Diamine Inkvent Calendar Day 12

It’s day 12 of the Diamine Inkvent calendar, and a snowman is holding the sign, so it must be good, right?

Day 12’s ink is Diamine Noel, a burgundy red ink with sheen. I liked the colour, as it’s warm and rich and interesting, with a lot of shading, but I was underwhelmed by the sheen, even on Tomoe River paper.

I used a Pelikan Pelikano medium nib for this, and I really laid down a good amount of ink, and I barely saw any sheen. That was so weird that after drawing the outline of the flower, I filled in the petals, and then drew the two baubles below and I still mostly just saw shading. This is not what I expect from an ink marked as a “sheen” ink, but I like the colour enough to not care too much about it.

Diamine Inkvent Calendar Day 11

It’s magical day 11 on the Diamine Inkvent Calendar, and… we’re back to standard inks.

Day 11’s ink is Diamine Elf, a standard green ink that shades nicely and is more bright and cheerful than Diamine Mistletoe.

Even with a Lamy Safari fine nib on Clairefontaine paper you can see the shading. On Tomoe River paper the shading is more pronounced and the green is more vibrant.

I like Diamine Elf because it’s a nice shade of green, but it’s one of the least unique inks in the calendar. Sometimes you need a little calm in the midst of the shiny, shimmering storm.

Diamine Inkvent Calendar Day 10

It’s day 10 in the Diamine Inkvent Calendar, and so far there hasn’t been a truly weird ink in the bunch. That’s about to change…

Day 10’s ink is Diamine Winter Miracle, a sheen and shimmer dark purple ink. Now, purple is notoriously difficult to photograph, but if you look at photos of Winter Miracle and say to yourself, “huh, it looks almost black”, that’s not a photography issue. Diamine Winter Miracle is a super saturated, deep, dark eggplant purple with some shimmer (much less than Gold Star) and a significant amount of green sheen. It looks like black with an attitude.

You can see some of the silver shimmer on the top, but it’s understated compared to Diamine Gold Star.

Tomoe river paper makes this ink look wild, especially when viewed at an angle to the light.

Winter Miracle was so unusual that I went ahead and filled a Pelikan Pelikano Up with it. The medium Pelikan nib (that’s a broad for every other maker) really shows off this interesting and unique ink, and it’s dark enough to pass as black at a cursory glance. I even wrote down next year’s resolutions with it.

Diamine Inkvent Calendar Day 9

It’s day 9 of the Diamine Inkvent Calendar, and Diamine has toned back the shimmer and shine and gone back to standard inks for their Monday offering.

Day 9’s ink is Diamine Nutcracker, a slightly warmer, lighter and more interesting brown than Diamine Triple Chocolate.

Of course I drew a squirrel. What else would I draw?

Diamine Nutcracker shades a lot, and has reddish highlights to it. There’s a slight green sheen to it on Tomoe river paper, as you can see from the closeup below, but most of its charm is from its raw umber to burnt sienna shading.

If this ink would have been waterproof, it would have been a staple in my sketching kit. As it is, I’ll probably use it for ink sketches only, maybe with a slight wash. It’s a versatile and warm brown that I like much better than Diamine Triple Chocolate (even though Triple Chocolate has a better name).

Diamine Inkvent Calendar Day 8

I was expecting something with a little pizzaz for day 8, and Diamine didn’t disappoint. Get ready for some bling…

Diamine Gold Star is day 8’s ink, and calling it a shimmer ink doesn’t do it justice. I’m pretty sure that Diamine took their Sunshine Yellow ink and poured ALL OF THE GLITTER into it. The result is phenomenal.

Even after shaking the ink for a bit, there’s a ton of particles that sink to the bottom of the bottle.

How much glitter can such a tiny bottle hold?

This means that you have to really shake it well before filling your pen, and then shake your pen before use to get the full Gold Star effect. As it is, this ink is beautiful, because it shades so much. A wide nib and Tomoe river paper really make it shine (pun intended):

This was drawn with a Lamy Joy and a 1.1 italic nib, on a Kanso Sasshi 3.5” x 5.5” Tomoe River Paper notebook.

It sparkles and twinkles! Like a gold star!

Even on Clairefontaine paper the shading and shimmer of this ink make it stand out:

This ink is wildly inappropriate for office use, but it’s so great for holiday cards, especially if you couple it with Diamine Snow Storm. Needless to say, Diamine Gold Star isn’t going anywhere near my vintage or more expensive pens, because I’m terrified of the amount of glitter sediment that I can see in the bottle.

Diamine Inkvent Calendar Day 7

I almost missed the 7, it was so well disguised as a candy cane. I’m a little sorry that Diamine didn’t go punny and put Diamine Candy Cane behind this door.

Instead, Day 7’s ink is Diamine Mistletoe. This is a darker, greyish green that’s labeled as “standard” but shades pretty well.

This was drawn on a Kanso Sasshi 3.5” x 5.5” Tomoe River Paper notebook using a Pelikan Pelikano. The colour reminds me a little of Rohrer and Klingner’s Emma SketchINK, Diamine Evergreen and even Diamine Umber. I plan on using this ink for sketches, maybe even opening it up a bit with water, we’ll see. This is bound to be one of the less unique colours in the calendar but also one of the more “useful” ones. This is also one of the few inks in the set that I’d trust around vintage pens.

Diamine Inkvent Calendar Day 6

Day 6’s door has a bonus bird, which is nice. It also has the best named ink of the bunch so far. Allow me to introduce you to:

Diamine Ho Ho Ho! This delightfully named ink is a orangey-red that shades beautifully.

Like all the rest of the Inkvent reviews, this was drawn on a Kanso Sasshi 3.5” x 5.5” Tomoe River Paper notebook, which really makes the best properties of each ink shine. Here it’s the shading, that goes from a dark orange to fire engine red, and is really warm and cheery.

This was drawn using a Pelikan Pelikano medium (which should be called a broad, but it’s Pelikan, so hey), and you can see the shading in almost every stroke above. I tried not to draw over the same place twice, just so you can get a better feeling for the shading properties of this ink.

The above was written on Clairefontaine paper, so you can see that the ink shades on it as well. This is a terribly impractical ink for day to day use (you can’t even mark papers with it, it’s too cheerful and bright for that), but it’s an excellent ink for Christmas cards or Christmas themed art.

Diamine Inkvent Calendar Day 5

What’s behind door number 5? Ink that has sheen, shimmer, or shading?

No. It’s a brown. *sigh*

Day 5’s ink is Diamine Triple Chocolate, which is a standard brown ink. Like really bog standard. The best part about this ink is its name.

I use brown and sepia inks for drawings, and I used to use Waterman Havana brown ink regularly at work, so I know that brown is one of those ink colours that offers perhaps the most opportunity to play with in terms of shade. It can be very dark, tend towards green or purple, have a reddish hue, or a golden one. Diamine has a great brown ink, called Chocolate Brown, as part of their standard lineup, and it is one of my favourites. It’s dark with golden highlights, and it shades like mad, but is dark enough to be acceptable for office use. So I was expecting a lot out of an ink called Diamine Triple Chocolate. Was it triple times as good as Diamine Chocolate Brown?

This was drawn on Tomoe River Paper with a vintage flex, italic Waterman nib, and yet there’s barely any shading. The dark spots are places that I went over more than one time.

No it was not. The shade isn’t as rich and dark as you’d expect from the name, it’s middle of the road in terms of its hue, and even what little shading was present wasn’t interesting or pronounced. It’s not a terrible ink, and so far this is the only ink in the Inkvent Calendar that I would fill a vintage pen with, but for a festive calendar, and with such a name, I expected a bit more.

Diamine Inkvent Calendar Day 4

Day 4’s window isn’t exactly aligned with the printing, but you get a cute snowman with it, so who cares?

The day 4 ink is Diamine Polar Glow, which is a royal blue ink that has sheen. How much sheen you ask? Well…

There’s so much red in that gloriously rich blue. I used a vintage italic Waterman ideal nib, and this was drawn on a Kanso Sasshi 3.5” x 5.5” Tomoe River Paper notebook, so this is probably close to maximum sheen, but still, it’s impressive.

Even as a standard ink, Diamine Polar Glow pops. The blue is deep, rich, and yet shades a lot, from cyan to royal blue (you can see it in the leaves in the drawing above). The red sheen just adds a little extra zing to it, without overshadowing the already good qualities of the ink.

This is an ink designed for wide, broad, italic, flex nibs that lay down a lot of ink. It really shows it’s best properties on Tomoe River paper, but even on Rhodia/Clairefontaine paper I could see sheen in every letter (using the same broad italic nib).

Would I buy a bottle of this, if Diamine offered it? Probably yes, since it’s dark enough for office use, but is also more interesting and appealing than a run-of-the-mill dark blue.

Diamine Inkvent Calendar Day 1: Blue Peppermint

Diamine Inkvent Calendar is an advent calendar with a tiny (7ml) bottle of ink behind 24 windows, and a larger, 30ml, bottle of ink behind the 25th window. All the inks are limited edition, and only available through this calendar, which I already feel is going to be a shame. I want more of today’s Blue Peppermint ink, and we’re only on day one. You can read more about the calendar here.

This was drawn on a Kanso Sasshi 3.5” x 5.5” Tomoe River Paper notebook, using a Lamy AL-Star Pacific fine nib fountain pen. Peppermint Blue shades a lot, even not on Tomoe River Paper, and it shimmers (which I just can’t seem to capture) with silver sparkles. It seemed appropriate for today’s topic.

The bottle is tiny and very cute. This is an ink that I’d love to see in Diamine’s regular lineup (or even available for purchase as a seasonal 30ml bottle), and it’s very winter appropriate.

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