Pen and Ink Floral of an Iris, Evening Iris, by Canadian Artist Kim Blair

Evening Iris flowed off my brush and pen onto the paper...
Drawing ink first appeared in China, about 3,000 BCE.  This early ink was a combination of pinewood smoke, lamp oil, and gelatin from animal skins.  Since then, art inks have been made from a diversity of sources, such as sooty carbon, oak galls, insects, cuttlefish ink and crustaceans.  I create my pen and ink work using a brush and a metal tipped quill pen, which I dip into bottled waterproof ink.  Like watercolors, ink pigment produces magical passages when dropped or brushed onto wet paper... rather mesmerizing.