Started drawing with fountain pens this year and got hooked

[AmericanMonk]

17 hours ago, dipper said:

...the same pull-then-gently-push manoeuvre can be repeated indefinitely. 

 

I appreciate the tip! I always chalked my difficulties up to the ink I use (Platinum Carbon and sheeners are my preferred with the Ahab), which crust up easily near the rubber stopper and create a little blockade for normal use. I cleaned my Ahab last week and it currently sits hollow so I'll fill it up and give your tip a whirl! Thanks!

[amberleadavis]

Beautiful drawings!

 

[mouse2cat]

Aww that's so sweet! Thank you. 

[AmericanMonk]

12 hours ago, mouse2cat said:

 

What a lovely long thoughtful response. I have continued to sketch since I posted this. It was my resolution to sketch more so cheers to that. https://www.instagram.com/hannah.skoonberg/

 

Well... great... just... thanks. Now I have to add gel pens and grey and black paper sketchbooks to my wishlist. As if it wasn't full enough already

 

Lovely artwork! Far and away better than anything I could do. I struggle to have a good eye for watercolor color. My (albeit digital) attempts tend to wind up being far too bold. Your washes are much nicer. And congrats on your tenure! It's nice to know that you and your students will continue exploring your craft for a long, long time.

 

I hope you don't mind a smidgen of criticism: your IG has a severe lack of cat pictures, but I trust that you'll work on that

 

On 3/14/2022 at 1:01 AM, mouse2cat said:

I had the most trouble with Rome burning because I am also annoyed by feathering. I found adding a little water to the ink helps with the feathering issue substantially. The other problem ink for me was Noodlers eel black.

 

Your Rome Burning lines are so crisp! I'm glad to hear that you had the same problem and that you overcame it. I'm a lefty and loathe the idea of increasing dry time, but I'll definitely give the water idea a shot. It is too gorgeous of a color to let it go to waste.

 

(Be advised: Noodler's Summer Tanager also feathers terribly, and Noodler's Tolstoy and Rachmaninoff have a noticeable spread.)

 

I'm in no position to attempt the eel colors. I bought a bottle of Noodler's Greune Cactus (not realizing it is one of their eel inks). Love the color; hate that it doesn't dry. Same with Apache Sunset... and Golden Brown... and Navajo Turquoise... All are gorgeous and they all tend to smudge on anything that isn't copy paper.

 

On 3/14/2022 at 1:01 AM, mouse2cat said:

I got a sample of Zhivago and liked it so I got a bottle and my bottle was a different color.

 

In case you haven't already heard: Nathan mixes all of his Noodler's ink himself in small batches. Consistency is not that company's forte. I'm sorry to hear that it bit you. I would have been disappointed, too.

 

But I've also had a consistency issue with Monteverde's Ocean Noir. My bottle looks nothing like reviews, regardless of nib size and paper, so it isn't just Noodler's. I hope you've found a way to like the newer bottle of Zhivago despite the initial disappointment.

 

I'll make sure to keep Lexington on my wishlist!

[debraji]

I do some urban sketching myself. My go-to sketching pen is a TWSBI Eco. It's not expensive. It's a piston-filler, which means it has large ink capacity. It's a demonstrator, so I can easily monitor my ink supply. It's not particularly fragile (so far). And, most importantly, it's comfortable in the hand.

 

I use Platinum Carbon Black ink for my sketches, and Daniel Smith watercolors. I picked up a bottle of Lexington Gray, but I haven't tried it out yet. Ditto De Atrimentis Document Brown, another waterproof ink. Hopefully I'll get out sketching soon and try them out.

 

 

[mouse2cat]

LOL I will make sure to post more cat photos. 

 

For the sketch with Rome Burning I was working on 100% cotton rag paper for watercolor. I am pretty sure ink just cannot feather on this paper. As soon as I used any other paper the issues of the ink were more prominent. I was ready to dump this ink honestly but my husband has become weirdly attached to it. So I just fill his pen with it. But I did squirt a syringe full of water into the bottle once I realized how much a few drops helped with spread. No regrets. 

 

DeAtramentis Urban Sienna is a better ink with a similar color vibe. 

 

I am also a lefty and the slow dry inks are just a disaster for me. They are downright unusable. 

[mouse2cat]

31 minutes ago, debraji said:

I do some urban sketching myself. My go-to sketching pen is a TWSBI Eco. It's not expensive. It's a piston-filler, which means it has large ink capacity. It's a demonstrator, so I can easily monitor my ink supply. It's not particularly fragile (so far). And, most importantly, it's comfortable in the hand.

 

I use Platinum Carbon Black ink for my sketches, and Daniel Smith watercolors. I picked up a bottle of Lexington Gray, but I haven't tried it out yet. Ditto De Atrimentis Document Brown, another waterproof ink. Hopefully I'll get out sketching soon and try them out.

 

 

 

I got a twsbi diamond mini and it is such a nice pen. And I picked up a bottle of Platinum Carbon after trying a sample of it. I love the line weight of the twsbi, good flow while still holding a fine line. If I had gotten the twsbi first I probably would have just been so immediately satisfied that I wouldn't have done all this research into fountain pens. lol

 

I also use the Daniel Smith watercolors. I feel like they have a good brightness to them. 

 

If I can't see this ink I will literally take the pen apart every day to check the ink level. >_< I like the look of the opaque pens and demonstrators get very messy looking but I guess I am just going to live that life.