Damson - Diamine

Damson is a wonderful moody, deep, dark purple. It looks a bit dusty, greyish. Which makes the name 'Damson' so appropriate. Plums have this greyish waxy layer on the skin. And this inks has exactly that. Bloom (that's how this wax layer is called in the botanical world).

In the writing samples you can see in the broader nibs some nice shading. That's nice, this way you can see the purple colour a bit better.

This ink doesn't have sheen, or hardly any. Also the Chromo shows that in water and washes this ink doesn't make "strange" effects. It's a pretty safe ink to make monochrome sketches.

When making the sketch it was soon obvious that this ink isn't very waterproof. Dried lines could easily made wet again and be spread in water on the paper. That is a nice feature when you want to make soft shades and work more careful and subtle. In the sketch I made it was very much needed in the face.

For the sketch I chose an old photo of my grandfather when he was about 3 years old. So cute. In the end the sketch doesn't look really like my granddad but I don't mind so much. This ink was a joy to work with and make very subtle hues but also very dramatic darks that almost looked black.

This was the first page I made for my ink archive. Just because I had a new pen which I inked up with this ink. The pen is a Leonardo Momento Zero Grande 2.0 with a fude nib.

I love a good fude nib and when Leonardo announced they now have them too, I just had to have one. I just wished they would sell them as a nib section too. Like they have the elastic nib section separately. On the other hand.... A fude nib slurps ink like crazy. So when Leonardo came with this 2.0 (piston filler) it was a no-brainer. I love it. And the nicest thing is that I can write with it like a normal pen. When I write like I normally do it makes a nice B or BB line. And that's how I prefer my nibs. However when I turn the pen and do reverse writing it writes pretty smooth and gives me a EF line. Really super fine. For sketching that is so wonderful. Anyway.... Great fun and the Sea Anemone version is a stunner. Well done Leonardo!!!