Christmas is fast approaching and I've been busy preparing for the upcoming open studio day on Sunday the 10th. Among the preparations of artwork and Christmas cards, I've also been enjoying a daily treat from my Diamine Inkvent Advent calendar. Join me as I share the ink sketches from each day's ink so far, and take a look at some more of the items that will be on sale at the open day.
I've had my eye on the Inkvent calendar by Diamine for a couple of years now and with a birthday at the beginning of December, I was lucky enough to receive it from my family as a gift this year. I decided to draw a quick sketch of a tree to try out each ink, as drawing trees is my 'happy place' and I can easily adapt each drawing to test out the qualities of the ink as they emerge.
Day 1: Fortune's Gold (Chameleon Ink)
The chameleon inks have a shimmer to them that changes in colour with the angle that you view them from. Fortune's gold has a yellow base tone that builds up to darker tones quite well. The shimmer changes from gold to green but I found it harder to see this the next day. You have to shake the shimmer and chameleon inks frequently to keep the reflective particles suspended in the ink and although I did this, I found it hard to obtain a good level of shimmer when drawing with my glass dip pen.
Day 2: Cashmere Rose (Standard Ink)
This is a lovely, muted ink in a deep pink colour. I could gradually build up the shading in a subtle way. I could see that this may be an interesting colour to write with, but I'm not sure I'll use it much for sketching.
Day 3: Early Dusk (Standard Ink)
This is a useful shade of blue that dilutes with water to give a range of sky blue and twilight sky shades. It builds up to give shading and has a warm tone to it. With water, a cooler turquoise shade splits away.
Day 4: Masquerade (Shimmer Ink)
Masquerade is another muted deep pink colour but with a more earthy tone than Cashmere Rose. As a shimmer ink, it also has added interest from the deep gold shimmer. I was most interested by the way it splits with water, to give purples and blues. I can see me using this ink for sketches, but will stick to using the dip pen when I use it as I don't want to have to clean the shimmer particles out of my fountain pen. Diamine tend to release their advent calendar shade 6 months after the calendar releases, and I can see me buying this one as a full-sized bottle.
Day 5: Nightfall (Chameleon Ink)
My favourite so far! Nightfall has a gorgeous deep blue colour that splits in a heavenly way with water to give a range of blue hues as well as purple and pink. It's like watching a nebula grow on the paper in front of your eyes! I'm a sucker for a deep mignight blue anyway so this is a real winner. As a chameleon ink, it contains a shimmer that ranges from blue, green and silver. The shimmer is much more obvious than the one in Fortune's Gold and, along with the deepness of the blue, really conveys the feeling of looking at a clear, night sky. I don't even care that this may cause me fountain pen cleaning issues; I'll be buying a bottle of this and using it as a regular sketching tool!
Day 6: Bucks Fizz (Chameleon Ink)
I wasn't expecting to like this ink when I first started drawing with it, as orange isn't a favourite of mine. It grew on me though, especially as it has a lovely, strong shimmer that ranges from gold to green to silver. It gives some shading and I think will be useful when used as a contrast for deep blues. The colour was highly staining and in a previous sketch, the pens strokes were hardly removed at all when water was added and a brush moved repeatedly over them. I think this ink may have been better named 'Lucozade' (although it's admittedly less festive) and actually it may have been this association that caused me to like it!
Day 7: Sweet Dreams (Scented)
Sweet Dreams is the first scented ink I've ever tried and the first of this year's calendar. It was a much stronger scent than I was expecting and quite an artificial, sweet smell. It reminded me a bit of the scented erasers that we used to get in the 1980s, although much more powerful, and I actually quite liked it due to the nostalgic element. The colour of the ink suited the scent, as it is a powerful pink that lays down quite flat, with minimal shading. It stays a lovely bubblegum pink colour when diluted with water.
I'll continue to sketch the inks from the calendar and will post some more, next week.
Open Day Preparations
One of the best things about being based at Grenaby, is being part of a wonderfully creative and inspiring group of artists. I love it when we have an open studio day as we get to share our passion and creativity with others. I had such fun meeting people in the summer when we opened as part of the Creative Network Art Festival and I didn't even have anything to sell! This time I do, and it's been a real joy creating lots of Christmas and nature-inspired goods to sell.
I've had a wonderfully chilled time creating textured watercolour artworks, which will be available on the day.
The Christmas Raven cards have arrived and will be available to buy, along with prints and postcards of the original 'Nevermore' raven drawing and cards featuring some of my artworks from the Isle of Man Nature Journal map.
I framed one of the 'Nevermore' postcards in a cheap Ikea frame that I'd picked up earlier this year. It looks great and is a fantastic way to enjoy this artwork without the expense of buying a larger print. These frames are called Knoppäng and are currently only £3 at Ikea.
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