Create A Simple Landscape Using Fountain Pen Ink And Water

[bill88]

It

 

 

Nick - I used your basic technique but got a bit carried away. I am no artist, but I love the colors in this ink!

Arches watercolor paper 160lb.

Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi inks

I hope to play around with Sailor Manyo Haha soon using your technique. I will post upon completion.

 

It reminds me of Aurora Borealis.

[Noihvo]

It

 

It reminds me of Aurora Borealis.

 

[DrDebG]

 

 

 

I am glad that you see something at least! I obviously have no imagination because I don't see anything!

[Cassotto]

It's taken ages for me to have a go, and the result's awful. The ink doesn't seem to be able to spread much beyond the area where I put it with the brush. I thought that if it didn't look like a landscape, I could try to make one of those swatch cards Nick does... But it resembles neither of them!

 

[LizEF]

It's taken ages for me to have a go, and the result's awful. The ink doesn't seem to be able to spread much beyond the area where I put it with the brush. I thought that if it didn't look like a landscape, I could try to make one of those swatch cards Nick does... But it resembles neither of them!

Make sure to use lots of water and not a ton of ink, but some inks don't spread. I imagine one could use a coffee filter (or whatever) cut into strips and do some chromatography to see how an ink spreads when water hits it, then choose the one that does best. (Or see if any ink reviews for your ink(s) already did that.)

[Cassotto]

Make sure to use lots of water and not a ton of ink, but some inks don't spread. I imagine one could use a coffee filter (or whatever) cut into strips and do some chromatography to see how an ink spreads when water hits it, then choose the one that does best. (Or see if any ink reviews for your ink(s) already did that.)

Thanks a lot for the tip! I'll try that. Maybe there was too little water (the paper was all wet, but certainly not flooded). I'll try again. But it seems almost impossible that this ink (it's Diamine Grape) will reach the bottom of the paper, like in the swatch cards Nick does.

[LizEF]

Thanks a lot for the tip! I'll try that. Maybe there was too little water (the paper was all wet, but certainly not flooded). I'll try again. But it seems almost impossible that this ink (it's Diamine Grape) will reach the bottom of the paper, like in the swatch cards Nick does.

In the images on page one, you can see that the water is actually pooled on top of the page in some places. I've heard watercolor artists talk about wetting the page, waiting a while for the water to soak in, then wetting it again so the water is also on top of the paper. Don't know if you want to do double-duty like that, but at least having a pool of ink atop the paper seems like it would help. It also looks to me like he's adding only a touch of ink - just letting the tip of the brush touch that pool of water.

 

I need to experiment some. I've done chromatography and some watercolor playing (wouldn't call it painting), so I've seen color spread into water (or water push color around), but I haven't done these ink landscapes yet.

[Cassotto]

In the images on page one, you can see that the water is actually pooled on top of the page in some places. I've heard watercolor artists talk about wetting the page, waiting a while for the water to soak in, then wetting it again so the water is also on top of the paper. Don't know if you want to do double-duty like that, but at least having a pool of ink atop the paper seems like it would help. It also looks to me like he's adding only a touch of ink - just letting the tip of the brush touch that pool of water.

 

I need to experiment some. I've done chromatography and some watercolor playing (wouldn't call it painting), so I've seen color spread into water (or water push color around), but I haven't done these ink landscapes yet.

Thanks for teaching me how to look at those photos. You are right: my paper was wet all over, but there certainly wasn't any pool. Applying the water twice also sounds great. I had a go at watercolour last summer, but I wasn't told anything about wetting the page twice. What you says makes lots of sense, though.

[LizEF]

Thanks for teaching me how to look at those photos. You are right: my paper was wet all over, but there certainly wasn't any pool. Applying the water twice also sounds great. I had a go at watercolour last summer, but I wasn't told anything about wetting the page twice. What you says makes lots of sense, though.

You're welcome. Whatever else is true, it can take several tries to figure out a technique. I find it best in such cases to tell myself I'm trying to observe what happens when I do "X", and not think I'm making art. That way I can play, observe, play some more, etc. and not be disappointed when it doesn't work.

[bone215]

A thought came to mind when reading this thread.

"We're all kids playing with stuff."

 

Then I thought, "Ain't it great!"