Day 4’s ink is Diamine Forest Gateau, and unfortunately it’s a scented ink. The base colour is a rich, dark claret that is very saturated, and so doesn’t offer much shading. I used a Lamy Safari medium nibbed fountain pen to test out this ink.
Col-O-Ring swab of Diamine Forest Gateau
Diamine Forest Gateau is a darker shade of red than last year’s Diamine Bah Humbug. It also doesn’t shade as much as Bah Humbug and it doesn’t have the attractive Chameleon effect. What it does have is a smell.
Diamine Bah Humbug swab compared to Diamine Forest Gateau
I don’t like scented inks for two reasons:
They always smell like cheap potpourri. It doesn’t matter if they’re supposed to smell like violets, strawberries or chocolate, they always smell artificial and sickly sweet.
They always have terrible ink flow: they’re ultra wet and bleed easily.
Even if I disregard the smell and the flow, the ink itself isn’t too great as it doesn’t offer much beyond a nice base ink colour. There are a lot of dark red inks in the market that have nice shading, better flow, and oftentimes some other point of interest. And they don’t stink.
Writing sample on Rhodia paper
Today’s bear is one of my favourites because of his unique face style. I like the base ink colour of Forest Gateau so this would have been a nice ink to use for this sketch if the ink itself was better behaved. As it is, I will dumping it out of the pen and cleaning it as soon as this review is up.
Sketch on Midori MD Cotton paper
This is the bear. He’s got a round, elongated face and ears way at the back of his head. And surprisingly, no name.
The bear
I obviously won’t be buying a bottle of Forest Gateau. If you enjoy scented inks, then maybe this one’s for you as it fits nicely enough theme-wise. In terms of practicality it scores low in my opinion because of the scent and because of the flow.
Do you like scented inks? What do you think of Diamine Forest Gateau?
Day 3’s ink is Diamine Noble Fir, an apple green star bright ink. Star bright inks feature extra shimmer, as in all the shimmer that Diamine could plausibly get their hands on. It shimmers, I promise, you won’t be able to miss it. I used a Lamy Safari with a medium nib to test this ink out.
Col-O-Ring swab of Diamine Noble Fir
Here’s a close up on the ink, wherein you can see that it is indeed a star bright ink, and you can see some of its shading properties.
Close up of the Col-O-Ring swab of Diamine Noble Fir
If this ink feels somewhat familiar, it’s because it’s basically last year’s Diamine Merry and Bright but one shade darker (and bluer) and with a lot more shimmer. You can see the two side by side below and also see the difference between what Diamine calls a shimmer ink and what they call a star bright ink.
Col-O-Ring swab comparison of Diamine Merry and Bright and Diamine Noble Fir
Here’s a writing sample on Rhodia paper with this ink. Diamine Noble Fir flows well, has some shading and a ton of silver shimmer. More than you think is healthy for any pen, which is why this ink will get nowhere near one of my vintage fountain pens.
Also, I kind of wish that they would have called it “Diamine Elphaba” after seeing and enjoying the movie “Wicked”. It’s too sparkly for Elphaba, I know, but it’s also nowhere near dark enough to be called “fir” and yet here we are.
Writing sample on Rhodia paper
Here’s a closeup on the writing sample, where you can see the ink shading and the shimmer.
Closeup of the writing sample.
Today’s sketch features a German bear which is called “Spooky” for some reason. It’s not spooky at all. You can see some of the shading properties of this ink and again the ever present shimmer.
Sketching sample on Midori MD Cotton paper
And here’s Spooky, the not-at-all spooky bear. There’s actually something about him that reminds me of Elmo from Sesame Street.
Spooky the bear.
In terms of practicality, Diamine Noble Fir scores higher than you’d think. This isn’t by any means an everyday ink, but for the holiday season it’s pretty much perfect. Select your pen carefully and clean out the ink once you’re done writing all those cards and letters, but Noble Fir is surprisingly well behaved. It’s also the most Christmasy of all the inks we’ve seen so far, so it scores very high on the theming side. Would I buy a bottle of this? No, as I don’t have a need to write a thousand holiday greeting cards. I will, however, enjoy writing this pen dry as soon as possible, before it becomes impossible to get all the glitter out of it.
Which pen would you use Diamine Noble Fir with? Do you see yourself needing or wanting a full bottle of this ink in your collection?
Day 2’s ink is Diamine Wilted Rose, a standard ink in a dark dusty rose shade. I tested it using a Lamy fine nibbed fountain pen.
The Col-O-Ring swab
Diamine Wilted Rose has an interesting colour and a good amount of shading. It’s dark enough to be seen on both white and cream paper (and it would work particularly well on cream coloured paper). It’s well behaved though it’s a wet ink, so I would shy away from using it in wide nibs. I find the decision to include it in a Christmas themed product like the Inkvent calendar a bit peculiar, but Diamine have made stranger choices in the past.
Writing sample on Rhodia paper
As Diamine Wilted Rose is pretty similar to last year’s Diamine Masquerade (minus the shimmer), I decided to compare the two swabs. Wilted Rose is darker and redder than Masquerade, and more easily readable. It is also a wetter ink that shades a bit less than Masquerade as it’s more saturated.
Which one of these do you prefer? I like Masquerade’s colour more, but Wilted Rose is a more practical choice.
Diamine Masquerade and Wilted Rose comparison.
Today’s bear sketch features a charity collectible teddy bear that was originally part of a pair, but when I purchased him had been separated from his counterpart. Joshua has his paw in a sling, and has a lovely Dean’s Bears face. There’s something childish and innocent about him, which fits the charity he’s supporting very well.
You can see Diamine Wilted Rose’s shading well here, much better than in the writing sample, likely due to the Midori MD Cotton paper.
Sketching sample on Midori MD Cotton paper
Here’s Joshua from the Two’s Company Dean Rag Book company. He’s a British bear, and I bought him second hand in York from a store called Mary Shortle’s.
Joshua the bear
Diamine Wilted Rose scores relatively high on practicality, as it’s a standard ink that is readable. It’s not a perfectly practical ink, as it’s on the wet side and you can’t use this shade of ink for everything. It is a good ink for journaling and personal correspondence though, as it’s an interesting colour of ink with a good amount of shading. I wouldn’t hesitate to use in my vintage pens.
In terms of theming, I think that it likely adds variety and interest to this year’s Inkvent but it’s not a very “Christmasy” colour (nor does it have a very festive name). It’s a good addition to the Diamine lineup, and while I don’t see myself buying a full bottle as I don’t use pink very often in my pens, it is a much better purchasing choice than yesterday’s Baltic Breeze.
What do you think? Do you use pink inks in your pens often, and would you buy a bottle of Diamine Wilted Rose? Would you rename the ink to something more seasonally themed?
Day 1’s ink is Diamine Baltic Breeze a shimmer periwinkle blue ink:
The bottle
The sample came out a bit rough because I tried to use a dip pen for the first few lines of writing.
The Col-O-Ring sample
Diamine Baltic Breeze is a gorgeous dusty, purplish blue in with a good amount of shading and a copper shimmer that really makes the ink come to life. This is a wet ink that will sheen if used in wide nibs.
Writing sample on a Rhodia
On the Rhodia there was some feathering and a lot of show through and bleed through, but as I was using a wide 1.1 Monteverde nib, this is to be expected. On the Midori paper there was still some feathering, but you can also see the richness and depth of this ink.
Sketch on Midori MD Cotton
Here’s a closeup on the shading, shimmer and sheen of this ink, and you can also see where it feathered a bit.
Sketch close up
And here is the bear that I sketched, Topaz, made by Dean’s Bears and bought in York.
Diamine Baltic Breeze is a gorgeous ink that doesn’t score high on the practicality side. It’s a wet ink that is pretty saturated, so it takes a while to dry, and the shimmer, feathering and bleeding doesn’t help it in the every day use department. I won’t be getting a bottle of this, but I think that it’s a great ink for the calendar, as it fits thematically and is an attractive ink. Sometimes a sample is all that you need to enjoy an ink.
What do you think of Diamine Baltic Breeze? Do you see yourself buying a bottle?
As I have done every year since Diamine started issuing their Inkvent calendars, I will be reviewing each of the inks in the calendar, publishing one post per day for 25 days, and then a summary post looking back at the calendar as a whole. As a reminder, there are 24 doors with 12ml bottles of fountain pen ink behind them, and one 30ml bottle of ink behind door 25. All of the inks in the Inkvent calendar are new for the calendar, and they will all likely be issued in full “black edition” glass bottles sometime mid 2025.
The Diamine Black Edition 2024 Inkvent Calendar
This year’s calendar is the Black edition. You can find my review of the 2019 Blue edition starting here, the 2021 Red edition starting here, the 2022 Green edition starting here, and the 2023 Purple edition starting here.
This year I will be using a Rhodia lined notebook for my writing samples (it’s a fairly standard fountain pen friendly paper that should be a good baseline for the ink), a Midori MD Cotton notebook for the bear sketches that I will be doing (the MD Cotton is a more expensive alternative to the Rhodia, but features better paper), and a Col-O-Ring for the ink swabs. I tried to use dip pens at the start of the first sample, to save me needing to fill and clean up 25 fountain pens, but as I didn’t like the ink flow with my dip nibs, I will be filling up 25 fountain pens again this year. It’s a mammoth undertaking, and as I have taken a break from posting for a while, I’m a bit daunted by the prospect.
But we do hard things because they’re worth doing, and in this case they will help me get back to a regular posting schedule and a regular sketching schedule.
We just had the 2024 Pelikan Hubs event and I wanted to talk about which Pelikan fountain pens I brought with me to the event, and to note a few things that may be useful for those looking to get into Pelikan fountain pens.
This was my flock:
From left to right they are:
Pelikan M800 Blue O Blue – one of the most expensive pens in my collection, and one that I (partially) got as a gift for my birthday. This pen has an 18 Karat fine nib that is soft and springy. Note: Some of Pelikan’s gold nibs are softer than others, so it’s worth testing the pen out before you buy it, especially if you’re not used to Pelikan nibs. This pen has a semi transparent blue swirly body and a typical Pelikan wide and juicy nib.
Pelikan M805 Ocean Swirl – gorgeous, gorgeous pen that draws attention every time I use it. The depth and shade of the material is something else, and the palladium trim and rhodium plated 18k nib work very well with the turquoise and black shades of this pen’s body. This pen also has a fine 18k nib but this one is much firmer than the one in the Blue O Blue.
Pelikan M620 Place De La Concorde – so, so glad I got this pen though it was expensive for me at the time. This was part of Pelikan’s city series and the only Pelikan I have in the M600 size, which is just a shade longer than the M400. There’s marbling in this pen’s stripes, as is befitting its name, and the 18K M nib is wide and juicy and of a standard Pelikan nib firmness.
Pelikan M400 W. Germany vintage black and brown tortoise shell – I brought this pen so that people could compare the old tortoise shell design to its modern counterpart. There’s just one band on the cap, the bottom and top finials are more rounded and there’s the old Pelikan logo engraved (not screen printed) onto the finial. The nib design is also completely different, though it still feels like a standard fine 14k Pelikan nib (wide and on the firm side).
Pelikan M400 white tortoise shell – this is the modern counterpart of the previous pen, and it has a 14k medium nib that is on the soft side. Both the black and white tortoise shell pens have semi transparent pen bodies so you can easily see the pen level through them.
Pelikan M100 storm trooper – on the rarer side of Pelikans, this steel nibbed fountain pen has a medium nib that feels just as good as Pelikan’s gold nibs. While I understand why Pelikan didn’t want to continue making M100 still nibbed fountain pens, I kind of wish they would have. These could have been slightly higher end alternatives to Lamy’s Al Stars and Safaris – a step down from the M200.
Pelikan M320 Pearl – the rarest Pelikan in my flock, and always a crowd pleaser. This fountain pen is tiny, and came as part of a set with Pelikan brown ink and a nice presentation box. I bought it more than 10 years ago in Berlin, and nobody was interested in them because of the pen’s size. It’s a piston filler, a fantastically well made pen and it has a very soft 14k medium nib.
Here’s a writing sample for all these pens:
Writing sample on a Pelikan Hub 2022 notepad
Did you go to a Pelikan Hub this year? If so, which pens did you bring with you?
Yesterday Pelikan celebrated their annual Pelikan Hubs event, and we had a local Pelikan Hub. Since 2014 the German pen company has invited its fans to gather in groups all around the world and for one evening celebrate their love of Pelikan fountain pens and ink. The events are well organized, with a local volunteer in each country organizing the Hub location and orchestrating the event. And every year Pelikan gives Hub participants a generous gift for their participation.
This year was no different, and Pelikan Hub participants got a full sized bottle of Pelikan’s premium ink collection, Edelstein, in the Ink of the Year 2024 colour: Golden Lapis.
Pelikan Edelstein Ink of the Year Golden Lapis
As is customary with luxury inks, the bottle is a glass work of art:
Edelstein ink bottle.
The extra thick base and wide opening work well with Pelikan Souveran pens which tend to be wider barrelled and often difficult to impossible to fill with certain ink maker’s narrow and tall ink bottles. With certain Sailor ink bottles and Diamine’s 30ml plastic bottles there’s a risk of your M400 or M800 not fitting into the bottle or of tipping the bottle while trying to fill the pen with ink. There’s no risk of that with Edelstein bottle design, though when the ink level runs very low its likely you’ll need to get creative when trying to fill your pens with ink.
The golden cap has the modern Pelikan logo on it, with a Pelican and one chick:
The Edelstein cap
I filled a Pelikan M205 Petrol Marbled EF pen with the ink and used it for the swab and writing sample below. Here’s Golden Lapis on a Col-O-Ring card:
Pelikan Edelstein Golden Lapis ink swab
We got a nice A6 writing pad with bristol thick fountain pen friendly paper in it as part of the Pelikan Hub 2024 gifts. The paper is great though I wish there wasn’t a Pelikan logo on each page mostly because it takes so much space. The paper is thick enough for both sides of it to be useful, so it’s a shame to have to flip the page over and write only on one side if you want the full A6 page to yourself.
The A6 notepad that we received as part of the Pelikan Hub
Pelikan Edelstein Golden Lapis is a gorgeous ink, period. The base rich, turquoise-y blue reminds me of Pilot Iroshizuku Asa Gao and that is high praise. The colour is rich, vibrant and has a good amount of shading that sets it apart from standard blues. To this fantastic base ink Pelikan added lots of fine, golden shimmer, and the result is stunning. Viewed directly from above the shimmer is present but subtle, oftentimes taking on the look of sheen:
Writing sample on the Pelikan A6 pad
But tilt the page slightly and the amount of gold in each letter makes the page glow:
Tilt it to the other side and the shimmer “vanishes”, which allows you to see the lovely blue ink’s colour shading much better:
Pelikan Edelstein Golden Lapis is a spectacular ink that manages to be unique in a market overflowing with blue inks with gold shimmer. The combination of the base colour, its shading properties, and the good spread of the shimmer make this an ink worth having in your collection if you’re a shimmer ink fan.
As for the Hub I participated in: it was fantastically well organized and I had a lot of fun meeting other fountain pen enthusiasts and seeing the pens they brought.
So the first week of actual lessons in Liz Steel’s Sketching Now Travel Sketching course started and already there’s been a slight change of materials.
As this week will be entirely focused on line drawings, I’m switching to a non-watercolour sketchbook. For the first part of this week’s exercise, which includes working from reference photos, I’m using the Midori MD Cotton notebook in A4. It’s neither a proper sketchbook nor the A5 size format that Liz recommended, but as she also requested to upload as few photos as possible to this week’s gallery (and no more than 6) and as we have quite a bit of work to do, I decided to at least use a large notebook so I can fit more than one or two sketches on a page and thus avoid the need to stitch photos.
Eiffel Tower
We have several scenes we need to sketch as quickly as possible, starting with just 7 lines to define the scene. The 7 lines idea worked quite well with the Eiffel Tower but broke down completely for me once we got into a complex building like the Big Ben. That’s when I decided to just work with shapes and let the architecture details on the building help me determine its length and proportions.
Big Ben
Generic rules like “start with just 7 lines” are nice ideas on paper, but they oftentimes break down when we’re faced with reality. I think that the 7 lines idea would actually slow me down when sketching on location (it slowed me considerably while I was at home, and it failed completely with the Big Ben), but the basics of contour, shapes, perspective, proportion hints work no matter what.
I will try the 7 lines for the rest of the week, to see if it’s just a matter of practice, but I suspect that it isn’t.
I travel a few times a year and while I already sketch during my travels, I want to improve my speed and gain enough confidence to sketch in less than ideal conditions. I rarely sketch standing up, and I don’t feel comfortable sketching while I’m waiting in line, for instance, and these are useful skills to have if you plan to sketch while on a trip that isn’t dedicated to sketching.
As usual with Liz Steel’s excellent courses, the first part is an introduction which includes an overview of the course, setting personal goals for the course, materials list/discussion and a review of where you are starting from.
I have decided to take a different approach to the materials requirements for this course. I have a pretty compact and set travel sketching set of materials, but I’m allowing myself to expand on it and change it a bit to experiment with some new techniques.
The first big change is the sketchbook I’m using. It’s a Hahnemühle A5 Watercolour Book, which includes 200gsm fine grain paper. I’ve never used it before, but as I regularly use the Stillman and Birn Alpha that Liz is using for the course and I’m not a huge fan of it, I decided to give this paper a spin instead. If it works it would be ideal for travel sketching, as it’s thin and lightweight, the paper takes watercolour washes much better than the Alpha, and I appreciate the elastic closure and hard covers. They are very convenient additions that should help me sketch while standing, and keep the sketches safe while I carry the notebook in my bag.
Hahnemühle A5 Watercolour Book
I’ve also changed my watercolour palette somewhat (it’s the bottom palette, not the top one). As I’m still not certain about it, I’m not fully documenting it at the moment. This course isn’t geared heavily towards watercolour, but I tend to like to sketch as quickly as possible on location when travelling, take a few reference photos and complete the sketch with watercolours later that evening.
The palette I’m using is the bottom one, with 24 colours, both Schmincke and Daniel Smith.
For the first time I’m adding watercolour pencils to my travel sketching kit. As Liz recommended I have a triad (yellow, red, blue), a green, a brown, a grey, a dark, and while she recommended having two lights, I have three. Why? Because having quickly available greens is very useful, the pink is useful for skin tones, and the ochre is too generally useful to be left out. All of these pencils are Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer.
Watercolour pencils.
Dry media is also more than double what I normally carry on me. Here the point is to experiment, and it’s very likely that I will say goodbye to several of these tools during the course. I normally use only Staedler Pigment Liners in 0.3, 0.5 and sometimes 0.8 when I sketch, but here I’ll be adding a Tomboq Fudenosuke brush pen to the mix, two fountain pens (a Lamy Safari and a Sailor Fude both with De Atramentis Document Black), three pencils (Faber Catelll 9000 2B, Rotring 600 0.7 and for the first time ever, Faber Castell 4B graphite aquarelle), an eraser and a pencil sharpener. I’ll also be using a medium waterbrush instead of my usual fine one.
Sketching media.
All of these tools will be carried in a Nock Co case, with the exception of the watercolour tin and rag, and a brush case.
Nock Co case, watercolour tin and rag.
I don’t think that I’ll be using these too much during this course, but these are my travel ready brushes. I keep them in a Ti2 design tube with glue tac at the bottom to prevent the brushes from moving. The brushes are Windsor Newton Series 7 numbers 4 and 7 and Rosemary & Co dagger brush 772.
Brushes
That’s the whole kit, and now it just remains to try it out and see what works and what doesn’t.
Just as I wrote a post about Moleskine no longer making store exclusive limited edition notebooks, my brother went to Paris (during the Olympics) and found not one but two store exclusive limited edition notebooks. Moleskine have officially cooperated with the Paris 2024 Olympic games and they have outdone themselves.
The first notebook is a large lined hardcover notebook that could be purchased standalone, or as part of a set that included three Olympics themed charms (in the colour of the medals) and a pen. The box was sold out, as were the charms (and yet it was still on display in the store window, because reasons). The notebook was still available and it is glorious, a perfect example of Moleskine’s design prowess.
This is the notebook still in the wrapper:
Wrapped notebook from the front
The front facing part of the wrapper has a discreet Paris 2024 logo sticker on the right side. The back part of the wrapper is anything but discreet. There are games logos, games sponsors, multiple designations of the officialness of the notebook, as well as pictures of the notebook cover and the lined interior with its bookmarks (more on them later). It’s busy back here:
Wrapped notebook from the back.
Removing the wrapper reveals the notebook itself. The Olympic logo is given its pride of place, and the rest of the cover is given over to a celebration of the Paris 2024 font. The only colours here come from the foiled gold of the flame and the Olympic rings. It’s a classic and sleek design:
Front cover unwrapped.
I expected the back cover to just be more of the Paris 2024 font in black on white. Instead there’s a set of letters that are gold foiled, and I really like the effect. It’s chic, classy and very well thought out. The Moleskine logo is there, but it doesn’t call attention to itself, and the black rubber band almost disappears from view:
Back cover unwrapped
Inside the front endpapers have the usual in case of loss section, the Paris 2024 logo prominently displayed, the Moleskine logo, small and discreet, and a letter in French:
The front enpapers
Here’s the letter, from Tony Estanguet, the head of the organizing comittee for Paris 2024 and an Olympic champion. Note that it, unlike the “In Case of Loss” part uses the Paris 2024 font. It’s written in French and is a celebration of the Paris 2024 games and their uniqueness (first opening ceremony not in the stadium, first games with gender parity, first games with Breaking, 100 years since the previous Paris games, first event open to participation by the general public – Marathon for All). It ends with a celebration of the notebook in your hand, which is a nice touch.
Close up on the letter.
The back endpapers have logos of the various Olympic events. As usual, these are well placed and the back pocket and the endpaper prints match perfectly. It’s the little details that matter in these notebooks, and Moleskine always nails them.
Back endpaper
Inside the back pocket are some Olympic themed treats: four sticker sheets, and a folded map of the event locations.
Stickers and folded map
The stickers feature the Phryges, the Olympic mascots for the 2024 games, participating in various sports:
First two sticker sheetsSecond two sticker sheets
Then there’s a stylized map of the various events locations in Paris, France and Tahiti:
The map.
Finally, inside the notebook are not one, not two, but three ribbon bookmarks in the colour of the Olympic medals:
The bookmarks.
All in all this is an extremely well thought out design, one that takes pride in the games and cares about every little detail. It’s a worthwhile memento of the event, and it just shows what Moleskine can do in terms of localized special editions when they put their minds to it.
The second notebook is a soft cover cahier created for those who want a cheaper, more colourful and lightweight alternative commemorative notebook from the event. Here it is wrapped:
Wrapped front cover
Here’s the back cover. Again, lots of info here (the price was half that of the hardcover).
Wrapped back cover.
The front cover features a very colourful illustration of Phryges doing various game related things alongside iconic Paris monuments and symbols. There’s a lot of playfulness here, and it’s a delight to look at all the little details here:
Front cover.
The cover has a pleasant texture to it. The back cover has a Phryge in the back waving hello above the Moleskine logo in white:
Back cover
Moleskine clearly love the Paris 2024 font because it is once again the star in both front and back endpapers, this time with only the numerals in use:
Front endpaper
There’s a pocket in the back:
Back endpaper
The paper is blank, and it’s stitched using blue thread – very fetching. It lies flat with little effort:
Paper and stitching
Here’s a writing sample on the paper (both notebooks feature the same standard Moleskine paper – 70/gsm ivory coloured acid-free paper:
Writing sample
Close up on the writing. Fountain pens show the same strange mottled pattern that they do in this kind of paper, and wider, juicier fountain pens will spread:
Closeup on the writing sampleCloseup on the writing sample
There is see through and bleeding with the fountain pens and the rollerballs. This paper works best with gel ink pens, ballpoint pens, fineliners and pencils:
Back of the page
All in all these notebooks are well worth their price in my opinion. They are well designed, provide a lovely memento of the Paris 2024 games, and they are unique to the Paris Moleskine stores. I only wish that Moleskine would create more of these for their stores. They were clearly a success in Paris, for good reasons.
What do you think about these notebooks? Would you purchase one or both of them?
Writing at Large 