Ink Experiments
Wed, September 23, 2009 at 12:05PM Ink isn't something I thought about until I stumbled upon my retro (aka old) Rapidograph pens set from the years just after college. Visions of white mandalas swirled around my mind, and I put the two ideas together to experiment. It is always fun to combine a bunch of experiments, so I doodled on all sorts of surfaces. I drew mandalas with Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay White india ink & Rapidograph. Lovely fun.
Then I pictured vivid mandalas in lush sepias, magentas & cobalt blues. I found more variety in fountain pen ink color selection, determined that fountain pen ink could be used with Rapidograph, and planned my experiment. I wanted to try several fountain pen inks with calligraphy pens, Rapidograph and paint brush. I have this need to understand my art materials.
On the left, my older daughter and I doodled with two calligraphy pens and J. Herbin Lie de Thé ink (find it at Pendemonium) and wonderfully wavy curves & thin lines filled the page. On the right, the thinner lines are with .6mm nib Rapidograph... the ink flowed dreamily. No pudding, no drips, smooth, consistent. I had been looking for an ink similar to the sepia PITT pen and this is definitely it.
Since I was using a calligraphy pen, I doodled on Clairefontaine Calligrapy paper (ivory, 130g, find it at Writers Bloc). Incredibly smooth paper; the pens moved as if I were using a brush.
In my second experiment, I used J. Herbin Éclat de Saphir to write a list of twenty fruits in calligraphy pen. All written with one dip of the pen in the ink bottle. On the right, the mandala was doodled in the same ink in the .6mm Rapidograph. I was curious to see if the paper would buckle, bleed through or disintigrate if I used a brush (round #6) to paint the ink. Incredibly, no bleed-through. Overall great paper for drawing and calligraphy.
Next, a mandala in the J. Herbin Eclat de Saphir fountain pen ink and a J. Herbin Rose Cyclamin ink test and mandala.
Reader Comments (1)
I can see how you will be drawn to this! The bevel of the pens makes real
interesting lines! I'd have to practice for hours to get the ink right though! Neat
doodle pictures :)