A Happy New Year to you and welcome to my Top 12 fountain pen inks of 2025, plus a summary of my fountain pen ink art project – reimagining fountain pen inks for creative purposes other than for just handwriting – which began in 2015 with no real goals or time parameters, just an investigation, experimenting and having fun. And yes, it’s in its eleventh year and counting.
Rounding the Fastnet – created with Robert Oster Midnight Sapphire
I say this every year, I know, but I am still astounded that this project just keeps rolling on. But the fountain pen and ink sector just keeps delivering in spite of all the pressures from cost increases and AI. But reassuringly, the human soul still needs analogue sources of nourishment.
With regard to ink swatching, this has been much quieter than previous years but I’ve still swatched some lovely ink creations from Starry Ink, Tono and Lims, Ferris Wheel Press and Diamine. Please click the yellow underlined links to access the relevant articles.
With less swatching to do, I have been creating a lot more of my own art and refining my workshops – and now have four to deliver:
– An introduction to fountain pen inks and creating swatch cards
– 4 colour ink mixing – creating colour wheels and art.
– Introducing nano pigment inks for art.
– Creating art using inks with dramatic chromatic behaviours
I’ll be delivering these workshops from my studio on Saturdays in February and March 2026. Workshop content, dates and costs are posted on the Workshop page. Click for more. I am slowly, very slowly, toying with the idea of introducing other mediums to the inks, nothing drastic, just wax and oil resists at this stage. But they work well and I will be developing further workshops around this.
The start of the year began well – with features about my art appearing in the Leisure Painter & Artist magazine along with another feature in Artist and Illustrators magazine. This generated some decent enquiries which led to two big presentations and mini workshops for two big art groups The Odiham Art Group and the Rochester and West Kent Art Society. Click for more.
For me, the big event has been the Diamine launch of the new Forever Ink range. These are their fountain pen friendly nano pigment inks. These waterproof and agent proof inks are in my opinion, the best on the market at this time. They dry 100% with no smearing when overwashed with dye base fountain pen inks or watercolour paints and inks. And provided you don’t leave the cap off your pen, they don’t dry in the pen feed. For my art, these are a game changer and open up a whole new seam of fountain pen ink art possibilities which I will be delivering as a workshop. Click for more.
Diamine Forever Ink launched in April
The Leisure Painter and Artist magazine evidently got wind about this new launch and asked me write a review. Click for more.
Then in early August, Ferris Wheel Press asked me to review their Marquise Nevermore Noir fountain pen. Once I had changed up the nib feed to an FPR EF Ultra Flex I suddenly realised that I had finally found my ideal illustration and journaling pen. Click for more.
The Ferris Wheel Press Marquise Nevermore Noir Fountain Pen
I was also asked to review a few fountain pens this year. Some I declined but the ones I didn’t included: the Ellington Pens Stealth, the Ferris Wheel Press Bijou and Stephan Lucht’s Delta Pens produced limited edition Italian Rally Passion.
Sadly, Inktober wasn’t possible this year but I did manage to swatch the Diamine Inkvent Calendar Teal Edition. And yes, it was a very pleasurable 25 days of ink swatching with some really lovely creations to explore. Not only were the festive standard, sheening, shimmer and chameleon inks present but some new additions to the nano pigment range also made an appearance. It’s the widest range of ink types I have encountered to-date in a single package. Click for more.
Traffic to my Blog, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube platforms continues to grow as does my admiration for a considerable number of exciting fountain pen ink enthusiasts who regularly push the boundaries in swatch carding, journaling, illustration and lettering.
The number of students experiencing the online course, Fountain Pen Ink Art – The Basics, is also increasing – 737 at last count. I am also working on the new online course which was supposed to launch last year but I ran out of time. This course will include, amongst other things: colour mixing, tonal painting and using pigment inks with step by step tutorials for a diverse range of usage – plus top tips for image composition, converting your colour pics for tonal painting and how to transfer these onto your art surface. Stay tuned.
And so for my top 12 inks of 2025 – a good range of standard and shimmer fountain pen inks with a bias towards chromatography except for the one nano pigment ink, all perfect for creating fountain pen ink art:
Nostalgia (Diamine Inkvent 2025)
Phantom Mist (Ferris Wheel Press)
Embers of Time (Ferris Wheel Press)
Highland Smoke (Ferris Wheel Press)
Xenopeltis Tail (Starry Ink)
Poison Envy (Ferris Wheel Press)
Lady Grey (Reddit Diamine)
Blue Indigo (Diamine Forever Ink)
June Gloom (Tono & Lims)
Midnight Sapphire (Robert Oster)
Fir & Fog (Diamine)
Thunderstorm (Robert Oster)
And that’s a wrap! Although 2025 hasn’t been the busiest of years for ink swatching, the FWP Marquise pen and new Diamine nano pigment ink range have been a huge addition to the project and augmenting my fountain pen ink art output. A huge thanks to all of you who support what I’m up to and who can see the inspirational, creative, educational and mindful benefits that fountain pen ink art can offer. Here’s to an inky 2026!
Tilting at Windmills – created with Ferris Wheel Press Phantom Mist
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 