I’m sad to say I’ve done some research and discovered that fountain pen ink is not very lightfast. This lovely purple will fade to gray unless it’s kept out of the light. Sigh.

But you know what? I don’t think I care. I’m just along for the ride.

I’m hooked on using My Moonman Mini to draw. I start with a pencil sketch. I then add a layer of ink. Once the ink is dry, I erase all the pencil lines and use a water brush over the entire drawing. I let that dry, and then I reinforce the darks and any lines I want to stand out. Sometimes I add in a dreamy background by wetting areas of the surface and adding some scribbles of ink in the water.

Here’s a sweet little Chickadee from a Paint My Photo picture. I used a graphite pencil to quickly sketch this.

Here’s the next step–the basic lines are inked in, the graphite erased, and I’ve started with a water brush.

And here’s the final sketch.

I’ll keep most of these in my sketchbook, but I may investigate using a UV spray to see if it helps with fading. I’m also curious about leaving one out, knowing it will fade to a soft gray, and maybe being okay with that.