Author Topic: Diamine Inkvent 2021  (Read 8480 times)

Offline K-2

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Re: Diamine Inkvent 2021
« Reply #30 on: December 15, 2021, 03:59:35 PM »
@AnasaziWrites - make sure to shake the bottle vigorously to get the shimmer particles into suspension.  They actually fall to the bottom of the bottle really fast, so I'm always recapping and shaking them up more - but sometimes I leave them at the bottom too, depending on the effect I want.

Sometimes with high-shading inks like this, I use a blunt syringe and add a tiny drop of water (or fountain pen ink dilution fluid - it's just fountain pen ink medium without any dye) to the underside of the nib as the ink starts to run out, so I get an ombre effect as I write.  You can also write with more or less pure water or dilution fluid (broad edge / automatic pen) and then use an eye dropper to add the ink so it swirls around on the letters.  If you add two colors from opposite directions, they'll blend together in the middle!

When you use them in fountain pens, the feed meters out the ink flow so that they're less concentrated on the page.  I think it will look more blue and less black in an actual fountain pen.  But you'd probably need a fountain pen with a medium or broad nib (or a calligraphy nib) to really see the shading.  IMHO, these are much more fun to use as an art medium than in a pen.

@Gary - that's very sweet of you.  We're all our own worst critics, aren't we?  But you have to admit that it is the objectively worst drawing I've put up in the series so far.

@Erica McPhee - I think these little bottles start circulating on eBay as people get rid of the colors they don't love and try to hoard the ones they do.  You could probably find a little bottle of Stargazer to play with, if you don't want to wait until Diamine releases them in full size bottles.  I don't think it'd make a good ink for writing cheques though - it's quite water-soluble, even thought it's very saturated.

And now onto....
"Night Shade" - A beautiful, medium violet-blue "standard" ink, with gorgeous chromatography, bleeding out lilac, dove grey, bright cyan, and robin's egg blue.  Neon white-gold reaction to bleach, and good for writing straight out of the bottle.  This ink appears to be the blue-violet sibling to red-violet "Harmony" (from earlier in the series).  I've put an image of the two test swatches side by side so that you can see the family resemblance.

Now I admit that upon hearing the name of the ink, my first impulse for a drawing was going to be a picture of the very fierce Regina King in her roll as "Sister Night / Angela Abar" in the Watchmen TV series.  But then the color on the test swatch was so pretty and so delicate.... and it harmonized with "Harmony" so well....

I don't expect very many people will know about Hazel Scott (1920-1981) - but she was one of the all time great jazz pianists.  A child prodigy!  She played with Mingus, with Billy Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, with Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway and Count Basie.  She headlined at New York's Café Society (sometimes called the first proper nightclub in America) and she played at Carnegie Hall.  She had her own TV show (I think she was the first black woman to have her own TV show!). Her 1957 album "'Round Midnight" is essential, and brings me to the prompt, "Night Shade."

She was a civil-rights activist too!  In the end, House Un-American Activities Committee canceled her show and did in her career - unjustly, as with so many others.  She went to France for 10 years, and died way too young, in 1981.

Offline AnasaziWrites

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Re: Diamine Inkvent 2021
« Reply #31 on: December 15, 2021, 05:47:50 PM »
@AnasaziWrites - make sure to shake the bottle vigorously to get the shimmer particles into suspension.  They actually fall to the bottom of the bottle really fast, so I'm always recapping and shaking them up more - but sometimes I leave them at the bottom too, depending on the effect I want.

Sometimes with high-shading inks like this, I use a blunt syringe and add a tiny drop of water (or fountain pen ink dilution fluid - it's just fountain pen ink medium without any dye) to the underside of the nib as the ink starts to run out, so I get an ombre effect as I write.  You can also write with more or less pure water or dilution fluid (broad edge / automatic pen) and then use an eye dropper to add the ink so it swirls around on the letters.  If you add two colors from opposite directions, they'll blend together in the middle!

When you use them in fountain pens, the feed meters out the ink flow so that they're less concentrated on the page.  I think it will look more blue and less black in an actual fountain pen.  But you'd probably need a fountain pen with a medium or broad nib (or a calligraphy nib) to really see the shading.  IMHO, these are much more fun to use as an art medium than in a pen.

@K-2
Love the Hazel Scott portait. One of your best.

Thanks for the tips regarding this ink. Pretty amazing effects when writing on moistened paper. Shaking proved to be key--much more shimmer and sparkle after shaking, and very noticeable with broad pen.

Will these inks wash out of sable brushes? I'd hate to wreck the few I have (to use with watercolors). I'm using a cheap throwaway for the moment.

Are any of these inks permanent or semi-permanent?

Do you need to spray fixative over say a first layer in order to overlay a second layer without bleeding?

Offline K-2

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Re: Diamine Inkvent 2021
« Reply #32 on: December 15, 2021, 07:48:13 PM »
@AnasaziWrites - Thanks for your good thoughts about the Hazel Scott piece.  I was really pleased with it.  It lifted the hot shame I felt over Ruby Bridges.

Can you see why I love these inks so much now?  Wet on wet is amazing - especially if you're used to using sumi inks for that technique!  If you use good watercolor paper and let the layers dry, you shouldn't have to use any fixatives.  All my drawings and swatches are done with only ink, water, and maybe a touch of bleach (but not on all of them).

Unlike iron gall inks (which set through a chemical reaction to the oxygen in the air) and pigment based inks (like carbon/sumi inks or watercolor pigments which are basically insoluble particulates), no dye based ink is ever really permanent or waterproof, but if you keep them out of bright light they'll last long enough.  That also means that they're safe to use with your quality brushes - same like watercolors.  Sometime the shimmer gets a little persistent, but I give them a bath in an ultra-sonic cleaner every few days, and all is well.  I also clean my brushes with a brush soap when I've been using a very saturated ink.  I'm sort of a neat freak about my brushes and tools.

Offline AnasaziWrites

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Re: Diamine Inkvent 2021
« Reply #33 on: December 15, 2021, 09:54:01 PM »
@AnasaziWrites - Thanks for your good thoughts about the Hazel Scott piece.  I was really pleased with it.  It lifted the hot shame I felt over Ruby Bridges.

Can you see why I love these inks so much now?  Wet on wet is amazing - especially if you're used to using sumi inks for that technique!  If you use good watercolor paper and let the layers dry, you shouldn't have to use any fixatives.  All my drawings and swatches are done with only ink, water, and maybe a touch of bleach (but not on all of them).

Unlike iron gall inks (which set through a chemical reaction to the oxygen in the air) and pigment based inks (like carbon/sumi inks or watercolor pigments which are basically insoluble particulates), no dye based ink is ever really permanent or waterproof, but if you keep them out of bright light they'll last long enough.  That also means that they're safe to use with your quality brushes - same like watercolors.  Sometime the shimmer gets a little persistent, but I give them a bath in an ultra-sonic cleaner every few days, and all is well.  I also clean my brushes with a brush soap when I've been using a very saturated ink.  I'm sort of a neat freak about my brushes and tools.
Again, thanks for the tips.
Regards the tools, I'm with you. Treat your tools right and they'll treat you right.


Offline AnasaziWrites

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Stargazer ink test
« Reply #34 on: December 16, 2021, 10:11:41 AM »
@AnasaziWrites - make sure to shake the bottle vigorously to get the shimmer particles into suspension.  They actually fall to the bottom of the bottle really fast, so I'm always recapping and shaking them up more - but sometimes I leave them at the bottom too, depending on the effect I want.

@K-2
One can certainly get some interesting effects with this ink.
The advice to shake it up made a huge difference. What a spectacular color change. The "Om" was written after shaking up the ink, the following "M" before shaking. With pointed pen, as in "Star," the shade is really too small to see the effect (although it's there). With broad pen, as in "Om"--just fantastic. Would have been perfect for Christmas card envelopes using a broad pen script.
Click on these two photos to really see the letters up close.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2021, 10:14:50 AM by AnasaziWrites »

Offline K-2

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Re: Diamine Inkvent 2021
« Reply #35 on: December 16, 2021, 06:36:10 PM »
@AnasaziWrites - What a gorgeous O!  Note that if you're going to use this sort of ink on cards/envelopes, you might need to prep the surface with a matte spray or something such (hairspray is good in a pinch!).  Otherwise the sheen and shimmer might get absorbed into the paper fiber rather than sitting on top.

Today's ink is another sparkler!

"Vintage Copper" - A dazzling copper colored ink with loads of gold shimmer.  It's not noted as such, but you can see some clear black sheening around the gothic lettering.  The shimmer is even visible in the pointed pen script, straight out of the bottle!  Gorgeous chromatography too, bleeding out vivid blood-orange, salmons, and tawny amber.  And a neon gold reaction to bleach.

It is possible that this is "merely" Diamine's previously-released "Ancient Copper" with gold shimmer thrown in.  To which I say: Look at that gold shimmer!  If you like shimmer, it makes a beautiful ink even more beautiful!  And if you don't like the shimmer so much, by all means "Ancient Copper" is beautiful all on its own.  But if you don't shake the bottle up, the shimmer settles very rapidly, so you can kind of have it both ways.

The drawing is of Samuel J. Battle (1883-1966), the first black police officer in New York City (served NYPD 1911-1941).  Sorry not sorry about the pun.  I couldn't resist.


Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Diamine Inkvent 2021
« Reply #36 on: December 16, 2021, 11:17:59 PM »
I am just in awe at these last two. Did you know you can self publish children’s books on amazon? I’m thinking teen level illustration history book…  :)
Warm Regards,
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Offline AnasaziWrites

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Testing Diamine Vintage Copper
« Reply #37 on: December 17, 2021, 04:20:18 PM »
@AnasaziWrites - What a gorgeous O!  Note that if you're going to use this sort of ink on cards/envelopes, you might need to prep the surface with a matte spray or something such (hairspray is good in a pinch!).  Otherwise the sheen and shimmer might get absorbed into the paper fiber rather than sitting on top.

Today's ink is another sparkler!

"Vintage Copper" - A dazzling copper colored ink with loads of gold shimmer.  It's not noted as such, but you can see some clear black sheening around the gothic lettering.  The shimmer is even visible in the pointed pen script, straight out of the bottle!  Gorgeous chromatography too, bleeding out vivid blood-orange, salmons, and tawny amber.  And a neon gold reaction to bleach.
. . .  Sorry not sorry about the pun.  I couldn't resist.

Well now, this is an arresting ink, particularly for drawing, as @K-2 most admirably did. To me, the most interesting effect was when a drop was placed on a moist (Windex) paper towel. As the ink dried, it left behind the gold shimmer and bled out to various interesting oranges, yellows, reds.
It did require treated paper (fixative) so as not to bleed and to retain the shimmer, rather gold like. For pointed pen, I'd choose Dr. Martin's Iridescent Copper, which works fine on untreated paper as well as treated. But for drawing, the Diamine presents many more possibilities.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2021, 04:34:40 PM by AnasaziWrites »

Offline K-2

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Re: Diamine Inkvent 2021
« Reply #38 on: December 17, 2021, 10:40:16 PM »
@Erica McPhee - Your enthusiasm for my drawings is super flattering!  I'm glad you're enjoying them, and hope seeing the inks in action is providing a service to the Forum.  I really enjoyed drawing with the last two inks.

@AnasaziWrites - wetted paper towels are a great medium to break the ink!  you can really see what an ink is made of when you put a drop on a dry strip of towel and then dip an end into water - it'll break the dye down into the various masses of its components - lighter molecules are carried further up the strip.  I included a photo of today's ink.

"Thunderbolt" - a rich, royal blue "standard" that shows a bit of sheen in the especially saturated parts.  On the towel strip it breaks down into violet and cyan components.  On the Col-O-Ring paper it bleeds out pale baby blues and periwinkles, with a neon white reaction to bleach.  But it resists even shading, which made it a little trickier for watercolor sketching.

Today's drawing was a quick sketch - I ran out of time, so it's pretty rough!  I may try to refine it more later on, but I also need to move on to the next ink.  But maybe the quickness of the sketch is appropriate to its subject anyway.  I'll have something more polished tomorrow.


Offline K-2

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Re: Diamine Inkvent 2021
« Reply #39 on: December 18, 2021, 02:55:55 PM »
"Subzero" - an icy, arctic blue ink with silvery shimmer.  Look at the "I" in Inkvent!  Like a diamond trapped in a glacier!  High shading, bleeding out a very subtle range of sky blue, robin's egg, and hints of cyan.

You may recognize the drawing as the harder-working half of a famous Everest climbing duo -- I will admit to a certain amount of pleasure in cropping Edmund Hilary out of the picture to focus on Tenzing Norgay.  (Why yes, "K-2" is a reference to that mountain in Kashmir.)

Offline AnasaziWrites

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Re: Diamine Inkvent 2021
« Reply #40 on: December 18, 2021, 04:32:10 PM »
I always felt that Hillary got too much credit and Norgay not enough. Where was his knighthood?
Well done on all counts.

Offline K-2

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Re: Diamine Inkvent 2021
« Reply #41 on: December 19, 2021, 03:44:35 PM »
Indeed, @AnasaziWrites - and thank you.  Your encouragement always makes my day.

"Festive Joy" - a brilliant red-leaning "standard" purple, bleeding out powdery lavender and hints of magenta.  Clear and clean white reaction to bleach.  And a hint of sheen in the saturated portions, with more sheen in evidence in the drawing.

In 2016, the Minnesota Wild made "Let's Go Crazy" their goal song as a tribute to our beloved music icon.  Unfortunately, they didn't score many goals that season. Or the next.  Nonetheless....

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Re: Diamine Inkvent 2021
« Reply #42 on: December 20, 2021, 03:13:26 PM »
Friends - I will be traveling a bit over the holidays, and while I hope to take this show on the road, I'm also not sure I'll actually get to draw much, so you can expect an Inkvent slow-down.  Maybe @AnasaziWrites will pick up the slack with his set of inks and his gorgeous Spencerian and/or other experiments.  It's really cool seeing what other people can do with the same ink!  Maybe you're following along on some of the social media sites that are also showing swatches.

"Pink Ice" - a pretty bubble-gum pink with silvery shimmer, and shading down through pink eraser down to soft petal pink.  My god-daughter is going to love getting letters in this sparkle ink.

For the drawing, honestly, I kind of had option paralysis in picking a subject for this ink - I almost drew a picture of Maddie Rooney, Minnesota's own Gold Medal winning Olympic Women's Ice Hockey goalie.  Who was a student at my university too (actually, only around 3 of the women's hockey teams at the last Winter Olympics didn't have a player from my university on them).   Or one of the amazing athletes of the Olympic Curling Team (mostly from Minnesota).  Or Olympic Gold Medalist in Nordic Skiing, Jessie Diggins (Minnesotan)...  Gee - I hope Minnesota's Winter Olympics Team wins the Olympics again!

In the end, I chose another Minnesota legend, Ann Bancroft, Polar Explorer: First woman to reach the North Pole on foot.  First woman to cross both polar ice caps. And she led the first all-female expedition to the South Pole.

The drawing really pushed the tonal range of the ink, but shows that if you dump enough ink on the page, you get an effect that is almost red.

Offline AnasaziWrites

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Re: Diamine Inkvent 2021
« Reply #43 on: December 20, 2021, 04:45:30 PM »
The drawing
Another stellar drawing by FF's own l'etoile du nord, @K-2

Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Diamine Inkvent 2021
« Reply #44 on: December 21, 2021, 03:13:46 PM »
You may recognize the drawing as the harder-working half of a famous Everest climbing duo -- I will admit to a certain amount of pleasure in cropping Edmund Hilary out of the picture to focus on Tenzing Norgay.  (Why yes, "K-2" is a reference to that mountain in Kashmir.)

My favorite color! The way you capture expression is amazing! And … you get the “most fascinating dinner guest award.”  ;D

Have a wonderful holiday!  :-*
Warm Regards,
Erica
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