On Ink and Watercolor

      I attempted to use Noodler's Polar Brown on a Moleskin pad and the bloody ink won't wash on the page. Now I really have nothing that will wash besides the Daniel Smith ground, and that simply cannot be used with pens. Even after smoothing the surface with very fine sandpaper, the "washability" of the ink greatly diminishes. It simply won't work. I just tried the Pen&Ink India Black on the Moleskin and it dries almost instantly. I must be doing something wrong, but damned if I know what it is.

     Vilppu has his own little guide on fountain pen sketching, but something tells me he's mixing his inks in a certain way that makes this work (possibly with soap). He also writes this:

"Not all inks are good for fountain pens, and may clog them or even cause damage. India inks, metallic inks, and other specialty colors can create a great deal of grief, and could possibly necessitate an expensive repair."

Yet I've got other sites telling me India inks are exactly what I should use. This should be simpler than it is.

     I need material that will hold ink on the page without absorbing it for at least a few minutes. That's the whole point of wash, but nothing besides the watercolor ground seems to do its job at all. So until I find something that works, I'm stuck thinning inks with water before putting them in the brush pen in a crude parody of wash.

Derwent Inktense Blocks

     I've had no luck with inks, but on the other hand, watercolor pigments are beginning to look interesting-- and expensive. I have limited workspace. I don't own a studio and the only projects I work on for days at a time are digital. For now, I'm just messing around with this stuff, so I need something that's ready with as little preparation as possible. I've known about Prismacolor watercolor pencils for a while, but after seeing someone rub a wet brush on them like you would normal pigment, I decided that looked interesting. Surely enough, there exists such a thing as a dry ink block that can be used with no preparation or clean-up. It's a sort of washable crayon. The important thing is that I know it's supposed to wash, which will allow me to find a paper that works, rather than wonder about the ink. If I need the stick to behave like a normal pigment, I can break off a chunk and dissolve it.

     Meanwhile, I'm finally ordering a large pad of hot press watercolor paper. If that doesn't work, I'll order cold press and cardstock. If those don't work, I'm out of options.