Newton watercolor brushes for the line art. Generally the Sumi brush is used for the background color such as when illustrated sky and ocean. Winsor And Newton is used for doing line art, when a Bimoji brush isn't suitable.
I found that rice paper is best for more realistic kinds of art, and watercolor paper ( non rice paper ) is best for when you want the illustration to be more abstract.