In my artist journals lately, mostly I’ve been experimenting with my new ink.

Shown above, the first page in the lovely new quilted art journal our daughter made me for Christmas is all done in ink. The first photo below is a page spread collaged in colorful napkins I brought home from Guadeloupe over ink underneath, with ink packaging corners collaged on top, before I recycled the rest of those beautiful boxes. The next couple of images are me getting the ink wet, and the last two are me mixing ink with a bit of acrylic, metallic gouache, or tempera.

Doing pages like these help me know what will work in real artwork, but first I must test my ink to be sure it will not fade. In my journals I don’t worry about that much since there is very little sun exposure, but in a piece of art for the wall I need to determine how archival they are.

Inks labeled “pigment inks” means they should be professional grade and more archival. “Permanent ink,” for example means you can do a watercolor wash over it and it won’t go anywhere, but it does not necessarily mean it is fade proof. Desire for archival materials is why I buy top quality, so I’m pretty sure these will measure up, but I will test them anyway.

Have you played much with ink? Are you doing an art journal yet? I can’t recommend it enough.