Pen and Quink

You may be wondering what "Quink" is.

It's essentially a survivor from a time gone past - a time when pens conveyed liquid ink onto a sheet of paper, a time when legible handwriting was a necessity (well, I gather that doctors were expected to scrawl), when people wrote letters longhand instead of sending txt msgs.

Quink bottle, in Quink. (Slightly wonky drawing)
I've had this bottle a fair few years; Parker have updated the label design in the interim.

It is ink, but it isn't really drawing ink. It was designed for fountain pens, for writing with. I think we're meant to use Indian Ink for drawing.

But I like Quink. It's cheap, readily available - or at least, it used to be, and you can certainly still buy it - and it works. It also dries quickly (probably why it was called Quink) and neither blots not clogs. The black ink looks properly black, but, if you dilute it (it is water soluble, unlike Indian Ink, which stubbornly stays put once dry), you get a lovely separation of the colour, giving blues and yellows.

So, anyway, here are some drawings.

.

Wayland Smithy, pen and Quink...

(the pen - a dip pen - is in shot,
along with its wooden holder)

... the same drawing with added water
and white acrylic ink (because it got too
dark when the water was added).  Both
the water and the acrylic were applied
with a brush.

I realised that I'd overdone the pen work on that drawing, given that I later added water. So, in the next drawing, I was more minimal.

London Bridges, pen and Quink
before the water

London Bridges, pen, Quink, brush and water

London Bridges is based on a photograph taken in July, from the Millenium Bridge, as I crossed the river from the Tate to St. Paul's.

It's been a while since I played with the Quink, but is rather fun. There's a few new brush and Quink drawings, too...