I have received postcards written in elegant cursive handwritings, and seen artists on Instagram (such as @paulheaston and @harryfrost ) who make such vivid and oraganic sketches of everyday life using fountain pens, and wondered what it would be like to write and draw using a fountain pen.
So I got one.
I had known very little about fountain pens, so a good amount of research into fountain pens was necessary. After watching lots of video reviews by fountain pen enthusiasts and expert vintage pen-restorers (yes, they exist) I came to concluded that fountain pens are very expensive; and that they are an ingenious invention of mankind.
I had always thought of fountain pens as writing quills that needed to be dipped in the inkwell every 5 seconds, and how much of a hassle it would be to the writer, but modern fountain pens don't have that problem. They work similarly to rollerball pens, drawing ink steadily from cartridges stored inside the body of the pen, or even better - from a converter which can be refilled with ink from an inkwell.
Fountain pens are much more expensive, with a price range between £15 to £150, compared to a rollerball pen which would only cost around £2 - might I add, that back in high school I only needed one Pilot rollerball pen to last me through an entire year's homework, essay-writing and exam papers?
I too wondered, whether it was really a sensible decision to get a pen so expensive... Until I saw this one fountain pen, whose classic and retro look just won my heart over.
Behold, my Kaweco Student 20's Jazz :
Kaweco Student fountain pen inside its tin case, I also bought a standard ink converter
made by Faber Castell, and two bottles of Diamine ink.
And look at how lovely this Kaweco pen case is! I saw this tin case when I bought a Kaweco Sport fountain pen for my older sister last year, and it really shows the amount of craftsmanship and care the brand puts into its products.
Kaweco's signature fountain pen tin case that came with the pen, with stamped lettering.
As soon I received the pen I started writing with it - and it was surprisingly natural to write with! The nib size I got was a 'Fine', and it feels very similar to a 0.5 or 0.6 rollerball pen that I normally write with. The ink flowed very smoothly, and the Diamine ink that I used would create this colour gradient in each stroke where it would be darker the longer the pen stayed in touch with the paper, similar to writing with a brush. It felt as if I was adding an artistic touch with every stroke I wrote (I guess you would call that... calligraphy?).
I also tried a 'cross-hatching' sketching technique, which is apparently a very popular technique for drawing with fountain pens. I found some objects from my apartment as the subjects of my life-drawing, and it turned out quite well:
I decided not to rely on pencil sketches (which I normally do), and sketched directly with the fountain pen. It was quite daunting at first, but I found that the result was more organic and 'human'.
I also tried colouring in a fountain pen sketch with watercolour, as seen in the picture below:
A sketch of the fireplace at my Grandparents-in-law's house.
Because the ink itself it water soluble, when I painted over the sketch with watercolour, it actually washed out a lot of the line work. This is not necessary a bad thing, because I could take advantage of this to 'erase' some of the mistakes in line art, and I could always add the details back onto the drawing using a fountain pen once the paper has completely dried.
Whilst most people probably won't need to buy a £50 fountain pen, or 25 rollerball pens, I thought it would be nice to have that ONE nice pen that I could rely on to write letters, postcards, and sketch with, without ever having to worry about it running out of ink.
The idea that this pen might accompany me for many decades to come fills me with excitement!
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