Diamine Inkvent 2022

[AnasaziWrites]

Cozy Up

Day 21

Standard ink, works okay with pointed pen if shades are small. Red-orange vermilion bleeds to pink. I like flame a little better in this color arena.

[Tasmith]

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.

Kurrentschrift?  First time I saw this was as a kid looking at a family bible from the 1850s brought over by my German ancestors.  I remember thinking, "What language is this, I thought they were German?"    I guess I expected Black Letter or Gothic.

[AnasaziWrites]

Deck the Halls

day 22

A chameleon ink Starts as kind of grape purple, bleeds to pink. The sparkle settles out quite quickly, so needs to be shaken. Seemed to work better on watercolor paper than bristol smooth. Need to experiment more with this one. Has possibilities. Okay for pointed pen right out of the bottle.

[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.

Kurrentschrift?  First time I saw this was as a kid looking at a family bible from the 1850s brought over by my German ancestors.  I remember thinking, "What language is this, I thought they were German?"    I guess I expected Black Letter or Gothic.

Similar to you, @Tasmith , I first saw it from a bible my wife's forebears brought with them from Prussia dated 1846.

[K-2]

Glad to see you pop up in this thread, @Tasmith - I've also got questions about the Kurrent that @AnasaziWrites is using. A colleague of mine asked me to look into the Kurrent variant called "Sütterlin" the other day, since she's working on a historical figure that wrote his diary entries using it. Sütterlin was sort of the Spencerian of Germany, developed in the early 1900s, so a bit later than the script from 1846 in your wife's family bible, Mike - But if you're as good at reading this script as you are writing it, maybe you'd be interested in helping out a scholar? - its a music history project.

As it is, I'm behind on these Inkvent posts, but I suppose that just means I'll keep the thread going well into January.  I'm not sure how much I'll get to draw in the next couple weeks, as we'll be traveling to visit family.  There's still a ground blizzard warning , so I hope we'll actually get where we're going.

In the meantime...
14. Three Kings (standard) - another of the relatively "boring" inks according to Mike and @Aries M who described it as "Kinda like yellow and sepia had a ink baby".  I think it's a lovely ink for drawing, very much like a darker/browner version of "Candlelight" from last Inkvent, and also a terrific replacement for Noodler's Golden Brown (which has quality control issues, like many of the Noodler's inks). A medium, warm honey tinged brown with great shading, bleeding out sunny lemony yellows, with a white-gold reaction to bleach.  Nice control on the broad edge and the pointed pen scripts.

The drawing is a quick and free, rather impressionistic sketch of Köln Cathedral, where the bones and crowns of the Three Kings of the bible's Nativity story reside in a golden reliquary.  While the foundations of the cathedral were laid in the mid-13th century, it was largely completed in the 19th century.  I hope it satisfies the desire for a more interesting use for a boring ink!

[Erica McPhee]

WOW! Amazing illustration!

[Tasmith]

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.

Kurrentschrift?  First time I saw this was as a kid looking at a family bible from the 1850s brought over by my German ancestors.  I remember thinking, "What language is this, I thought they were German?"    I guess I expected Black Letter or Gothic.

Similar to you, @Tasmith , I first saw it from a bible my wife's forebears brought with them from Prussia dated 1846.

  My family also from Prussia, Friedeberg Nm, now in Poland.

[AnasaziWrites]

Glad to see you pop up in this thread, @Tasmith - I've also got questions about the Kurrent that @AnasaziWrites is using. A colleague of mine asked me to look into the Kurrent variant called "Sütterlin" the other day, since she's working on a historical figure that wrote his diary entries using it. Sütterlin was sort of the Spencerian of Germany, developed in the early 1900s, so a bit later than the script from 1846 in your wife's family bible, Mike - But if you're as good at reading this script as you are writing it, maybe you'd be interested in helping out a scholar? - its a music history project.

@K-2
I'm really just a beginner in Kurrent, and although fluent in German at one time, it's mostly rusted away now, so wouldn't be of much help.
But we do have an expert on the forum--Estefa on FF, Stephanie Weigele, a graphic designer and calligrapher from Germany, who actually teaches Kurrent.
Here's her blog:
https://www.instagram.com/federflugcalligraphy/

Kurrent lasted for centuries in Europe, ending in WWII in Germany at Hitler's order. I'm learning the version popular in the 1870's from two books published by E. Steiger & Co, NY--actually two versions of essentially the same book, Ahn's Rudiments of the German language, Division One, meant for the two lowest grades of pupils--so first and second grade. One book has a little English in it (pub. 1873), and the other only German (pub. 1871). I also have 30 or so examples of letters/documents made around that time, and two superb pieces by Verharne published in the first quarter of the 19th century (on a level skillwise to Bickham's Universal Penman).

[AnasaziWrites]

The drawing is a quick and free, rather impressionistic sketch of Köln Cathedral, where the bones and crowns of the Three Kings of the bible's Nativity story reside in a golden reliquary.  While the foundations of the cathedral were laid in the mid-13th century, it was largely completed in the 19th century.  I hope it satisfies the desire for a more interesting use for a boring ink!

@K-2
Ah, the largest gothic cathedral in Europe. I first saw it in 1971, at night, from a ship coming into Cologne. It was all lit up and was the most beautiful building I had ever seen (at that time). I think you captured the essence of it.

[AnasaziWrites]

Celebration

Day 23

A sheen ink bleeds to orange/pink. A little like Flame, but redder and with sheen. Needs gum arabic unless the shades are small with pointed pen. A nice addition to the red family.

[AnasaziWrites]

One more Sleep

Day 24

A standard ink, similar to Arctic Blast without the fireworks. Bleeds to sky blue and dusky rose. Really thin--needs gum arabic to make shades wider than the "O". The attempt in the "S" left uncorrected to show what happens--blob or railroading--when wider shades made with pointed pen. Nothing really special with this ink, similar to many others in the blue/violet family, although @K-2 will do something special with it I'm sure, as time allows.

Looking forward to the big bottle on Day 25. Hope it's something special.

[AnasaziWrites]

Best Wishes

Day 25

Interesting chameleon ink--Both green and brown, some blue and red too. Amazing.

Merry Christmas everyone.

[K-2]

Happy Holidays & Best Wishes for the New Year!

I'm back!  And while I will still be somewhat pokey about posting, I'll keep going until the end!

@AnasaziWrites - That's a great tip on @Estefa and their expertise in Kurrent! Thanks! Also, I'm excited to see how your New Year's Calligraphy Goals come along. I only saw Köln Cathedral in person a few years ago, when I was in Germany for a research trip. It's enormous! Even taller than St. Peter's Basilica in Rome (although St. Peter's Basilica still has the larger footprint and overall volume, it isn't technically a cathedral), and so very beautiful! I'm flattered that you think my drawing does it justice.

@Aries M - I hope I'm not too late coming back to this!  I hope you'll return to the thread once the new year excitement dies down too!

@Erica McPhee - I count the Flourish Forum as one of the things to feel grateful for in the new year!  Thank you again for bringing us together! And thank you so much for your kind thoughts about my drawing of Köln Cathedral!

15. Pick Me Up (scent & sheen) - smells (sort of) like coffee!  A rich, saturated, warm dark brown with green sheen, bleeding out a gorgeous array of cocoas, salmons and pinks, with mint green haloing in the chromatography.  A white-gold reaction to bleach, decent hairlines on the pointed pen script, and good definition on the broad-edge scripts.

What a lovely ink to draw with! Check out the tonal variation and chromatography here! Despite having a brown base, it is not one of the "boring inks". I'm smitten! In consideration of the coffee themed/colored/scented ink, I did a drawing of the Kona coast - where my favorite coffee comes from. My aunt & uncle lived on the Hilo side of the Big Island, and it was always a special treat to get 100% pure Kona coffee when we visited them.

[Estefa]

Thanks so much for mentioning me, @AnasaziWrites ! I’m still researching and learning a lot about Kurrent. As you (or one of the others in this thread) said, it was after all in use for centuries and evolved a lot over time! Also it was more or less written with all kind of tools (except brush), from broad edged (quills) to pointed pen and one of its last iterations, Sütterlin, was monoline. There are even some examples done with flat brush for advertising purposes (early 20th century). So there isn’t much you can do wrong, especially as it was basically a handwriting style! Using the long s correctly (in German at least) is a bit of a challenge, but makes for a more convincing look of a piece of text.

I’m actually planning to put together an online class about Kurrent, but until now a lot of unpleasant circumstances have postponed this :/.

Wishing everyone all the best for a better 2023!

[K-2]

@Estefa - I have a German colleague who is looking at documents in Sütterlin for her work in music history.  She's not familiar with the script, and the writer was a native English speaker who was living in Germany, writing in German, so there are lots of errors in the German text. Maybe I can refer her to you?

@Aries M @AnasaziWrites - and to anyone else still following along... Thank you for being patient with me!

16. Serendipity (shimmer & sheen) - a dark teal (teal! @Erica McPhee ), saturated enough to make shading a bit difficult, with some very slight hints of chromatography, bleeding out pale blue and pigeon grey. Red sheen and rose gold shimmer!  white-gold reaction to bleach!  steady line control with broad edge and pointed pen scripts!  What's not to like?

[cw: pedantry] @Zivio
The drawing honors the etymology of "Serendipity" which first enters the English lexicon in 1754, coined by Horace Walpole in a letter to Horace Mann, as a reference to a Persian fairy tale known in English as "The Three Princes of Serendip" (an English version was published in 1722) whose heroes "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of" [Walpole]. Serendip, (also Serendib), attested by 1708 in English, was an old name for Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, from Arabic Sarandib, from Sanskrit Simhaladvipa "Dwelling-Place-of-Lions Island." /pedantry

So this is a picture of Danuka Ariyawansa, an award winning Kandyan dancer (a symbol of Sri Lankan heritage) from Sri Lanka