Artistic Research and development: Drawing Ink

The world's best drawing pen is about to meet America's finest archival artist inks. Big claims, I know. But in order for this to happen, you’ll have to do it yourself.

For the Love of Ink

I retrofit my drawing pens with custom inks— and I’ve gone on a long road of research along the way, enough to convince myself that the extra effort is worth it. For info on why I would want to go through this somewhat laborious process, see my post on why the Pilot V5 drawing pen ever made, and if you want to do it yourself, check out my post on How to Perform a DIY Pilot V5 Ink Swap.

This time, it was not the pen that I wanted to test but the different ink varieties. Here's a glimpse behind the scenes at some of the research and development in the studio that contributes to a finished drawing.  Part of my mission is to use the best materials for expressing an idea, so I am always refining my process.

Here, the world's best drawing pen is about to meet America's finest archival artist inks.  I bought the pens pictured above with the intention of draining out the original ink and refilling them with artist-quality inks, pictured below.  

Despite a bit of a playful-sounding name, Noodler's Ink Company is serious about its craft.  Their inks are thoroughly tested, and they publish everything from lightfastness to an ink's ability to withstand freezing temperatures.  Noodler’s commitment to transparency about an ink’s performance greatly assist artists in selecting the right ink for the job.  So, when I recently came across samples of Nooder's Ink for sale, I decided to "test drive" the inks in Pilot V7.  The results so far have been phenomenal, and I hope to share those in a future post.

Noodler’s Inks, ready to be test driven in Pilot V5 and V7 pens. These samples were for sale from the Goulet’s Pen Company.

Here’s a view from the studio— I drained the original ink from Pilot V5s and filled them with custom inks from Noodler’s.

The Ink Lab

In the ink lab, I drained the original ink from the Pilot V5/ Pilot V7 pens and saved it for a later use.  I then added the new ink samples to the pens, and labeled each one.  

In a future post, I’d like to share the results from the process. In short, my favorites have been Heart of Darkness and Lexington Grey.

I highly recommend checking out Noodler’s— they have so many fabulous inks that you might just find yourself having to buy 30 samples from the Goulet Pet Company just so you can try them all out.