Platinum Carbon Fountain Pen

India Ink is the traditional ink used by illustrators for ages for the purpose of waterproof application. These are pigmented, and/or Shellac based inks that are certainly not suitable for fountain pens.

This would mean we need to resort to the classic dip pen. Using a dip pen is in itself a joy that cannot be equated with any other form of pen. but thats a different story.

Using dip pens means they are not portable, needs maintenance of ink, work space, inkwells, spills etc.

Fountain pens on the other hand are awesome for their maintenance free and portable nature. They are available instantly, all the time and can be used away from the desk. fountain pens have a feed mechanism that controls the flow of ink from the ink container to the nib and on to the paper. This requires certain property of the ink, so that it does not clog the feed system. Most fountain pen inks are washable, non waterproof ink. While this is great for line art, sketching etc. it becomes impossible to apply a watercolor wash on top of this.

Enter the Platinum Carbon Fountain pen, and the Platinum Carbon Ink!

This pen comes from the famous Platinum , one of top three Japanese pen makers. The ink is waterproof India Ink equivalent, contains minute carbon particle that creates the dense black color. The pen, has a larger feed and flow channel that prevents this ink from clogging it. This is an amazing combination that produces waterproof black lines instantly.

One can apply color washes immediately and not a single feathering, or smearing of the ink. In the quick sketch above, I applied color wash immediately and I was surprised not to find a single smear, bleed or feathering !!.

Artists have successfully used this ink in other regular fountain pens as well.. such as the Rotring Artpen, Pilot 78G and the "crowd sourced" TWSBI diamond 530.

The carbon pen comes with a Extra Fine nib, and since this comes from Japan, this should be categorized a Extra-Extra-Fine. But the flow, and fine nib is simply amazing.

Rotring ArtPen

Recently on a visit to San Francisco, I chanced upon the Rotring Artpen at the newly opened Blick superstore in Market Street, and the name Rotring ringing a bell I picked up a Sketch EF (Extra Fine) along with few cartridges of brilliant Black.

The unique design of the pen with a brush like handle, very light weight(just about enough weight) makes the pen interesting (Not to mention the beautiful metal box).

The performance of the pen itself is amazing, the EF nib, creates amazing line quality, writes like silk, and the ink... its brilliant. The Ink is dark, and does not bleed or feather and creates crisp lines. The surprise came when I added a dash of water from my newly aquired Niji waterbrush.. and I was stunned. It created a rich textured wash, with several tones, and pretty deep for an ink.

Back in Chennai I checked out local art store for more of these Artpens. Unfortunately the digital revolution has diminished patronage for fine art pens, and all I could get was a stash of old stock of what are known as Rotring Rivettes. Though not called Artpens these are fine fountain pens, though meant for the beginner. I also obtained brilliant brown ink cartridges and loaded these up....and I was simply blown away. This is one of the best browns, deep and rich.

This has opened up a whole new medium. Glenn Vilppu talks a lot about how fountain pens and non-waterproof ink can be such a liberating medium for sketching.

Rotring with its inks are the perfect tools.

For the record, the Rotring Artpens come under different types..
Sketching (EF, F),
Lettering (M,B), and
Calligraphy.

The ones relevent for sketching are the EF and the F.

Couple of great resources on Pen and Ink as art form..
The Fountain Pen Network
The Sketching Forum

Comic Con comes to India - 1st Annual Indian Comic Con

For the first time in India a Comic Con is to be held. Feb 19-20 in New Delhi at the Dilli Haat !



The 1st Indian Comic Con, signals the coming of Age of the Indian comic industry. Having a long tradition of story telling and rich tradition of visual arts, and a long history of comic book publishing, it was long due to have a convention, where artists, writers, publishers and the connoisseurs got together and shared their goods.

Amar Chitra Katha, Diamond Comics, Vimanika are some of the known names to participate, along with a possibly large number of independent publishers.

The staple of Indian comic reader had been Tintin, Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Disney comics, Asterix, Om-papa, Lucky Luke, British comics such as Steel Claw and the likes. This changed with the great induction of Indian creativity through the evergreen classics from Amar Chitra katha. ACK set an never before seen standards for bringing the rich story telling tradition of India to the hugely popular medium of sequential art. There is now a renewed interest in Graphic story telling with more original and independent content coming out from local artists and writers.

Hope this comic con sets a precendent and lead to more flourishing times for the Indian comics industry.