So I was sick, which made sketching impossible for a few days. I’m still sick but I’m slightly better, so I sat down and powered through the rest of the missing sketches.
As I mentioned last time 61-68 were draw from life, the rest from earthsworld. This site is so much better for reference photos than the flickr gallery I used in previous years that it affected both my speed and my sketching quality. Also, I had a lot more fun sketching these portraits this year. The Leonardo Momento Zero Bohemian Twilight fine nibbed fountain pen was the perfect sketching companion, and Diamine fireside snug performed well on the Stillman and Birn Alpha paper. The larger landscape format also helped make these a joy. Here are the previous days’ sketches: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, day 7.
This sketching challenge is always great to do, as it really pushes me outside my comfort zone. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend giving it a try.
I really didn’t feel like sketching today, as I discovered that my cat has a large lump on his hind leg so I need to take him to the vet tomorrow. I’m worried about him and so considered skipping today entirely, but ended up sketching some people to distract myself. Same setup as yesterday – Leonardo Momento Zero fountain pen, Diamine Fireside Snug ink, Stillman and Birn Alpha.
The result is sketches 12 to 40 (yes, I got that many done in a single sitting). The fact that I have much better reference photos made such a huge difference, as I didn’t have to waste time digging through urban landscape photos in search for half decent portraits. Also, the Earthworld photographs feature People with a capital P – frumpy, old, ugly, real and incredibly beautiful to sketch. The great Leonardo Momento Zero Bohemia Twilight fountain pen with its fine nib and Diamine Fireside Snug also added to the fun – I love this pen and ink combo so much I’m likely going to use it for the rest of the 60 sketches.
Number 12 was added to this pageI love 14, 17, 18, 20 and 21I picked up speed with these as I warmed upNumber 36 and 37 really came out well, I think
So, now which one is your favourite? I have too many to choose from.
This time I decided to combine testing out a new (to me) India ink, a new (vintage) nib and watercolours. The ink is US made Higgins Black Magic. The bottle shape is unique, and it’s a plastic bottle, not a glass one like my British made inks. While the very wide base of this bottle does cut down the possibility of you accidentally tipping it over, I don’t like the bottle design. The bottle opening is too narrow and tall, and it’s very easy to get ink on your nib holder and hands this way. The ink itself is less shiny and flows wetter than other India inks that I’ve tried, but that’s not a bad thing.
The nibs are Waverley Pen nibs, made in Birmingham (a British steel producing city), and made by Macniven and Camron Ltd.
The tin itself is a delight, with the Waverley Pen advertising doggerel on it (the Pickwick, Own and Waverley were all nibs made by the Macniven & Cameron company). I bought it for a few pounds at Spitalfields market, London, and would have bought the tin even if it was empty:
It’s not empty, but rather filled with dozens of Waverley nibs in excellent condition. I took one out, tested its flexing properties (medium flex), and then primed it as described here. To test a nib for its flexing properties you gently push the tines against your thumbnail (don’t ever do this with fountain pen nibs!).
Here’s the nib. It has a bit of kink to it that helps it hold more ink than it otherwise could hold:
I took one dip and tested out how much ink it holds. It’s quite a lot:
I decided to use it on a Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook. The paper isn’t ideal for dip pens (it’s not smooth and the properties that make it watercolour friendly mean that the ink will spread and feather no matter what), but I wanted to use it with watercolours. As in this case the line sketch wasn’t crucial to me (i.e. it didn’t need to be particularly accurate), I decided to accept some level of feathering and spread for a decent watercolour wash.
Here’s the ink sketch:
A closeup on the onion sketch shows how much line variation you can get from this kind of nib, just how expressive these nibs are, and some of the feathering and spread that I talked about earlier:
Watercolour brings these sketches to life, and makes the ink compromises worth it:
A closeup on the sketches:
The second page:
The group thumbnail:
There are a few things that you need to remember when combining dip pens and watercolours:
You must let the ink completely dry or you’ll have a ruined drawing, and potentially a ruined brush (if this happens immediately wash your brush well, as India ink will destroy it if left to dry).
The more cotton content in your paper the better the watercolour washes will be, and the worse the India ink will behave. I wouldn’t go over 25% cotton content.
The rougher the paper the better the watercolour washes will be, and the worse the ink sketches will be.
Hot pressed watercolour paper will give you washes with more sharp edges and hard transitions, but will be best for the India ink in terms of smoothness.
Mapping nibs provide less dramatic lines, but they also lay down less ink and so the ink will dry faster and spread less. On the other hand they will snag more easily on rougher watercolour paper.
Have you tried combining the two mediums? If so, let me know how it went.
It’s been a while since I used my dip pens, and since I had a project in mind for them, I thought I’d document parts of it here.
I was looking to draw a map, part of a series of maps for a D&D game. Since I was trying to get a certain look to these maps, I pulled out a mapping nib and a mapping nib holder, and some Sennelier Sepia ink.
The ink is shellac based and meant to be used in dip pens only. If you use it in a fountain pen it will destroy it upon first use. You only need to see how sticky these inks are once to understand that, but most of them helpfully provide warnings on the bottle.
The nib is a Leonardt 801 mapping nib, made in England by the British company Manuscript and purchased, together with the mapping nib holder at Cornelissen & Son in London. They have the largest and best variety of dip nib supplies that I’ve ever seen, and are used by many illustrators and cartoonists. The beauty of dip nibs, however, is that they’re pretty easily and cheaply obtainable. Speedball sells a kit that includes a wide variety of nibs, including a mapping nib, and two holders (a standard one and a mapping one, known as a crow quill).
What’s the deal with a mapping nib? It’s a small, round nib with an end that’s actually a cylinder, and you pop it onto the little peg at the top of the holder. Mapping nibs allow for very thin lines, and yet also a good line variety as the tines are sensitive to pressure.
If you’ve used a fountain pen before and then try to use a dip pen, you’ll likely be surprised by several things. The first is that most dip pen nibs, and mapping nibs in particular, are very sensitive to pressure. The slightest push down will give you more line variation that you’ll get from even the most flexible of flexible fountain pens. The second is that there’s no tipping material. That means more feedback from the page, and that you need to be aware of the directionality of the nib if you don’t want it to snag and spray ink everywhere. This is also why the paper you want to use will be smooth. Smooth surface cartridge paper is your friend.
India ink (the shellac based ink used for dip pens) lays on top of the paper and retains a level of gloss and a dimensionality that you just don’t get with fountain pen paper. You can feel the ink lines with your fingers once the ink dries. The ink dries quickly, and is sticky and staining when wet, so beware of nice clothes and wash your hands well once you’re done.
You can see the line variation and shiny properties of the ink.
The nib itself needs to be prepared before you use it for the first time. New nibs are coated in oil and sometimes with wax before being packaged. This prevents them from rusting, and helps them not stick to each other too much as they’re being packaged. If you use a new nib without preparing it, you’ll be disappointed. It will carry little to no ink, and you’ll find yourself dipping the nib again and again. The map above was made with 4-5 dips only, using a new nib, but one that I prepared.
How do you prepare a dip nib? The simplest and safest way (no, don’t take a lighter to it) is as follows: gently clean the nib with water and dish soap (you can use a soft toothbrush if you want, but it doesn’t really require scrubbing) and then put it in cup with boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Then fish the nib out and dry it very, very, very well with a paper towel. You don’t want to air dry the nib at any point or it will rust.
You can see that the ink is raised above the paper and retains its shininess
You can use fountain pen ink with dip pens, but I don’t recommend it. Fountain pen ink is thin and water based, so it doesn’t cling to the nib like India inks. You’ll be dipping a lot more often, and your results won’t be as good. If you plan on using a dip pen to test out fountain pen inks, know that your test will only show the colour properties of the ink but not its flow (wet/dry). Also don’t use a mapping nib for that – mapping nibs are best used for small sketches, maps, things that require very thin lines and some line variation.
When I work with a dipping nib I keep the nib constantly wet with ink (not water!), and immediately when I’m done I either wash the ink from the nib and dry it very well, or I wipe the ink off with a cotton rag if I just plan to take a short break. Ink left to dry on the nib may clog it (particularly with mapping nibs), and soaking a nib in water will cause it to rust.
You may find dip nibs in flea markets for very cheap, usually in a pile in a little box. Check if they aren’t rusted (don’t buy rusted nibs), and then clean them as you would a new nib (water, soap, heat).
I’ll be going over various kinds of India inks and various kinds of nibs in future posts, but in the meanwhile if there’s anything that interests you in dip nibs let me know in the comments.
Day 23’s ink is Diamine Fireside Snug. It’s a standard ink.
Diamine Fireside Snug is a dark orange standard ink with a lot of great shading. It’s one of the few inks in the Inkvent calendar that would make for a great everyday ink. The dark dot on my swab is due to an ink drop on the Col-O-Ring card that I didn’t notice before swabbing the ink.
Diamine Fireside Snug Col-O-Ring Swab
The base ink colour is a reddish orange that is dark enough to be readable even with a fine nibbed pen, and the shading it provides is pretty spectacular. I have very few orange inks in my ink collection, and this one is definitely one that I would add to it.
Diamine Fireside Snug writing sample
You can see the ink shading in this sketch of Mud Pie the teddy bear. He always appears a bit “squashed” and that’s part of his charm.
There’s only a handful of standard inks in this year’s Inkvent and they’ve all been solid inks, but Jacaranda and Fireside Snug have been a cut above (I’ve decided that it’s completely unfair to call Diamine Weeping Willow a standard ink, and so I’m putting in into a separate category). If you’re looking for an alternative to Noodler’s Habanero, this is it.
Day 22’s ink is Diamine Tinsel. It’s a shimmer ink.
Diamine Tinsel is bright red ink with red shimmer and a lot of shading and it’s gloriously Christmas appropriate.
Diamine Tinsel Col-O-Ring swab
It took 22 days for Diamine to pull out the red Christmas ink but they knocked it out of the park with this one. It dries darker than it writes on the page, with the base ink being a bright red ink with orange shading. The shimmer renders it darker and richer and really makes it something special. In previous Inkvents Diamine leaned too heavily for my taste on the red inks, but this time they picked them carefully and sparingly. While Bah Humbug goes for the dark red theme, Diamine Tinsel is the full on festive bright red with shimmers on top.
Diamine Tinsel writing sample
I probably should have sketched today’s bear with blue ink, but Diamine Tinsel it is. The reason I bought him is because of those eyes. I just couldn’t say no to them.
Here’s the original bear (what do you think of his eyes?):
Diamine Tinsel was the festive red ink that this Inkvent calendar needed. Whether you use it to write Christmas cards or letters to Santa, this ink definitely has “Christmas” written all over it.
A handwritten journal is an artifact in a way that an app can never be. It’s tactile, endlessly flexible, there to be used and customized in every way possible. Tear out pages, glue stuff in, doodle, scribble, sketch and write whatever you wish however you wish. There’s no autocorrect, nothing editing or censuring your words. Analogue journalling is about freedom, flow and pure creativity.
This is my last day journaling in this journal, and tomorrow I’ll write up the last page and start a new one for the thoughts of that day.
Every time I finish a journal, I use the last two pages to summarize what that journal contains and means to me. Analogue journals are fantastic, but they do make searching for old entries a bit of a chore. Luckily I don’t find myself looking for an old entry that often, and if I do the last two pages help me narrow it down to the specific journal, and the dates and titles to the specific entry.
I also like taking the last few pages as a chance to reflect on the time the journal covers and how things have changed (and I have changed) as the time has gone by. There’s usually about three months in each journal, sometimes more, so that’s a good chuck of time to look back on: short enough to make it simple to summarize and contextualize, and yet long enough to have some impact and meaning. This journal contains two trips abroad, my decision to move into a new career path, and a pandemic that wrecked havoc on everyone I know (including me, of course). That’s quite a lot, even for a journal that covers a relatively long span of time (almost 6 months).
It’s also full of bits and pieces that I stuck in, to make the page come to life. So here’s part of the Diamine Inkvent packaging that I glued in after I opened the last window and before I tossed out the box:
I just ripped out a panel that I liked. This journal is for me, not Instagram, and it can be as messy as I need it to be.
Cool clothing tags also sometimes make it in, especially if it’s from a piece of clothing that I really like:
This tag came of one of my favourite sweatshirts.
I got a lot of Star Wars themedvinyl stickers as a gift near the end of last year and a lot of them ended in my journal:
Even the silliest of things can be used to brighten up a page:
See that bleedthrough? It’s fountain pen bleedthrough. I don’t give a damn. If I wanted to write with a Sharpie in here, I’d write with a Sharpie. Use what makes you feel good.
There are little drawings and illustrations everywhere:
Messy, messy handwriting.
And bits and pieces of washi tape that were leftover from other projects:
The point is, tomorrow I finish another journal, a small analogue memory artifact that is entirely mine. I created it for me and me only, and it was worth every minute I put into it.
If there’s one habit that you can pick up during your time at home these days, pick journaling. You’ll end up getting quite a treasure in the end, and I’d be truly surprised if you won’t enjoy the process.
Writing at Large 