Draw More this October!

Artist Jake Parker created the Inktober drawing challenge back in 2009. Began as way to encourage the practice of his inking and drawing skills, the annual event now draws thousands of submissions each year on Instagram by artists of all ages and skill levels.

How do you participate in Inktober? 

1) Make a drawing in ink.

2) Post it online

3) Hashtag it with #inktober and #inktober2017

4) Repeat

We love this drawing challenge and many of us on staff will be participating. If you’re planning to take part in Inktober you have the chance to win a $50 ARCH gift card! As you post your Inktober art on Instagram, tag @archsupplies and make sure to use the official Inktober hashtags. We’ll announce the prize winner after October 31.

Want to check out some of our favorite pen and ink supplies? We have put together a curated kit with some of our top recommended tools at a sweet deal to help get you going!
 

Check out the ARCH Pen and Ink Set

Review: David tries out De Atramentis Document Ink

We are excited to announce that we are now stocking select colors of the De Atramentis Document Inks from Germany. We handed a few off to illustrator, artist and ARCHie, David Tenorio to play with and review. He came away impressed. Check out his review and a short video he made working with these inks:

After hearing many requests from our customers, we’re really happy to bring in a new fountain pen ink: De Atramentis Document Ink. This hand-made ink is created from historical recipes using high quality European dyes. Coming all the way from Germany, De Atramentis Ink comes highly recommended from a number of urban sketchers and calligraphers.

I was immediately impressed with the rich quality of color as well as the amount of shading this ink produces. Across all brands, I have noticed only a select number of inks have a "shading" quality in which the ink color varies in mark depending on how much is deposited. The De Atramentis lays down nicely and produces a variety of values.

With a brush, the ink has a very rich hue when washed out. I think this ink would be amazing just to paint with in addition to how great it's been in fountain pen and loaded on a dip pen. 

One of the best features of this ink is that it is completely waterproof! Many inks claim to be waterproof only to smudge or run a bit. The De Atramentis has been successfully tested with watercolor and Copic marker and has had zero smearing. This makes De Atramentis a perfect ink for urban sketching and illustration.

If you're at all interested in calligraphy or working with ink in your art, I HIGHLY recommend adding De Atramentis to your collection. At ARCH we are currently stocking 37ml bottles in Black, Grey, Red and Brown, stop by and we’ll be happy to show you swatches of this exceptional ink.

 

Saturday April 5th - FREE Pentel Brush Pen Demo with Chris Koehler 1-3pm

California College of The Arts Faculty member Chris Koehler will be presenting a Pentel Brush Pen demo at ARCH. Join us to learn tips and techniques for using this popular product in a variety of ways. For more about Chris, visit his website.

Chris Koehler is an artist and illustrator working out of San Francisco. His work has appeared in Popular Science, Utne Reader, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wired, The Boston Globe, OnEarth Magazine, Stanford Magazine, and SF Weekly, among others. Chris also teaches in the illustration department at California College of the Arts and regularly shows in galleries.