#diamineinkvent2025 — Public Fediverse posts

Most felicitous greetings of the season to you all and thank you for travelling along with me in this inky journey this month.

The last ink of the calendar is called "Myrhh the Merrier" ha ha I see what Diamine did there.

It's a pretty luscious dark teal with a sheen that I can't quite see in this light, but we'll see if we can take a better look later. And it has shimmer as well, in pretty blue. So it's both a dessert topping and a floor wax and very pretty it is too.

I thought I'd take a bit more time for our finale, and seeing as I'm staying at a seaside hotel for Christmas visiting my sister, the sea was on my mind. With the colour nice and nautical I wanted to create a sea monster that wouldn't look out of place on a mediaeval map of the seas... Here be Dragons and all that. And I started thinking about placoderms and sclerotic rings and gulper eels.

And this chappy appeared after 2-3 hours.

Now I'm not seeing any sheen there, but I don't have any sunlight to hand right now.

But the sparkle shows up pretty well.

#inkvent #FountainPenink #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineMyrhhtheMerrier #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025 #FantasyArt

It's the second last day of the Diamine inkvent calendar for 2025 and this time it's another pigment. This one is named Antler.

It's flowing really well with the dip nib I'm using and is doing everything I ask of it.

In case you can't read my writing

"We had been 5 days surveying the surface of the frozen planet. Fatima noticed that one of the huge herbivores, the ones we had been calling megacorns due to the large single antler-like protrusion growing from the back of their heads, was a bit different. It was nearly 4 times the size of the typical megacorn, almost 6 metres long, and its protrusion was apparently carved with animal and bird designs, as well as eyes and stars.

As far as we knew, we were the first people on the planet. Were there inhabitants? And how impressive would they be, to be able to subdue a creature like this for what would have taken many hours for a skilled carver. Or was this a tame beast wandering? The most intriguing mystery of the place yet. We weren't keen to try going up to pat the creature yet.

(c) Alicia 'leece' Smith."

#inkvent #FountainPenink #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineAntler #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025 #FantasyArt #sciencefictionart

Today's inkvent is no. 23, and it's called "Let It Snow". Fat chance here, with a boiling hot Christmas day bearing down on us in Perth. It's going to be very much a shelter in place sort of day I think.

But back to the ink, it's a very pretty cerulean, made even prettier by the chameleon shimmer.

Again, this yellowish paper that I'm using - which is fine, great, recycled - isn't going to show it at its brightest.

But it will do for now.

#inkvent #FountainPenink #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineLetItSnow #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025 #FantasyArt #dragon

Well I am catching up, as yesterday I was flat out.

So yesterday's ink, The 21st is a Extreme Sheen ink, but unfortunately on this paper it does not really show it's extreme sheen. It's called Chaos. I thought what could be more chaotic than a flying cat so there we go. It's quite pleasant. It's a nice rich burgundy and the wash coming out from it also gives it a nice pink background. I will have to give it a go on some other paper. Perhaps I might do a drawing featuring all of the extreme machines that I have, which I think would be quite thrilling, at least for me.

Today's - the 22nd - ink is called Pineapple Spritz and it is both a pigment ink and a chameleon sparkle and unusually for a chameleon is quite happy to show off it's sparkle for the camera and you can see it quite clearly in the image. It's a nice dark gold. It's quite metallic in its appearance.
The dragon is enjoying blowing smoke rings :-)

#inkvent #FountainPenink #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineChaos #DiaminePineappleSpritz #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025 #FantasyArt #dragon #cat

It's day 20 of the Diamine Inkvent fun, and I've been thinking I haven't drawn a chimera for a while. So here you go.

This ink, a chameleon shimmer called "Ambience" is a warm browny orangey red and the chameleon sparkle is following the usual pattern of being quite subtle.

Chimera disrespectant just about.

Tried to catch it for you but it doesn't really photograph well in the time and lighting that I had. See if you can see any sparkle below. Oh well, it was fun to draw, and the sparkle is there but it's tiny.

#inkvent #FountainPenink #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineOvercast #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025 #FantasyArt #chimera

Today's ink is called 'Overcast'. It's a pleasant grey teal sort of a shade. But again I'm using the recycled paper sketchbook, and it's got this yellow shade, and it's very absorbent with almost no bleed. I dared to try a wash, and nothing doing, the ink pretty much just sat there like it was welded.
An interesting experiment anyway, and quite startling.

You know, you're doing a watery sort of creature, and you'd quite welcome a bit of aquatic swooshiness but no, not this time. By this time I was a bit unnerved so I just finished up the drawing. I could have drawn into the damp paper to see what would happen but I wanted to get this posted, and I wasn't sure I wanted to do any more to this particular drawing, so perhaps I shall save such adventures for tomorrow. Only 6 more to go, but after that I have the 2024 month box from Van Diemen's Ink, and that can see out the rest of the month, along with the Rainbow Scarab.

#inkvent #FountainPenink #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineOvercast #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025 #FantasyArt #Dragon

Well, circumstances prohibited posting yesterday but I did manage to catch up with the #DiamineInkvent2025 17 and 18.

No. 17 is a standard ink, a perfectly pleasant purple called "Gala". I've switched to another notebook with recycled paper and it's being okay, but it has a slight yellowish cast, so that will affect things. It doesn't have as much bleed as I expected so that was interesting. I think I'll not use a wash on it at this stage though, I'm not familiar with the paper and how it will react.

The #dragon was fun to draw. I tried to get the sense of a cat sitting with its back to you and turning its head around to look. You can be the judge of whether I was successful.

No.18 and I'm really happy because they've given us another ultrasheen . It's called "Laurel" and is an earth dark green, and then the sheen is a rich red in the right light.

I don't think this paper is as sheen kind as the Clare Fontain, but it is definitely there, and it's quite beautiful, as the #gryphon will attest.

All in all a pretty nice drawing experience.

#inkvent #FountainPenink #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineLaurel #DiamineGala #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025 #FantasyArt #Dragon #Gryphon

Well, I did draw this yesterday, down in Mandjoorgoordup at my sister's place, overlooking the sea and chilling out with her and mum. But it's not super convenient posting on the tablet, so here we are now. And hopefully you'll have another one within 12 hours or so, because it's Art Group today at the Shed, and that's always a good opportunity to settle into a drawing.

So yesterday's ink - the 16th is called Ruby Taffeta, and it's a chameleon shimmer. In the close up of the dragon's eye the different colours can be made out in the sparkle. I like this one and it washed really well too. I'm pretty much at the end of this sketchbook, I'll have to see how the other one is going.

People participating in #MonsterdonSavesChristmas this is the sort of artwork you might be looking at winning.

#inkvent #fountainPenink #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineRubyTaffeta #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025 #Dragon #FantasyArt

I was incredibly busy at the West Australian Boardgaming Association on Saturday - it was our big end of year bash and we were gaming from 11am to 11pm. Thusly I am now catching up with the Diamine Inkvent fun, so you get a three for one!

No. 13 the manticore is in an ink called Molten Basalt, it's a standard and is a fairly classy looking steely black blue.

The sugarplum fairy - No. 14 is drawn in a pigment ink called "Mittens" which cracked us up when we read it. It's a pigment ink, and it's holding fast against the wash from the "Frostbite" shimmer that I drew Number 15 in, the unicorn.

It's a very nice blue when washed, and its coppery sheen is intriguing. You can just make it out in this image detail below, but it's super subtle.

And that's us all caught up.

#inkvent #FountainPenink #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineMittens #DiamineMoltenBasalt #DiamineFrostbite #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025 #FantasyArt #Manticore #Unicorn #Fairy

Today's ink is called "Bubbly" and is a shimmer clad gold. I've let the name guide me and we have here what I'm considering to be a combination of a Water and an Air elemental.

The ink grudgingly takes a wash, I'm wondering how'd go with Tomoe River or something. I'm not sure that Clare Fontane has been the best for these inks and what I do with them. Fine for writing perhaps, but it does go through a little bit.

But it's been heaps better than the Field Notes, it does tend to bleed right through with even just a little bit of work.

#inkvent #FountainPenink #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineBubbly #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025

Day 11 of Diamine's Inkvent adventure with me, and we have an ink called "Brrr!"

It's listed as pigment and shimmer, and it's got a muted shimmer, and certainly resisted the wash I briefly tried on it before giving up.

Flows well in the dip pen but I don't think I'm going to be risking putting any of these pigments into my fountain pens.

It's a pretty colour.

#inkvent #FountainPenink #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineBrrr! #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025

Today's Diamine Inkvent ink, the 10th December 2025, is a purpley magenta chameleon shimmer. It's called Nostalgia.

It's pretty nice, and I even managed to capture some of the shimmer for you.

I had mixed success with the water brush but over all I think it's a pleasing effect.

#Unicorn
#UnicornArt #FountainPen
#inkvent #FountainPenink #FountainPen #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineNostalgia #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025

Here we are on day 9 of my Diamine Inkvent advent-ure. I had a bit of an accident with this one, I didn't realize that I hadn't washed the nib properly so the head of this fanciful aquatic creature isn't as Diamine Bittersweet as it should be. I suspect the whole bottle now, all twelve mls of it, is now slightly less Bittersweet than it should be. Oops.

Oh well, don't take it as being the right shade, not that seeing it through a screen will be anything like accurate, hey. Whatever it is now it's a lovely green. It's a Standard ink.

#inkvent #fountainPenink #FountainPen #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineBittersweet #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025

I follow rolanni on Dreamwidth, who is better known as Sharon Lee, who is a writer. The Liaden books, which she co wrote with her sadly missed partner Steve Miller, feature Clan Korval, whose clan symbol is a dragon hovering over a giant tree, and the clan motto, "Flaran Cha'menthi" which means "I Dare".

Sharon was feeling a bit down in her last entry, so I commented that my next Inkvent ink would feature the clan motto. It was nice that this Diamine "Dreamcatcher" Ultrasheen was pretty snazzy!
It's a lovely ink!

I don't often do fan art, so #LiadenUniverse and #SharonLee and #LeeandMiller folks enjoy!
##inkvent #fountainPenink #FountainPen #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineDreamcatcher #ultrasheen #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025

This is a standard ink, but it has nice depth, and flows well.

This is Diamine Blush and it's day seven of inkvent - how are you doing with yours a week in if you're doing it?

#inkvent #fountainPenink #FountainPen #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineBlush #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025

December the 6th brings us a chameleon ink, Fir and Fog. It's lovely and even let us photograph the different coloured sparkles. Perhaps it was the strong sunlight this morning :-) Flows nicely, and it also is quite happy to bleed out into a wash, unlike the one yesterday. Although that one had dried for longer, so that might be it.

I really like this one.

#inkvent #fountainPenink #FountainPen #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineFir&Fog #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025

Inkvent 2025 Number 5 - Marie Rose is a golden brown pleasant standard ink that apparently hates my troublesome nib. I'm going to have to try the potato. It doesn't bleed much, this ink. At least not on this paper from Claire Fontane, same as I've used for the others.

#inkvent #fountainPenink #FountainPen #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineMarieRose #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025

For today, December 4th, I opened up the little door to find ink du jour is called Smoky Tobacco. And it's a scented ink, hmm. I'm of the opinion that every Diamine scented ink I've sniffed so far smells horribly chemically and medicinal or sacharine or like some sort of cleaning products. Sorry Diamine, I'm not in it for the smells, and if I was I wouldn't be sniffing you.

But this one isn't overly horrible. I don't like tobacco smoke generally, but a fragrant pipe smoke can be quite pleasant. This ink smells like someone tried to get rid of the smell of a fragrant pipe in an old library with a bit of pine scented polish.
I asked @rdm what he'd like me to draw for this one and he ummed and aahed a bit and then asked for a centaur.

I said "Smoking a pipe?" and he agreed, but it had to be one of those big curving ones, "Like a Meerschaum?" I said and he nodded.

So here we have what must now be called a Scentaur smoking a pipe.

I do not in any way endorse smoking or tobacco products and have received no benefits from the depiction of tobacco and smoking paraphernalia in this image. It's killed too many of my close relatives. Could have called it Witch's Fire or something Diamine, there's enough tobacco smoke around without making it seem like a good thing.

Also, those dodgy convenience stores selling illegal tobacco and vapes. They should start actually stocking convenience items like milk because it just makes non-addicts really annoyed when you can't get milk from a convenience store. It's not very bloody convenient is it?

Oops sorry got distracted there. Anyway you can see that the ink is a chocolatey brown, and that the water brush wash over it has left the drawing intact and gives a pleasant variety of shades.

#inkvent #fountainPenink #FountainPen #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineSmokyTobacco #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025

Catching up with December the third, and this one was a bit of a surprise to me - it's a sharp looking red ink, Carousel by name. It's marked as a pigment ink, and this isn't something I've experienced before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. We did a little reading up, and it's interesting. It's a forever ink, so I'll be thinking long and hard before I put one in a pen, because once it's dried that's apparently it.

Hmm.

I fooled around with various experimentation which I'll go into in detail in separate sections. Firstly, though, I'll say a bit of isoprop on the offending nib from the previous time worked a treat, and I had no problems with any flow.

Partway along the body of my volunteer test dragon I did some cross hatching with an unknown fine Kaweco, just a standard black I think, that had been in the pen a while and was a bit dry to start with. Then I drew with the pigment ink on top of it. Nothing much happened except the inks began to mix, and not much of interest was apparent.

Okay I thought, let's try it with a permanent ink as the base, so I dug around until I found a black Sharpee and drew on top of a test piece for that. That's the black patch with the dragon pearl in front of the dragon. And, it's... okay, it doesn't show up at all well but it's there, and it's not mixed with the other ink.

Now came the most interesting bit to my mind and inclinations, how does it cope with watercolour going over it once it's dried. It goes fine. I might have to find me some of it in black, and a sacrificial, or 'always keep this filled and active' fountain pen, because it's nice to be able to draw the black ink first, and then put some colour in if I've a mind to. Yes I know I could use other pens that are permanent, but I do enjoy a fountain pen.

The Carousel Ink itself flows really well from a dip nib, it's bright and lovely.

#inkvent #fountainPenink #FountainPen #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineCarousel #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025

For my birthday @rdm bought me the 2025 Diamine Invent Calendar, so this time I'm all current and up to date and topical.

So I did December the 1st yesterday, and December the 2nd today.

I hope to do a larger work integrating them all this month, but for now, here's what I did with the first two inks.

The first ink is called Celestial Skies, and it's a very pretty aquamarine blue, with a shimmer in it that was hard to catch for me today in film. But you might get a hint of it as you click on the photos below. A vaguely Celestial dragon seemed like a good subject.

Drawn with a dip pen, and then I used a waterbrush to tease out some wash from the image, and I think it's a lovely shade.

The next day brings us an ink called Energy, and it's certainly vibrant. I tried another nib for this one, but I must have some grease from my hands on it, the point was pretty hydrophobic, and the ink didn't want to flow (it's not the ink, it's done this with others) Apparently I should stick the nib in a potato for 10 minutes or give it a rub with some alcohol (I tried Dr Bronner's but it didn't work) so I'll know for next time.

Anyways, this is a nice rich purple with a bronzeish sort of sheen, which I managed to catch a little of in the photo. I don't know where the UniGryphon came from, I was frustrated with the nib which was not cooperating enough to my tastes, so a monstrous beast emerged.
I mean, a bit more monstrous than usual, I guess, for me?

It's really a nice ink though. Did the wash thing with the waterbrush again.

#inkvent #fountainPenink #FountainPen #Dippen #DrawingWithoutaNet
#NoAI #Diamine #DiamineCelestialSky #DiamineEnergy #OriginalArt #PenandInk #Inkvent2025 #DiamineInkvent2025