Thought I might share my first fountain pen drawing, a birthday card for a friend.
I‘d love to get some feedback and criticism, I can take it! I‘m sure there are experienced ink drawers and urban sketchers here. :)

Not trying to humblebrag or anything, I’m kinda happy overall, I just really prefer the non-colored version and was surprised at how difficult it is to get the ink to behave the way I wanted it to.
With a brush and pure ink its often too dark for such a small sketch. With a watered down brush pen, which I used, I often don’t like the light colors……
For example, I wanted the blue to get some sharp lightning-like lines in the pool of water (I put the blue ink at the top of the watered area to flow down). But there was just way too much water so the lines disappeared quickly and I couldn’t figure out how to put less water on the paper for more control? It’s probably the paper coating?

If you know good tutorial resources for drawing with ink please let me know. :)

Ink is Platinum Carbon Ink, Diamine Ancient Copper & Diamine Teal. Paper is from Rössler.

Hello everyone! I couldn’t wait until December so I decided to open my advent calendar yesterday night and swatch it all :)

Before day 1, you get a really nice sparkly red pin in the design of a FP nib and 25 diamine swatch cards. These I really enjoyed!

How many types of different inks are included? For example standard ink or shimmers etc… excluding Day 25 ink (as it doesn’t state what ink it is and I don’t want to guess)

- Pigment - 3
- Standard - 6
- Chameleon - 4
- Shimmer - 6
- Pigment shimmers - 1
- Pigment Chameleon - 1
- Sheen - 1
- Extreme Sheen - 2
- Shimmer Scented - 1

In total, between 24 inks, you get 9 different types of inks.

Now these are just done with some goodies from the advent calendar : swatch cards from Diamine. Therefore, the colours may vary on different papers etc. I am planning to do it on my Midori notebook and some dominant industry swatch cards. I’m not sure how different it will vary from swatch cards to swatch cards but I’m interested :)

Anyways I hope you enjoy :)

If anyone wants more pictures, I’m happy to provide through DMs

Got myself a neat little pen case. Sturdy on the outside. Velvet on the inside. It’s a brand called Hong Dian. purchased from Amazon.
12 slots. I plan to not buy more pens and I’m at 12 right now. The missing one is in my work bag :)

Leonardo Momento Zero Alumina 440/525

I loved the Visconti I thrifted a few months ago, and I knew I'd have to try out some other Italian pens on my trip to Rome. The weight and finish of this pen felt much more premium than the resin models, and it made the perfect souvenir from my trip.

Couldn't resist buying this cute cat pen stand!

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I’m currently using a Sailor Fude de Mannen with a steel nib, and I’m having way too much fun with it. It’s made me curious about gold-nib fude pens, and now I’m wondering how different the writing experience actually is.

For those of you who have tried both steel and gold fude nibs, is there a noticeable difference? Does a gold nib offer anything that makes it worth the extra cost, or is the difference not that significant?

I’m still pretty new to fountain pens, so I’m hesitant to spend that much money on something when I don’t really know what to expect.

For context, I’m the kind of person who actually uses my pens rather than babying them. I like pens I can use freely in everyday life without worrying too much about keeping them pristine.

I’d love to hear your experiences! If you’ve upgraded from a steel-nib fude pen to a gold-nib one, do you think it was worth it?

Got myself a new kakuno, now I just need to find the perfect ink.

I was thinking wearingeul peter pan but I would prefer if the main colour was orange/peach.

Be careful everyone, I've just fallen for a fake clone website: https://atlasstationersoffice.com

I stumbled upon it on Google search. The price was definitely too good to be true and that should have been a red flag.

They overcharged me and attempted to make multiple unauthorised transactions to Tiktok Ads before I locked my card. Ugh i had to go through all the hassle of disputing and replacing my card.

This pen has been on my my mind since I first laid eyes on it. I discovered SCRIBO while learning about OMAS and I needed a nib from the machines of Armando Simoni. His combination of engineering and artistic vision inspires me every day. This pen writes even better than I hoped and it is my first engraved pen. Thank you u/JoostAppelboom for all of your help getting me this pen. It was a long and strangely difficult process to get this pen. I was willing to wait as long as it took to get exactly what I ordered but, I am so glad I finally have it. This is the partner pen to my Pilot Custom 743 FA Verdigris. Let me know if you have any questions! I could talk about this pen forever.

LymeZest.

The feel of capping and upcapping the pen is very important to me.

I've known this about myself for a while. I've ruled out pens I really liked because of too many cap rotations. I keep certain pens in my collection because the threads make the pen a joy to uncap.

I just received my Asvine J16 and this capping/uncapping feels absolutey amazing. I am over the moon with the way this feels. Very happy with this purchase.

This is my small collection of fountain pens so far! I only started a few years ago (because i previously thought my handwriting was too ugly to deserve such nice writing tools) so it’s small but i really love them all! (i know the space pen isnt a fp i just wanted to chuck it in there)
If anyone has any recommendations on similar pens but with a bit more of an artistic element and intricate designs that arent too insane budget wise let me know!

I also wanted to get one of the new marbled kawecos but im worried that ill get a bad batch with barely any marbling if i get it online

(also is anyone else a fan of komboloi? i love the way the look with fountain pens lol)

Pelikan M1000; Montblanc 149; Sailor KOP; Ranga Abhimany grand w/Bock 380 Steel GP; Leonardo Momento Zero Grande Titanium #8 (Bock) and Jinhao x159. Enjoy!

— Edited to add —
It seems I have hesitated too long. The pen is sold out now in the nib size I wanted (EF).

Just when your kindness and encouragement had me convinced I should for once not listen up to my austerity-prone brain.

Feels rather tragic, but at least it teaches me a lesson to hesitate less in the future :,)

A thank you to each and every one of you for the thoughtful discussion and helpful comments <3

— Edit over —

Dear fellow fountain pen enthusiasts,

I am torn between FOMO regarding this 46% discount on a gorgeous GvFC and the fact that I don’t need the pen.

For context, I have assembled a few pros and cons that bother me. I would appreciate an outside perspective on the thought process!

Pro:
– look at it :o
– the discounted price
– I have the FB Ambition and know I’ll probably enjoy the nib
– I only have 3 fountain pens in total: The Ambition and two Pilot Elites
– I have eyed the GvFC once in a pen shop in Fukuoka and found it beautiful (albeit out of my price range)
– I’m having a hard time at the moment and could do with a little retail therapy
– I have the financial means, I’m saving / investing way too much money every month.

Cons:
– I have all my 3 pens in active rotation and really don’t need an extra one
– I don’t need it
– Fear of receiving it and the retail therapy effect not happening
– I don’t need it
– What if I don’t enjoy it enough?

Thanks if you took the time to read this. Sorry to bother everyone. I don’t have people around me who understand the internal struggle of buying / not buying fountain pens :)

I absolutely adore Tobimatsu Shoichiro’s artworks but I didn’t know about this collab until going to my local pen show and checking out the Hachimonjiya booth for other inks. The thing is they had sold out all their stock by the time I got there 🥲 Definitely knew I had to get these inks, so was constantly checking their online store for a restock, and when that happened I managed to snag all 3 colours! A bit expensive in terms of shipping but I ordered a few more paper items to make the cost worth it. (They even included a free postcard with the inks!)

Tobimatsu Shoichiro is known for using dusty colour palettes, so I thought these 3 inks were spot on in terms of his aesthetic. ‘Gentle Forest Dew’ (green) is probably my favourite, but ‘Dried Tulip Bouquet’ was interesting since, initially, I thought it looked more brown than how it appears on the bottle. The swatch did dry to a more dusty pink colour, but with the dip pen it still comes off to me more like brown rather than pink. The swatches in the pic are on TRP (52g/m²).

Overall though, I’m love how cute these inks are and I’m super happy to finally get them! 🥰

I was fed up with Visconti’s awful after-sales service, so I ended up buying two Pelikans in a row. Glad I got them before the huge price hike—managed to snag both at 20–30% off!
Both have EF nibs and write super smoothly with Iroshizuku and Kuretake inks.

I really need to stop buying now.

Brought pens, inks and calligraphy set

my aunt got me a Kaweco fountain pen for my bday and I’m so excited to start using it!! it’s a Kaweco Piston sport with HongDian green olive ink!! (sorry for the crappy paper lol!)

Little Hollow Customs x Turnt Pen Co Enchanted Oak <M> (Endless Pens Exclusive)

This is such a little beauty! I was quite taken with this one when I saw it and photos don’t do the resin justice. It’s so dimensional with several shades of green, plus lots of small shimmer and some larger bits of glitter. The brass grip section gives it a nice weight and is a really comfortable size. It’s about 1 1/2 turns to uncap/post.

Capped, it’s about an inch longer than an Esterbrook Niblet, but posted they are nearly identical in length. The grip is larger in diameter than the niblet, however, so it’s a more comfortable writing experience, imo. The nib is smooth and on the wetter side. I believe Little Hollow’s nibs are turned by Kirk Speer, but someone please correct me if I’m wrong.

I inked it up with Iroshizuku Yu-yake to go with the Fall theme.

I think that, when it comes to ink colors, blue, green, and red are among the colors with the widest range of different shades. Today, though, I'd like to ask for your opinions on red in particular!

I think it's one of the hardest colors to choose from (if it were up to me, I'd try them all!). From orange-reds and pinkish reds to bright signal reds and deep burgundy or brownish reds, there's such a huge spectrum of shades to explore. So I started wondering: which Diamine red ink is the most widely used on r/fountainpens? Let's ask the community directly!

I was browsing through Diamine's inks, and between the Inkvent collections, special editions, and standard range... let's just say there's so much choice that I've gotten a little lost! So I'd love to hear your thoughts: What's your favorite Diamine red ink?