janijane quabyck royden
Latarsha Dorrance
Combining watercolour with ink in your paintings can yield some stunning results. However, there are a lot of pens out there, and it may not be obvious which is the best ink for watercolour illustrations.
The aim of this blog post is to give you an idea of what to look for in a fineliner or ink so that you can apply this to your own creations. In this post, I discuss and review 15 pens and inks. While this list is by no means extensive (there are a LOT of pens and inks out there), this is a good starting point for artists looking to incorporate ink into their watercolour paintings.
When looking for a pen or ink to use, there are several words you may come across. These words describe the physical qualities of the ink. I want to define these before we get started so that you understand the review chart I've made for the pens, and so that you know what to look for when you see pens that are not included in this review.
The ink does not become muted, bleed, or lift off the page when you add water to it. This is, maybe somewhat obviously, what you are looking for when using with watercolours. You will see this word on pens and inks.
The ink will resist water when it's dry. Usually requires a longer drying period before water/paint can be applied on top without ink bleeding. This is a more common thing to see on inks, rather than pens.
This refers to ink that is suitable and resistant to water, light, and time, and not damage the paper it has been used on. These inks are lightfast, UV-resistant, waterproof, acid-free, and can are meant to last a long time (ie permanent). If you see this term on a pen, it encompasses most of the definitions here excluding water-soluble.
This is completely up to you! It's a personal preference. Some artists (including myself) will choose to ink before adding watercolour, and some artists prefer to ink after they have applied their watercolour.
The type of pen you use with your ink will affect what type of lines you get. For example, nibbed pens usually give clean, sharp lines, with line thicknesses that vary depending on the pressure you put on it.
Glass dip pens, on the other hand, do not respond to pressure and create an even, consistent line with a 'nib' that is easy to clean. I have heard a lot of good things from my fellow artists about this option.
EDIT: When I initially published this post, my answer was a firm NO - however, using India ink in a fountain pen has been my go-to pen for years. The reason why it's suggested to not use the two together is because fountain pens can get easily clogged from the pigment particles in India and acrylic ink, eventually ruining your pen.
While I'm sure there have been countless fountain pens thrown away for exactly that reason, I always make sure to clean my pen with warm, soapy water when my ink converter (the thing that sucks up the ink) runs empty. I will sometimes add a very small amount (a few drops) of distilled water to my ink if I feel it's not flowing as nicely, but I actually do not really run into issues.
I use a Lamy Safari Pen and Speedball Super Black India Ink, and the two work like a dream together. Since India ink plays nicely with watercolour, I can use it either on top or underneath my paintings, and the lines are rich and dark, and do not fade.
For this experiment, I am testing all pens on 300 gsm Canson cold-pressed watercolour paper. These pens and inks may yield different results on different types of paper (mixed media, bristol, vellum, etc)
I scanned this image in and have kept the texture of the paper and brightness as similar as I could to the physical chart. Your computer monitor or screen may vary in colour/brightness but you should still be able to see the differences between each pen and ink.
Let's get started!
tl;dr of pen/ink review: recommended pens include the Sakura Pigma Micron Pen and the Winsor and Newton Fineliner pen. For inks, I recommend the Speedball Super Black India ink and the Daler Rowney F.W. Black Ink - both will not disappoint.
This pen also fades quite a bit from being erased, but it could be an okay option to use on top of watercolour. The gel ink on top of the paint is harder to draw smooth lines with, as you can see my squiggle lines are a little sharp rather than smooth.
Although it says it is a waterproof pen, I noticed that when I applied water on top it did bleed a little. This may have been because I didn't wait long enough before applying it. That's fine, just keep in mind if you work fast or are left-handed, you may end up smudging this ink quite often!
The pigment in this pen isn't super black, and it does fade with both erasing and watercolour being applied on top. When I tried a quick pen stroke, it was very streaky. However, this pen looks great on top of the watercolour.
The only reason why I have stopped using these pens and opted for ink in my work is that I love a dark, intense black pigment for my paintings, and these pens do fade slightly with erasing whereas the inks do not.
I was surprised to learn that this pen is supposedly archival and waterproof, considering it is a gel pen. Testing it with water though, it did bleed slightly and the colour is very muted underneath the paint.
The gel ink doesn't seem to want to run as smoothly as other pens, and it feels like the pen is clogged. It is also not as heavily pigmented/black as other pens I've used, and it smudges heavily compared to other pens.
This pen stood up very well against erasing, and it wasn't streaky when I tried quick, straight lines. The ink looks really good on top of watercolour paint. It's also one of the most affordable pens on this list.
The verdict: If you have the patience to let this ink dry completely before painting over top, it could be a decent pen. However, I think it would be a better pen for using on top of watercolour because the lines are very crisp and clear, and we know it won't fade because it's archival.
This is a really solid pen to use with watercolour, though there are some things to notice.
When erased, this ink fades quite a bit, which is a pity because it has a wonderfully dark pigment. It smudges a little, though much less than other pens on this list. It is waterproof, fade-proof and acid-free.
The Artist's pen comes in many different sizes and types, including fineliners, brush pens, and calligraphy pens which makes it great for drawing and illustrating. The ink is archival, lightfast, and waterproof, and uses India ink rather than pigmented ink.
The colour is very dark, although it has a slight navy tinge to it compared to the other pens. On the watercolour paper, it does bleed slightly (without water being added) which makes the ink appear to be fuzzy rather than crisp and clear.
Verdict: If you want to learn how to use ink and watercolour together without investing money into other pens, this is a decent option. For quick craft projects with kids, they'd be perfect. One thing to keep in mind is that since the ink does bleed on the paper slightly (without watercolour on top), it would be better for paintings that do not require high detail.
Okay, so these pens are my favourite pens to use for just writing, but it is not ideal to use as a drawing pen (nor really is any ballpoint pen). The ink is neither lightfast nor archival, and although the ink didn't smear with water, it is also not waterproof.
The colour of this is a rich matte black, and I'm impressed that it still keeps a strong colour after erasing. It does take a little more time to dry, as it smudged very easily. It writes very smoothly, and the lines are uniform.
This pen feels great in my hands, and the ink is nice and smooth and easy to control. It does not specifically say that it is archival, though it does say light-resistant and water-resistant on the website.
The pigment held up well with plain water, but when I put watercolour on top of it it did make the paint seem more faded and discoloured. I would recommend letting this ink dry for a longer period of time before painting on top.
Although the ink does take longer to dry (not surprising) and is prone to smudging, so allowing it to dry for a few minutes is well worth the wait. It looks great under and on top of watercolour paint.
This has a rich pigment to it, and it brushes on smoothly with a brush or dip pen. This ink is supposedly waterproof, however, it did bleed quite a bit when I tried putting water on top, after waiting about 3 minutes.
To see if it was just the ink needing more time to dry, I waited a full 30 minutes before applying the watercolour on top, and that did the trick. After drying, this ink didn't budge an inch when I erased it either.
This ink is not as dark as the two inks above, and it fades a bit after erasing. This ink is fade-resistant, but I could not find anything mentioned at all about it being truly lightfast or archival.
On their website it mentions that this particular ink requires a 12-15 minute drying time, however, I found it dried fine in about 5 minutes. If you do accidentally smudge, they will be ugly "blotchy" smudges. So be aware!
This is an acrylic ink rather than an India ink, and as soon as I started writing with this I could feel the difference. Acrylic inks flow lighter than water, and the fluidity and smoothness of the ink were apparent.
If I were to recommend my top 2 choices for pens, it would be the Sakura Pigma Micron Pen and the Winsor and Newton Fineliner pen. They both have excellent pigmentation and are archival (and therefore lightfast, waterproof, UV-resistant, etc). They come in many sizes, and the pens feel solid and comfortable to hold for those long drawing sessions.
Although I didn't review nearly as many inks, I was quite impressed with the Speedball Super Black India ink and the Daler Rowney F.W. Black Ink Both have beautiful rich black pigmentation, hold up well to erasing, and look great below or above watercolour.
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