A Second Look at Inks

Diamine Eclipse

During the winter months when I spend most of my sketching time in coffee shops, museums and other indoor venues, I tend to use less watercolor and reach instead for water-soluble inks to make monochromatic sketches. So it was almost exactly a year ago that I set out to try a variety of ink samples from GouletPens.com to determine my favorites in black, brown and blue – one waterproof and one water-soluble ink in each color. For waterproof inks, my main criteria were for the ink not to smear with the application of water after the ink dried, and to dry within a few minutes. For water-soluble inks, I was looking for rich line color with bold, complex washes (maybe I should become a wine critic). I ended up choosing eight:

Waterproof:

Platinum Carbon Black

Platinum Pigmented Sepia

Sailor Sei-Boku Blue Black (no longer available at Goulet)

Water-soluble:

Private Reserve Velvet Black

Private Reserve Ultra Black (fast dry)

Diamine Chocolate Brown
Diamine Twilight
Diamine Grey

Private Reserve Velvet Black

Since then, I have continued to try out other inks as they have come to my attention or when I’m in the mood for something new. (I’ve even experimented with mixing my own.) With the gazillions of inks available, I keep my mind open, willing to change my go-to ink choices if I find one I like better. But time after time, I go back to trusty favorites. Eventually, I eliminated a few from my favorites list for various reasons, and now I have the list down to a solid, reliable five:

Waterproof:

Platinum Carbon Black

Water-soluble:

Diamine Chocolate Brown

Diamine Grey

Private Reserve Velvet Black

Diamine Eclipse

Diamine Chocolate Brown

Regarding the waterproof inks, I realized that if I was adding watercolor to a sketch, I wanted the line ink to be as neutral as possible, so I stopped using Sailor Sei-Boku Blue Black fairly quickly. I like using a waterproof brown sometimes, but Platinum Sepia lacks umph – neither warm nor bold. (What a shame that Platinum doesn’t make a brown that’s the equivalent to its Carbon Black.) So Platinum Carbon Black is still my waterproof ink of choice and has no challengers as far as I can see (don’t even mention Noodler’s, which made it onto my Bottom 10 list).

Diamine Twilight is a beautiful dark blue – but its wash can be too bright. I found myself reaching more often for Diamine Eclipse, which was on my preliminary list but didn’t make the final cut previously. Its more neutral blue/black hue and gorgeous, complex wash eventually worked its way onto my favorites list and pushed Twilight off.

Although I loved the solid, rich black that Private Reserve Ultra Black offers, it turned out to have bad habits: it clogs my pen quickly, and it has a sparkly sheen even after it’s dry. I stopped using it after several months of annoyance.

Diamine Grey applied with a waterbrush
to make the shadows.

Diamine Grey is still on my list, but in a new form. As a drawing line, it has a beautiful, cool-gray hue, but its wash is too pale to suit me. So several months ago, I filled a waterbrush with full-strength Diamine Grey and use it for shading. It’s transparent like watercolor, so if I want darker shading, I just brush on more.

The others that have stayed on my list all along – Diamine Chocolate Brown and Private Reserve Velvet Black – are my ever-reliable inks that still have no contenders. In fact, I hadn’t used Velvet Black for a few months, and when I went back to it, I wondered why I ever stopped. (Although just lately I’m wondering if it was because it has the same clogging issue that Private Reserve Ultra Black has. . . either that, or it’s time to give my pens a thorough cleaning.)

Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi

On the second tier – the inks I occasionally reach for when I want a change – are the afore-mentioned Diamine Twilight and Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi. The latter makes a lovely warm gray line that flows beautifully – but with a wimpy wash. I love the hue so much that I keep using it, but as soon as I put water to it, I’m left wanting. (Maybe I should use it only for writing in my journal.)

Speaking of flow, by now I have a huge collection (probably more than a hundred) of Goulet ink samples, and if I can make a blanket statement about any of the brands, I’d say that Diamine flows the most consistently and never gives me problems like clogging or taking too long to dry for this lefty.

Diamine Twilight

I think of myself as fairly fickle about art materials, so I’m a little surprised to find that I’ve been as faithful as I have to several inks for more than a year. We’ll see what I say a year from now.

Another Sketchbook Project Done

11/15/13 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink

Today I filled the last page in my 2014 Sketchbook Project sketchbook, which I began on Oct. 17, and I’m happy – more like relieved – to be done. Last year the project was a fun novelty; this year I was mostly annoyed by the thin, slick paper that can’t take even the slightest wash (which I gave every page anyway, causing a lot of buckling and wrinkling). The main reason I participated again is that in 2014 the Sketchbook Project mobile library will be coming to the Pacific Northwest, including Seattle, and it will be fun to finally see the exhibit here. But it’s probably going to be the last time I participate.

One thing I’m pleased about is that the entire book – containing mostly sketches of people in the indoor urban landscape – is what I would call “typical” of my sketching habit, especially in the winter months. As was true last year, I didn’t want the drawings in the Sketchbook Project sketchbook to be somehow “special”; I didn’t want to try to make them somehow “better” (as if I consciously could), because I knew that would make me freeze up. I just wanted the sketchbook to be a typical sampling of what I do every day in my ordinary sketchbook, and it turned out to be exactly that (except for the crappy paper, of course). I think the theme will be “Strange Neighbors.”

11/19/13 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink

Most of the sketches have already appeared on my blog on the dates that I drew them, and all the sketches I made in November are already in my Flickr photostream because I put them into the NaNoDrawMo group. But if you’d like to see all the pages as a group, I’ve put them into this Sketchbook Project 2014 Flickr set.

Drawing Jam Rocks Again!

12/7/13 Evan Flory-Barnes. Diamine Chocolate Brown ink,
Sailor pen, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

It was 20 degrees yesterday morning, the coldest day of the season so far. Peggy and I arrived at Gage Academy at 8:35 a.m., which meant that we could either wait in the warm car or wait in line outside for 25 minutes before the doors would even open. Without hesitation, we both headed for the line immediately – and three people were already ahead of us, shivering as we were!

Crazy?

Maybe. But that’s the way it is at Drawing Jam, Gage’s annual festival of participative art, which I had been looking forward to ever since I went to my very first Jam last year! Where else can you spend 12 hours drawing, looking at art, chatting with friends while drawing, eating, drawing, meeting people, drawing, getting free art supplies, drawing, listening to live music and drawing some more – all for $10?

12/7/13 Miss Kitty Baby. Diamine Chocolate
Brown ink, Sailor pen

As I did last year, I spent most of my time in the “Stars of Seattle” studio, where local celebrities like the Seattle Seafair Pirates, rock band Midday Veil and burlesque performer Miss Kitty Baby posed as models. My favorite “model” was improvisational jazz bass player Evan Flory-Barnes, who, unlike the others, didn’t pose – he simply performed his innovative music while we sketched him. (The life drawing monitor kept interrupting his performance every 20 minutes to ask him if he wanted a break, which he always declined. I wanted to shout, “Stop interrupting! Let the man play!”) Sketching while listening to live, improvisational jazz. . . does it get any better?

After eight hours of drawing, I finally called it a day, and I’m already looking forward to next year. Rock on, Gage! (To see more of my sketches from Drawing Jam, see my Life Drawing set in my Flickr Photostream.)

12/7/13 Seafair Pirate. Private Reserve Velvet Black ink

12/7/13 Seafair Pirate. Private Reserve Velvet Black ink

12/7/13 Midday Veil. Private Reserve Velvet
Black ink

12/7/13 Seafair Pirate. Private Reserve Velvet
Black ink

Only three people ahead of us in line -- but we still have 25 minutes
to wait in 20-degree weather before we can storm the doors down.

Virginity a Fond Memory at Cloud City (and Last Chance for the Hero)

12/6/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Sailor pen, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Ever since I discovered Zoka Coffee near Green Lake, I haven’t frequented Cloud City Coffee as often. Zoka’s spacious interior and high windows make it more appealing for sketching. But I have a soft spot in my heart for Cloud City, and not just because it’s right in my own Maple Leaf neighborhood: Cloud City Coffee was the first place I ever sketched in public.

12/6/13 Private Reserve Ebony Brown ink, Hero pen, Sketchbook Project sketchbook

That day I had brought with me a nearly new, handbound, leather-covered sketchbook that I paid $160 for shortly after I had made the commitment to draw regularly. I had filled the first several pages with a few still lifes at home. But even back then, I knew in my heart that I wanted to be an urban sketcher. So on the morning of Oct. 14, 2011, I walked the few blocks to Cloud City, bought some coffee, sat down at a table and took the sketchbook out. I was certain every person in the room was staring at me. Before I could lose my nerve, I hastily picked out my first victim (the man on the left in the sketch at the bottom of the post) and started to draw. And thus began one of my now-favorite cold-weather activities: sketching in coffee shops. (When I look at that two-year-old sketch now, I still recall the rush of anxiety and paranoia!)

Today I was on my way home from running errands when I stopped at Cloud City on a whim. After a quick one in my Sketchbook Project sketchbook (only one more page to go!), I got tired of being blasted by frigid air (we’ve had temperatures in the mid-20s all week) every time the door opened, so I moved to the other side of the room. Men in Seattle – at least those who frequent coffee shops in the middle of the day – tend to wear sweaters and crewnecks, so I rarely have opportunities to practice sketching a dress shirt (that pleat in back is challenging). Today I did (top of post). And as I sketched, I felt nostalgic fondness for this place where I lost my sketching-in-public virginity.

(Technical note: After generally rejecting it back in September, I thought I’d give the Hero pen another try. I do like the nib on it, which is similar to those on my beloved Sailors. But I can’t seem to get over the Hero’s significantly heavier weight. And it’s not just the weight; it feels unbalanced in my hand, like the weight is in the back half. OK, Hero – you had your second chance. You’re coming out of my bag for good.)

10/14/11 Pencil

Bellevue Square Santa a Bust

12/5/13 Diamine Macassar ink, Sailor pen, Zig markers, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

My personal goal for the holiday season is to sketch more Santas than I did last year, which was two. I rarely get over to the Eastside because of the toll on the 520 bridge, but with my goal in the back of my mind, I suggested to Greg that we cross the lake to visit the Bellevue Arts Museum (where, by the way, there are several exhibitions on view that I highly recommend, especially “Telling Tales: Narrative Works by Nate Steigenga, Cappy Thompson, and Anna Torma”). My ulterior motive was that Bellevue Square is just across the street – an easy location for another Santa, I figured.

Unlike at Northgate, where Santa is easily visible and accessible by anyone walking by, Bellevue Square’s Santa is sequestered away in a huge, fancy house. We walked all around it twice, trying to find a way to either peek through the windows or between the many “elves” herding children around, but I could barely glimpse Santa’s back, and only from an awkward location. What a bust!

To make the bridge toll worthwhile, I got a sketch of Greg during lunch at Blue C Sushi. He’s not Santa, but I don’t often have a head-on view of a willing model using chopsticks, so I can’t complain.

Who Clued Them In?

12/3/13 Diamine Eclipse ink, Sailor pen, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Whenever I visit Zoka Coffee, I see numerous people texting or otherwise using their mobile phones, some of whom I’ve sketched previously. So even though I had several old sketches I could post on this week’s Urban Sketchers Flickr group thread on the theme “People with Mobile Phones,” I knew it would be easy to find a fresh victim. Ha!

12/3/13 Diamine Eclipse ink, Sketchbook Project Sketchbook

At 10:30 a.m., Zoka’s peak morning time, the place was packed, and yet, for the nearly two hours that I sat there, I could not spot a single person using a phone. You’d think someone had gotten there ahead of me to warn them that I would sketch them if they had their phones out. Nonetheless, the laptop-engrossed crowd was an easy target, so I had my fill of sketching.

Just as I was putting away my pens and sketchbook to leave, the guy wearing headphones whom I had spent the last hour sketching received a text! OK, fine – I would sketch him again. (Notice that during that hour, his face had completely transformed, and he looked like a different person. Amazing what a few cups of caffeine will do to a guy.)

12/3/13 Diamine Macassar ink, Sailor pen, Sketchbook Project sketchbook

My Vehicular Studio

12/2/13 Diamine Eclipse and Diamine Grey inks, Zig markers, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

12/2/13 Platinum Carbon and Diamine Grey inks,
watercolor, Zig markers

In-car sketching season is in full swing. The last time I sketched in the full outdoors was at Green Lake a couple of weeks ago when it was 39 degrees. A few days later I sketched a camel and reindeer at Swanson’s, which was sheltered but the same as being outdoors, as far as my fingers were concerned. Since then, if I’ve ventured out, I’ve stayed in the warmth of my car, where I can sketch for a good 30 or 40 minutes before getting too cold. But this week the temperature is predicted to drop all the way down to the high 20s with the possibility of snow – and more still lifes.