Tonight I filled my Ohuhu waterbrush with a mix of diluted ink, first with Noodler’s Bulletproof Black. I added just a few drops and painted the background trees. I had to get the paper really wet, and I am not very fond of the way the ink granulated on the watercolor paper. Next, I refilled the brush with water and 10 drops of Kuretake Zig Cartoonist Ink and painted the items in the foreground. I am really pleased with the effect! It reminds me of Chinese ink paintings a bit, since I guess the medium is essentially the same.

It’s fun to “doodle” using the waterbrush and diluted ink. I’ll do more for sure in the future!

I hope you had a nice day!

またね～

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こなばんは。How’s it going?

For today’s drawing, I wanted to work on another version of the previous sketch, but instead of just pencil or watercolor, I wanted to go black and white. I have a container of Kuretake Zig Cartoonist Ink and an Ohuhu water brush and it was fun to use them together. I am pleased with how this version turned out! I had previously used the ink with a cheap brush on regular sketch paper, but using the ink with the firm water brush on watercolor paper makes a HUGE difference! It’s a combination I can see myself enjoying often in the future.

So, it’s been a couple weeks since I started my Daily Drawing habit, and it’s been going well. I’ve only missed one day where I didn’t do something in my sketchbook (traveling and didn’t get to the hotel until 1:30 am!) which is a nice accomplishment. So I’m pretty proud of that.

I hope you had a good day!

またね～

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こんばんは。Today’s photo is of my two Iroshizuku inks that I am using. The one on the left, Chiku-rin, just arrived today and I love using it! It’s a nice complement to my favorite ink, Ama-iro. As you can see, the Iroshizuku 50ml bottles are beautiful and so cool! They are quite pricey, however, at around $18-$28. If you don’t want to spend so much, you can find 15ml bottles, but those are about $10, so the 50ml is a better value. On the other hand, it will take a while to use up all that ink unless you write a lot or use larger-nib fountain pens.

When I first started getting into fountain pens and inks, a friend of mine told me about buying ink samples from Goulet Pen Company. It’s a smart way to try out a wide variety of inks for not a lot of money. This is how I decided that I really liked Ama-iro and Chiku-rin. Plus it’s fun to experiment with colors that you’d probably never buy otherwise.

Of course, if you have a lot of different kinds of ink, you might want to get a bunch of fountain pens! I’ve lately purchased a bunch of Jinhao pens on Ebay. I don’t know how these companies can make money because the pens only cost ~$1-$4 with free shipping. The quality of the Jinhaos I have received is pretty good (I think I’ve gotten lucky), but for that price, if I ever get a dud, then it won’t be the end of the world.

I’m really having fun with my fountain pens and notebooks. I highly recommend getting into it. And, if you live nearby, I’d love to swap inks sometime!

またね～

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こんばんは。How’s it going?

Today I received a beautiful bottle of beautiful ink. I have tried a few different sample inks, and I found myself going back to the Iroshizuku Ama-iro sky blue in a few pens. Consequently, I ran out of it quickly. So, I knew I wanted to get a bottle of the ink, but the question was if I should get the smaller 15ml or larger 50ml size.

It was a pretty easy decision to go with the 50ml bottle for a couple of reasons. First, I like to use medium and broad nib pens, and they put down a lot of ink. Secondly, the price difference was not that big. And lastly, the Isoshizuku 50ml bottles are beautiful!

So now I have Ama-iro loaded in 3 of two of my pens, and I am set for a while.

I realized that I didn’t take a recent photo of the actual ink, but here’s a google search that shows how pretty it is.

I hope you had a nice day!

またね～

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こんばんは。How’s it going?

Can you believe it’s already September? Actually, summer vacation seems to have been very long this year. It seems like so long ago that we traveled to Morocco and Spain at the beginning of the kids’ vacation, and then there was a long trip to Japan for Mariko and Bay, and then another few weeks of relaxation for them at home. But now, it’s back to school!

Speaking of September, the new month means I get to change the ink color that I use for my nightly journal. As you can see in the photo, I will be using Iroshizuku Chiku-rin ink. It’s such a nice color, and I love how the color varies where the ink pools up. The edges of the thick lines are darker than the middle. I’m sure there’s a term for this, but I don’t know what it is.  Anyways, it’s a nice change of pace from the intense Tsutsuki ink I used for August.

Also in the photo is my High School class ring. Bay was telling me that they have started ordering class rings at his school, and so I had to show him mine. He was surprised that I had one. I guess I don’t seem like the type of person who would care to get a class ring. Honestly, I don’t think I am the kind of person who would want one, but now I am glad I got it. 

I hope you had a nice Friday!

おやすみ

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