Ink Talk

Quick ink tip if you didn't know: If you are using a brush pen or fountain pen (anything that has an auto-feed system), you want to avoid pigmented inks such as classic India ink or sumi. They will gunk up your works. Instead, go for a dye-based ink specifically for fountain pens. Or use one of the pen-friendly pigmented inks such as Sailor Kiwaguro.

My array of inks right now is still basically the same as it was a year ago. I have Sailor Kiwaguro black, Thea Sketch Ink, and Noodler's Black ink. All of these are very good with brush pens, which is why I have them. They are also good for fountain pens.

But none of them are perfect. Here's my complaints about each of them.

I'll start with the lightest complaint. The Thea is just too dark. I was hoping for a very light gray ink that I could use over blacks and build up some tone. But this goes on just a bit too dark from start. Not a problem with the ink, in this case, I just chose one that wasn't exactly what I wanted.

Now, another thing with the Thea is that I started to notice more and more how blue it was. Then my brush pen went dry and I was refilling and I noticed the bottom of the jar had build up. I shook the jar, refilled, and suddenly the ink was very gray again. So there's some settling of the ink that causes it to separate into a more blue tint. I have very little experience with non-black inks, so maybe this is normal. I don't know.

Regarding darkness, I realize most folks buy these inks for writing and they want something dark enough to actually show up and be legible. But I want to draw with them. So I'll fish around for a lighter gray, I suppose. The other option is diluting some of this with water to thin it, but that isn't the greatest solution since it makes the ink a little too watery and thin.

Sailor Kiwaguro is probably my favorite ink right now. But my complaint with it is that is is inconsistently black. I noticed it more when I used it in a fountain pen. Whereas the Noodler's flows wet and dark black from the pen, the Sailor ink is spotty and gray at times. But it works wonderfully well in a brush pen.

Also, Sailor dries quickly and seems to do well with other media going on top of it.

Now... Noodler's is a real heartbreaker. It goes on very black and wet, which is quite fantastic for the fountain pen. It's a hell of a good sketching ink. Perfect flow.

But the stuff takes forever to dry. Even after 24 hours it can still smudge. And... worst of all... if you try to erase pencils under the ink, you will lift ink off the paper. A lot of it. See pic for example.

This ink does seem to be absolutely perfect for sketching and writing. It's very black. But I never use the stuff if I'm going to be erasing or using some other media on top of it, such as markers.

Noodlers. Left is no erase, right is erase after 24 hrs. No good!

I also have Dr. PH Martin's Black Star, which is waterproof India ink. It's pretty good stuff, possibly better than classic Speedball. But I tend to shy away from normal pigmented ink (like India) because it's not as friendly with brush pens and fountain pens. The Sailor ink I use is also pigmented, but I guess the particles are much tinier and so it doesn't clog up the works.

Ink... another fascinating topic worthy of a deep dive.

Sexy bottle.

Ink Talk

I have been on a brush pen kick for months. My first experience with brush pens was back in 2000 or 2001 with the Pitt brush pen, which is not a "real" brush pen but a felt pen with a brush-shaped tip. The Pit is great, and you should try it out, but that tip wears out REAL quick*.

Sometime in the late 2000s I picked up two excellent brush pens and didn't fully appreciate them at the time because I was on the cusp of switching almost entirely to drawing digitally. I got a Sailor Profit and a Pentel Pocket.

Zip ahead to recent times and I have re-connected with traditional art in a big, big way. I've dusted off these old tools, picked up new ones, and have been experimenting and learning and growing as much as I can.

So anyway, this post is about ink. Because these types of tools are really, really picky and will gum up if you use the wrong stuff in them.

Sailor Kiwaguro ink bottle is sexy.

YouTube has been a great resource for learning and from various videos I picked up the suggestion that the ink you get with the Sailor (my personal favorite brush pen) is perhaps not the ideal ink. One I kept hearing about was Sailor Kiwaguro. So I picked up a pack of Kiwaguro disposable cartridges to try out and fell in love instantly. Now I got myself a bottle of the stuff and I plan to switch to an ink converter as soon as I burn through the rest of these dozen cartridges.

Of course there's a trick if you don't want to use a converter. You can use a blunt syringe to just squirt more ink into an empty disposable cartridge and reuse those bastards over and over and over again. But beware! Make sure you stick that syringe tip all the way past the opening and just give it a gentle, tiny push or else you'll have an ink explosion. Yeah, it happened to me.

Kiwaguro is a pigmented black ink that is pretty waterproof and dries fast. I like it.

Black as night, black as pitch...

Then there's this Noodler's black water-based ink I got thanks to many recommendations. This shit is VERY black. Whereas Kiwaguro (and most inks) have a bit of a dull finish, Noodler's finish is kind of dense and matte... almost velvety. It has a texture. You can feel the ink on the paper. But there's a problem: erasing.

If you're like me, you sketch in pencil, ink right on the pencils, then erase. When you erase over most ink, it might lift some of the pigment and dull the black just a little. Mostly not noticeable. But Noodler's loses quite a bit of opacity to the eraser (see pic). So while I do love the thick, black feel, I am not happy about the eraser situation. I will probably not use Noodler's on important drawings, though it is great for doodling.

Before erasing and after erasing, Noodler's black ink takes a beating.

*There's a super secret though. If you pull the tip out of the Pit brush pen you will discover that it can be flipped around and you've got a BRAND NEW TIP. Very cool. I had no idea back when I was burning through these things in the 2000s. 

Ahmry

This one is from around 2008. It's ink on bristol, I believe. And it's one of my favorites from that time period. I have a color version as well, but I wanted to just post the bw drawing here. What I like about it is the simple composition and the mix of shading styles. Not too busy, it feels like it has the right amount of detail. I can look back at this and smile.

GM Shirt...

In the works for XII...