Just when you thought sheening inks had possibly submitted to shimmer and chameleon inks, Octopus Fluids have released a lovely edition of six sheening colours and very kindly sent me some to play with.
Octopus Fluids already produce a wide range of dye based writing inks for themselves and for a handful of well known German writing brands too. They are also the producers of the Write and Draw water resistant pigment inks which I highly recommend for fountain pen ink art. Click for more.
For those of you who are currently swatching the 2023 Diamine Inkvent Calendar, you may have noticed that sheening inks seem to have dropped off the radar in favour of shimmers? Well fear not, because these six sheeners are actually very pretty and they are not monster sheeners either. They’re nice sheeners with a decent balance.
Now, for anyone who is new to my blog, please note that my project is about exploring fountain pen ink to see what else we can creatively do with it as opposed to just using as a handwriting medium. On my swatch cards I use water to draw out any chromatography and gradation qualities and then I might use bleach to see how the inks might react.
So, looking at the six abstract alphabets below, I have created the calligraphic shapes using a quarter inch automatic pen which I have dipped in the ink to create the first part and then dipped in water to create the next section, then dipped in ink for the next section and then dipped in water for the section after that, so that you can see the full colour range possibilities and the all important sheen too.
Dragon and Goblin
Medusa and Phoenix
Sea Serpent and Unicorn
Now, I haven’t gone full on here (I will in the New Year!), but hopefully you can see the potential? Below I have blended Medusa and Unicorn together which looks stunning with the four key colours evident from the inks and sheens plus the gradations and chromo for the water usage. So much from so little!
Medusa and Unicorn blend
These inks have only just been released, so if you’re interested to find out more you may need to search around a bit for stockists, but I do know that Anja has a good relationship with Octopus Fluids so you may be able to get further info from her at Papier und Stift. Click here.
AND HEY! If you’re interested to know more about how to use fountain pen inks in more creative ways – whether it’s simply to observe their chromatic behaviours, or, to recreate one of my swatch cards, or, to learn how to use them in watercolour painting, illustration and calligraphy, why not check out my online course ?
FOUNTAIN PEN INK ART 