If you enjoy doodling with your fountain pens, or have tried any of the doodles in my doodle posts, you’re probably aware that the ink you use can have a big impact on your doodling. In this post I want to take a look at how ink choice can affect doodling and what some of the different fountain pen ink options are.
Overview
When doodling with fountain pens, the ink that you choose can have a big impact on the overall look and feel of the doodle. Using a bright, colorful ink will look a lot different than using a dark, muted ink. Whether an ink has shading, sheen, or shimmer will also affect how the doodle looks.
This pattern is done with a shading ink
This similar pattern is done with a sheening (and shading) ink.
Fountain Pen Inks and Doodle Usage
Ink selection plays a very important role in doodling, and fortunately there is no shortage of inks available to choose from. Inks can have a variety of properties, and each is important to take into consideration for your doodles. Sheening inks may look great, but they have a greater chance to smear. Shading inks may not be as colorful as other inks, but the shading effect can really look great.
Sheening Inks
Sheening inks look great when used for doodling. The saturated colors and areas of sheen are visually interesting, adding an extra dimension to the doodle. Unfortunately, sheening inks are prone to smearing. Many doodles are not done in a linear fashion like writing, so your hand may be moving around the page, often touching areas that already have ink on them. While this is never ideal, with sheening inks it can be a disaster. Smearing of inks, even when they are already dry, is common with high-sheening inks. This can ruin a doodle if you’re not very careful.
This sheening ink still smeared even after the ink was dry.
Shading Inks
Shading inks are typically not nearly as saturated as sheening inks, so the chance of them smearing goes way down. Still, many people may not like the less-saturated look that many shading inks have. I personally enjoy using them because I like the dimension shading can give a doodle.
The shading in this quick doodle almost looks like shadows.
Shimmer Inks
Inks with shimmer in them can look great when used for handwriting, so they should also look good for doodles, right? In my experience, they are not ideal. The shimmer can come out inconsistently, giving the doodle an uneven look. Some shimmers also tend to come off of the paper, which can leave a light coat of shimmer on the entire page. I know that for some people this might not be a big deal, it might even be a benefit, but I prefer to keep the shimmer in my doodles to a minimum.
You can see how heavy the gold shimmer is in parts of this doodle (Emerald of Chivor).
Ink Dry Times
When it comes to dry times, faster is usually better for doodling. There is less chance of smearing when the ink dries faster. Still, some doodles might want slightly longer dry times. If you’re doing a doodle that requires a lot of space to be filled in with ink, longer dry times can help prevent visible lines from showing up in the ink where one section dried before it was completely filled in.
This doodle got smeared when the ink was still wet.
You can see lines where the ink dried while I was filling in the large areas of color.
Water Solubility
Most inks are water soluble, which means that you can modify your doodles with just a bit of water. I have experimented with wetting parts of the page first and letting the ink separate on the wet paper, as well as adding drops of water to a finished doodle, but my preference for using water with my doodles is to complete the doodle and then use water to pull ink off of the lines, filling in white spaces with colored water.
Adding water to your doodles can fill in empty space with color.
Final Thoughts
The ink or inks that you choose for your doodles probably have the biggest overall impact on the final look and feel that they have. You may love using sheening or shading inks for writing, but find them to be not your favorite for doodles. That’s totally fine! If you think of everything that goes into a doodle (pen, ink, paper), each part is like a tool that you use. You want to choose the right tool for the job, so no one type of ink is going to be perfect for every doodle. Feel free to experiment with a variety of inks to see which you prefer using for different doodles.
Comments 4
Sometimes I use Iroful graph paper to make geometric doodles. It works so well with any ink. Shows off the best qualities. I really love that one example you put on here with the C’s and the lines. That is very interesting and full of movement!
Author
You know, I’ve never really spent any time doodling with graph paper. I should try it sometime.
Learned a lot from reading your posts. I’ve been making pens for years, then put it away, and have started up again. I’ve taken to the fountain pen for some reason, and really enjoy the way they write. Looking to find a “nib meister” or someone who can determine if my current nibs need assistance or not. I just don’t have enough “seat time” with nibs to know what feels good, better, or best. Have to try out different ones for sure. Nice blog.
Author
Glad to hear it, Tom. As for getting a feel for nibs, depending on where you live you may have some fountain pen groups or even pen shows near you. They can be a great opportunity for using a variety of pens that you may not otherwise have a chance to experience. I’d suggest looking into what’s near you. Hopefully you can connect with other pen users in the future!