Glass Dip Pen and Ink

 A couple months ago I started seeing glass dip pens

in my Amazon feed. 

So of course I had to check them out.

 I think I paid $8.00 for this pen on Amazon.

They had boring in the $3-4.00 range,

 but I wanted pretty. Since then I have seen some

glass dip pens online that run upwards of $150-200.

I will never have one of those. Hahaha!

But I do wish for one. 

I like Fire Spider Glass's website - they have a cool

pen with a jelly fish design. So can not afford them.

I watched a YouTube video that ran 1:20 and

learned enough to make this drawing.

Hahaha! That's about the length of my attention span.

I already had these inks. 

Sometimes I use them for

backgrounds, but I had never drawn with them.

Liquitex Acrylic Ink and Daler Rowney Liquid Acrylics 

both worked great!

 It is as simple as dipping this pen into the jar of ink,

wiping the excess off onto the lip of the jar,

then holding the pen like you would any pen -

and you draw!

There! I saved you watching a 1:20 YouTube video!

You are welcome!

They did suggest being careful not to clink the two

glass items together very sharply in case you

get breakage. That would be sad.

 Figuring I was going into the unknown,

I thought I should stay with something safe -

like the tangle narwal. 

I drew the framework using two different ink colors.

Then I started filling in the sections with - - - 

what else? Printemps!

Ta-da!

 (I am impressed I remembered to take photos.)

Here is a shot of what the pen looks like inked.

You really don't do anything other than stick the

pen down into the ink and pull it out,

wiping the excess on the rim.

The ink sits in those little grooves and does not

fall off the bottom. I promise.

But don't write straight down at a 90 degree angle -

because it won't work. 

Hold it like a regular ballpoint pen.

 Class is over for the day.

Hahaha!

 I tried every color I had that wasn't boring - like silver and black. Ugh. 

I will probably never use those.

Ever. 

 I hadn't used the sepia color yet, so I started outlining the

whole narwal to tie it all together!

Once you are done with one color, dip your

pen into a container of water and swirl it around.

Then wipe it dry on a cloth or paper towel.

This will keep your pen clean and keep you

from cross-mixing colors you don't want mixed.

Unless you want to have a whole jar of mud color.

My hand slipped as I made one of the curves,

so the whole thing now has a thicker border.

That way it looks like I planned it to be that way.

Yep!

Glass dip pens may just be where it's at -

here in Maine. 

Now if I could only justify spending a small

fortune on the jellyfish pen.

Hahaha!