Beginner ink troubles

[Loppetz]

Hi everyone,
I'm very new to all this, and I have been practicing some copperplate, although starting off very pleased with how quickly i felt i was picking it up, I'm now feeling rather frustrated.
I have a Nikko G nib and Kuretake Sumi Ink.
At first I found i was not dipping my pen far enough into the ink and it was lasting a few seconds, and now I seem to have the opposite problem - what am I doing wrong? My first few strokes seem to have too much ink, making webs with my ink when trying to draw an upstroke from a downstroke and my downstrokes being  piled high with ink, taking forever to dry! I am doing a firm shake of the pen before starting to write.
I also sometimes find that the ink is running out and landing in a blob on the paper even when I am definitely fully loaded - is this just my nib needing a swish of water and a clean?

Any ink related newbie tips would be great, thank you!

[Bianca M]

It is possible that your nib is not prepped completely. You need to get the coating that comes on a new nib entirely off.  There are many threads on here that discuss preparing your nib, how to do it and what methods people find work best for them, so try a search on "nib preparation" or "preparing nibs" and see if that helps.

In short, if you have any ink beading up on your nib, it's not prepped enough.  The ink should coat the nib evenly and smoothly, and you'll want to dip your nib just above the eye hole.  My preference in nib prep is saliva, which I apply to a paper towel or tissue and then wipe my nib until the coating has come sufficiently off.  I do give it a rinse in water before I dip into the ink - I try to avoid adding extra bacteria to my ink.

I hope this helps!

[Wonderer]

I had the exact problem when I started out!! It sounds like your ink is too watery.
I was using an off-brand Japanese ink, so changing ink to sumi worked for me. However, you are using a pretty reliable ink so there might be other reasons.
1. Mixing ink with water. Have you mixed your ink with water?
2. Prepping the nib. You need to take off the oil layer from new nibs. Washing them with toothpaste is a good method.

There's an awesome blog post on common ink problems: https://thepostmansknock.com/common-calligraphy-ink-problems-solutions/
Reading this when I first started helped so much!!

Hope this is helpful to you

[Loppetz]

I have not tried adding any water to my ink. I'd be scared to add too much and ruin it. How much should i add?

[Wonderer]

I have not tried adding any water to my ink. I'd be scared to add too much and ruin it. How much should i add?

If that's the case then don't any water AT ALL. I would recommend mixing in some gum arabic instead, since it makes the ink more condensed and non-watery. I'm not the expert on this, if you need any help, please refer to the link I gave in the previous reply, it's has a lot more information on there on how to dilute ink.

[Bianca M]

While I, too, dilute my sumi ink (I like 2 parts sumi to 1 part water), it should work straight out of the bottle.  I still suspect your nib might be the culprit.

[Wonderer]

While I, too, dilute my sumi ink (I like 2 parts sumi to 1 part water), it should work straight out of the bottle.  I still suspect your nib might be the culprit.

I thought that might be the case too. But the Loppetz did mention that he/she had no trouble with writing in the beginning. But maybe he/she changed the nib or the ink and forgot to prep it? Can't say anything else without more info on this.