From their website:
“Manufacturers since 1864,
Diamine Inks relocated to this
state of the art factory in Liverpool in 1925, where they successfully carried on using the traditional methods and
formulas for ink production.
Over the years the company
has changed hands and are
now located close to the world
famous Aintree Race Course.”
Liverpool, home to the
Beatles and Diamine!
Diamine Festive Cheer Ink was one of the Advent Calendar inks that Diamine
decided to produce as an everyday ink. I bought it for the bottle…
So many people had loved these inks and this ink was a big hit.
Properties of Diamine Festive Cheer Ink:
It is advertised as a sheening ink but I found the red sheen hard to produce on either Hahnemühle Nostalgie paper (latter) or Fabriano watercolor paper, above.
(Photographed in different lights to show the sheen.)
It has no real shading properties, and is a solid dark blue, and other than the
minimal red sheen might make a good work ink.
Diamine Festive Cheer Ink
is well behaved and dries extremely fast, which is good info for lefties. It writes crisp on all my every day papers, though it feathers a bit
on Post-its. I consider it on the dry side; I tested it in with a dip pen. Completely water-soluble. The brush moves the color easily, and when scrubbed / rewet it shows its base color, which is in the Indanthrone blue family, below, only moving slightly toward Ultramarine, never making it to that clear blue.
*Above, watercolors from Daniel Smith.*
The color matches the watercolor pigments, above, with and their Munsell ranges:
Indanthrone (PB60), and Ultramarine (PB29).
*For more info on the munsell system, go to this page. Knowing the pigments can help you not to duplicate watercolors made of the same pigments.*
I was unable to find out if the inks are lightfast, and have not performed my own tests.
Most artists who use ink are making prints of their work —
But ink-painting is becoming more popular so maybe it is time!
This lovely ink bottle drawn on Hahnemühle Nostalgie paper shows off the ranges…
The piece was drawn with a Platinum Carbon Pen, then painted using water to dilute and push the inks. I find this ink not a great ink with which to paint.
Bottom line, for me, as an ink-painter and loving inks that produce vivid colors,
I was disappointed in the ink. I can imagine it used for a business ink as the sheen factor in a medium nib (the size of my dip pen nib) is minimal.
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“Memory is more indelible than ink.”
Anita Loos, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
“I think not….”
Me… why I journal!
Hahnemühle Nostalgie Sketchbook and an ink journal from Fabriano,
Platinum Carbon Pen with Platinum Carbon ink waterproof cartridges,
Pentel Aquash waterbrush, Diamine Festive Cheer Ink.
©D. Katie Powell.
My images/blog posts may be reposted; please link back to dkatiepowellart.
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