I did this test last week because I’d like to be able to combine dip pen drawings and watercolor for working on location, either drawing first or watercolor first or back and forth, my choice without having to worry about it. The former means that I need ink that can take as wet a wash as I want to do. I think the results are pretty conclusive. And it was good to see that I have four choices, three black and one sepia.
I did the tests on a scrap of the Strathmore 300 vellum bristol I use for most of my pen and ink work. In the future I’ll be testing a variety of the watercolor papers I’ve accumulated. The nibs I used, from left to right are: a Vulcano #920 EF, Perry & Co. #27 ExF, can’t read it, Perry & Co. #1601 EF, Gillott #404, Orlik #1000 EF, Esterbrook ?, Hunt 100. And I will definitely be noting down the nib before I do a test like this again.
The inks are: Platinum Carbon Ink (excuse the crossout due to momentary brain lock), Perle Noire, Diamine Jet Black, Noodler’s Black, Higgins Fountain Pen India Ink, Higgins Black India Waterproof ink, Higgins Sepia and my newest acquisition, Sennelier Sepia. I’d like to emphasize that no ink “failed”. The ones that ran are not made or marketed as “waterproof”, I just wanted to try all the ones I had on hand.
The watercolor is “Scarlet” from a Yarka poured-watercolor full-pan set. As you can see from the note I waited a full 48 hours before putting one very wet red glob on each ink sample.
I’m very pleased to have ended up with four that do the job, particularly the sepia.
If you’ve done similar tests, please post a comment with a link!
SketchWild 