Ink

Why is ink so expensive? I've always thought it to be a bit of a mysterious medium. Unlike paint where you are aware of the pigment in it's make-up, ink just seems to have a magic colour intensity with no body at all. I guess that's what Royal Sovereign thought when they named their original ink markers 'Magic Markers'. It's difficult to tell how thin or diluted an ink might be when looking in a bottle. Shake it it looks very thin, but watch it run down the sides of the glass bottle neck and it looks dense. By the way, for fans of the sci-fi comic strip 'The Trigan Empire', the colouring was produced using inks rather than water colour, at the request of the management. They do have a certain look. Need to check reference but I think I found that on the Don Lawrence website.

I wanted to try some inks in a fountain pen, for drawing, that gave a good dense line and flowed well. There's nothing wrong with the fountain pen inks, such as Lamy, in fact they do exactly that, but not so well on layout paper. Sort of looking for the versatility of a fibre-tip combined with the quality of a drawing pen. I didn't like the Rotring Art pen, the nibs felt hard, but I do like fountain pens (but for drawing, find them hopeless for writing!)

I like to sketch on good quality layout paper and then ink on top, or on a fresh sheet placed on top. Fibre tip pens work well on layout but dip pens are a bit tricky. Their sharp points seem to catch and stick into the layout. The fountain pens, with the smoother bobble shaped tips work quite well. But for some reason,  the lines are thinner and drier on layout paper than on cartridge, even though layout has a smooth surface. Must be the capillary action or something. So I thought I'd try out a drawing ink developed for fountain pens compared to the normal ink.

There are two makes, Pelikan Fount India and one by Higgins. Both brands have top reputations for black ink. The Pelikan is really expensive, more than twice the price of the Higgins. This stuff, if you multiply the cost of a small bottle, would be £1,264.00 a gallon! So, on the normal basis that with art materials, quality costs more and is worth it in the long run, I bought some Pelikan. Testing it out I'm not so sure. It flows really well, and did give a slightly thicker line on the layout paper, so I may find it useful. I was a bit concerned looking into the bottle, that it has more of a very dark grey appearance. It is black, but it's not the really deep black of Indian ink. Also, since it's safe to use in a fountain pen, it's not waterproof, but that's the way it has to be (so can't complain).

The Pelikan Fount India works with dip pen, and it's pipette type dropper, built into the bottle cap, really aids with loading the nib. I noticed that the ink is very 'wet', I guess that's how it flows in the fountain pens, but with a dip pen, the lines were starting to bleed on the paper(s). As a comparison I rate 'Speedry Magic Colour Quasar Black', developed for airbrush and drawing pens. But it's a liquid acrylic, not an ink. Don't use in a fountain pen because it will dry and kill the pen! But now I'm curious again, I might just try filling the pen once, try it and then clean it out immediately.

If you're a pen nerd take a look at http://www.cultpens.com. Good to see ink on paper is still alive!

Last Thursday (13 Sept) went to the V&A's Print and Drawing study room (top floor). Well worth a visit, looked at four very large boxes of original book illustrations. You can't beat seeing the real artwork for figuring out 'how-on-earth' these pictures were produced. The originals by Anthony Meeuwissen and Mike Wilks were stunning, both were gouache with some subtle over shading and texturing. They have loads of Kate Greenaway originals in pen and watercolour, I was surprised how small they are. Loved the details in the scenes like the brooms, grain sacks and farmhouse brickwork.

Found out something else whilst on-route to the museum. I stopped off in Green & Stone (Chelsea) to look at pens, for drawing and inking in. They're very helpful and I now know that mapping (dip) pen nibs are graded by their flexibility, not their tip size. So the 303 is springy and will splay out quite a lot, so giving a wide range of line weights from thin to thick. For a more consistent line you need a rigid nib such as the 1068, which I bought. Somehow I expect I'll end up sticking to a fountain pen or using a fibre tip! However the 303 is a great nib – a classic.