Diamine Inkvent 2022

[AnasaziWrites]

Yul Log

[Cyril Jayant]

@K-2
Beautiful work and lovely ink and thank you for share these talents.
Yule log ink seems to be more appealing to me as I am a fan of brown inks !!!!

[Aries M]

I agree with @AnasaziWrites , @K-2 ! Great use for solar storm.

Super eyecatching ink but does require lots of recapping and shaking to maintain the sparkle throughout when lettering. I decided not to recap and shake/dip for the end of "storm".. theres some glitter here and there but not enough for a full chamelon affect.

[AnasaziWrites]

Solar Storm

[K-2]

@Cyril Jayant - Thank you for your kind words!  I'm a fan of brown ink too (I know the topic is a bit divisive!)

@AnasaziWrites - that creepy Yul log image is going to haunt me.  And the ghost of my mother (who was Yul's biggest fan) will shortly be rising from the dead to haunt you for that image.  Fantastic show of "Solar Storm"

@Aries M - Your copperplate is so beautiful!  Those capital S's - I have new S goals!

4. Spruce (scented) - a heavily saturated forrest green ink, leaning to the blue side of the spectrum.  You can see that in the fabulous chromatography, bleeding out vivid cyan and robin's egg blues.  A turgid reaction to bleach, and a touch of red sheen in areas of heavy concentration.  And.... scent...!  It smells like... wintergreen gum.  This is not a strong entry into the scented ink category.  Herbin does some fantastic scented inks with sophisticated fragrances that have a top note, a clear accord, and a lasting dry down that continues to effuse from the page for quite a while afterward.  They also are well-behaved writing inks.  "Spruce" is neither a good scent nor a good ink for writing.  It bled! on Col-O-Ring paper! which is really terrific paper specifically engineered to handle ink!

The unexpected sheen also makes it challenging for drawing.  It's very hard to control with a brush, and generally difficult to blend.  I rarely meet a Diamine ink that I don't like, but this one's a disappointment.

[Aries M]

@K-2 thank you very much! The "s" came in on an exchange and its one of my favorite variations!

Monoline copperplate today.. as soon as I saw this shade I loaded it into my fountain pen! (Nothing special- I believe its from Amazon, not sure the brand.) But its a goregous shade of green and the spruce scent is fun!

[AnasaziWrites]

@AnasaziWrites - that creepy Yul log image is going to haunt me.  And the ghost of my mother (who was Yul's biggest fan) will shortly be rising from the dead to haunt you for that image.

Glad you liked it. I'm a big Yul fan too. I'll be on the lookout for the ghost of your mother.

  Fantastic show of "Solar Storm"

That may be my favorite inkvent image I've done. As you probably surmised, it is of a single drop of ink on wetted watercolor paper, I photoed close up, and changed the background to match the ink color surrounding the center. Looks like a solar storm to me. This was the best of nine tries.

4. Spruce (scented) - a heavily saturated forrest green ink, leaning to the blue side of the spectrum.  You can see that in the fabulous chromatography, bleeding out vivid cyan and robin's egg blues.  A turgid reaction to bleach, and a touch of red sheen in areas of heavy concentration.  And.... scent...!  It smells like... wintergreen gum.  This is not a strong entry into the scented ink category.  Herbin does some fantastic scented inks with sophisticated fragrances that have a top note, a clear accord, and a lasting dry down that continues to effuse from the page for quite a while afterward.  They also are well-behaved writing inks.  "Spruce" is neither a good scent nor a good ink for writing.  It bled! on Col-O-Ring paper! which is really terrific paper specifically engineered to handle ink!

The unexpected sheen also makes it challenging for drawing.  It's very hard to control with a brush, and generally difficult to blend.  I rarely meet a Diamine ink that I don't like, but this one's a disappointment.

I liked the drawing. Great color for the subject. Well done. I had trouble writing with this ink as well.

[AnasaziWrites]

Spruce

Tried about 6 different papers with this ink, sealed and unsealed, and the TomoeRiver 68gm was the best. All the others bled, more or less. Please excuse the crudeness of this writing, as the ink was running off the nib like a gushing firehose. Don't have time just now to experiment with gum arabic, which should allow for better thins. Like the color and was surprised at the red sheen.

Edit to add a second image.
The key to using this ink with a pointed pen seems to be shaking it up vigorously just before writing,which seems to increase the viscosity enough to lessen the tendency to blurb out, particularly in making shades. Works pretty good monoline, if shaken, and pretty good with shaded script, as long as the shades aren't too large. I tried adding a bunch of gum arabic--18 drops per 3 ml--and it still blurbed if not shaken. Second image on untreated bristol smooth after shaking.

[AnasaziWrites]

Spiced Apple

One of the new "chameleon" inks. Really interesting abundance of colors. Writes pretty well right out of the bottle with pointed pen.

Edit to add a second image--I should leave the drawing to @K-2  .

[GaryL]

I love that capital S !

Gary

[K-2]

@Aries M wins "Spruce" -- Thank you for showing us that the ink really will work great for fountain pens. And yeah, I guess I also need to remember that it's formulated primarily for fountain pens, so I shouldn't be too disappointed when it doesn't work great for my little art projects.

I appreciate the kind words about my spruce bonsai drawing though, @AnasaziWrites
And Mike, I'm still riveted by your "Solar Storm" image.  It's like looking into the heart of a star.
I also really admire the way you got that chameleon shimmer to glow on "Spiced Apple"!

5. Spiced Apple (chameleon) - a saturated crimson red bleeding out bold candy-apple reds down to delicate blush & petal pinks, with loads of chameleon shimmer and also (unadvertised) gold sheen. A weak reaction to bleach, like most red inks.  Crisp lines for broad edge and pointed pen calligraphy right out of the bottle.

Please refer to @AnasaziWrites for a terrific example of that this ink is capable of for calligraphy.  It's a stunner, and I'm eager to put it to use on my holiday cards.  I can't wait to experiment with it on different papers!

The drawing shows some of its limitations as an art medium.  The sheen & shimmer are so pronounced that it wants to create outlines and it's a little hard to blend (which together can make a cool wood-block type of effect).  Having just finished teaching Milton's Paradise Lost, I've adapted this drawing of Eve from a NSFW 19thC pre-Raphaelite painting, adding a few extra loops of the snake to keep it PG13 for the internet. Spiced but not too hot.

[AnasaziWrites]

@K-2
Outstanding Spiced Apple.

I think I've figured out a bit of the spruce ink, and will post an edit soon as well as another chameleon for educational purposes.

[AnasaziWrites]

Ghost

[Aries M]

I was wondering how you took that picture @AnasaziWrites It really is beautiful display of the ink!

Spiced Apple and Ghost.. as mentioned before out of the bottle spiced apple was great to write with using a dip pen. The shimmer is goregous. Wish I had this ink BEFORE I started my christmas cards.

Ghost seemed very watery to me...buuut I think how it turned out kinda goes with its name.

I had no idea the spruce has that red undertone too it! Definitely do not see that using the fountain pen. Ill definitely be trying it again with my dip pen.

[K-2]

@AnasaziWrites - That's a great chameleon drawing! (and you know - it took me a long time to learn how to draw things; keep drawing and build confidence).  I see you used some bleach on your Ghost drawing!  great effect!

@Aries M - I really admire your copperplate, with the sharp, square finish to the p's and that stunning capital S!  You might see that red sheen on "Spruce" from a fountain pen, if you use Tomoe River paper or a heavier watercolor paper.

6. Ghost (standard) - This may seem like it's going to be a modest light grey ink without any fancy shimmer or sheen, that might even been a little watery... Put all that aside, it's got subtle chromatography, bleeding out cool pale blue and warm taupe, with a great reaction to bleach. It did well for calligraphy too! even the hairlines on the pointed pen script! and such enormous potential for a drawing ink! 

In my Fliegender Holländer drawing, to give the impression of the ghostly sails, I capitalized on that reaction with bleach that AnasaziWrites showed us.  What a fun ink to splash around!