The Best Vintage Dip Pen Nibs for Artists

A couple of years a ago I got interested in drawing with dip pen nibs again, specifically the vintage versions. There’s a few of the same ones that are still in production today and I’m sure they’re fine, but the original pre-WW2 nibs were largely hand-produced by women (and that will be a fascinating story […]

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Testing, Testing…Tiny Nibs

Steel pen nibs were made in a seemingly endless array of sizes and designs for over 100 years. There are a very limited number still being made today. All of them are based on the necessary shape of a barrel that was curved, plain at one end to fit into the holder and the slit […]

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First Look: New Inks From Russia! Yum!

Like, I suspect, most pen and ink artists, I’m always interested in new and interesting inks. And I just found some on Etsy that I tried out yesterday and will be using from now on to supplement the various, more standard black inks I use. NOTE: the seller specifically states that these water-based walnut inks […]

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Testing My Current Inks for Water Resistence

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 […]

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Dip Pen Nib Try-outs

After a 20+ year hiatus while I focused on oil painting (which I’ll still be doing because I love that too), I’m circling back to my first love…pen and ink. Particularly dip pens, which is what illustrators and artists have largely used from the early 1800s until well into the early/mid 20th century. (Fountain pens […]

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