Monkey is over at the Hudson Valley Mall. Finally, I can get my two cents in. I want to talk about my favorite tool, my trusty Pelikan 120 Fountain Pen. I've been using a Pelikan 120 since about 1978. I get a good, flexible line with nice variation (thick and thins) using a fountain pen. Sadly, the 120 is no longer in production, but you can get 'em on eBay for around $30, if you keep trying. I am not an eBay user, but my pal, Mike West, who is, tracked down three beauties, none costing more than $100, which is less than a good new Pelikan. I was so relieved to find some. I originally had three 120's and was down to one. Thank you Mike!

I prefer fountain pens, though I did learn to master flexible dip pens like Gillotte. Fountain pens allow you to draw for long stretches without dipping into a bottle and there are no sudden blobs of ink on your nearly finished drawing.

Which brings me to Ink.

I used to use FW waterproof India ink, but the new owners changed the formula from carbon to acrylic. I was in dispair as ran low on my old supply of the good FW, but finally found a great,, very waterproof and flowing India ink. It's made by Dr. Ph. Martin's. I tried several of the Dr. Martin's inks and the most waterproof (if that matters--it does to me, since I color my work in with watercolor) one are these two:

Dr. Ph.Martin's Black Star HICARB
and
Dr. Ph. Martin's Tech 14W Black

Both are available here:

AOE Art Supply

I've tried every other Waterproof India Ink I could get my paws on and none were truly waterproof. They also had serious flow issues.

My pen may not work for your needs, but I thought I'd let you know.

I think the simian just came up the driveway.

-ES