Goulet Pen's August 2011 Ink Drop - Part 2

The August Ink Drop from Goulet Pen Company is entitled “New Kids on the Block” and features inks that are either new to the market or new to the Goulet Pen inventory. They are all new to me, so I've been having a great deal of fun trying them out.

For my first test maze I paired Noodler's Blue Nose Bear with Aurora Black, both in Pilot Vanishing Point pens. These inks are very different in the quality of line they put down. From the sound of that you might think that one ink produced a “better” line than the other, but that is not what I mean.

The Aurora Black is a true black ink. It is the blackest ink that I have ever used. On the Clairefontaine paper it was a true matter of Black and White. It very crisp. It would be a great ink to use for pen and ink sketching. Or inking in a comic strip. It dried very quick and I only had one small smudge on the three pages of maze that I have used it on. It is defintely a serious ink. If you are writing a letter to the editor or to your congress person and are not the type to use a canyon, you couldn't do better than this ink.

The Noodler's Blue Nose Bear is the latest ink in the “Black Swan” series that Nathan at Noodler's is creating. The series inks are concocted to have pronounced shading. Since I almost always use pens with Fine or Extra Fine nibs I don't take advantages of this shading feature. The Blue Nose Bear does produce a very soft line. This is what I mean by saying it is a different quality line. While the Aurora Black produces a snappy crisp line, the Blue Nose Bear has a soft nostalgic look. This softness may be caused by a design feature of the ink that produces a “Halo Effect”. On the Clairefontaine paper I didn't see the feathering I have read about online. Of course that is using fountain pen paper and a Fine nib pen.

Actually I was much happier with Blue Nose Bear than with Black Swan in English Roses. This is because the English Roses took forever to dry. It was a mess to use in drawing my mazes. The Blue Nose Bear behaves beautifully. It has not smudged or smeared at all in the five pages of maze I have used it on. The color is a bit odd and maybe not the best for a romantic epistle. For a letter full of nostalgic reminisces the soft focus line would work great.

Here is the first page of a planned four page maze.

Here it is again alongside one of the pages of my current big maze that uses the same inks.

That's it for today.

Jonathan