How To Load & Fill Calligraphy Dip Pen For Beginners

So you got your new calligraphy dip pen and you are ready for learning pointed pen calligraphy. You put your pen together and you dip into the ink and start writing.

But no ink comes onto the paper.

Your wondering what I am doing wrong?

For the rest of this tutorial, I am going to be talking about how to dip a dip pen into the ink and other ways to fill/load ink onto the nib.

Here is the quick and short answer…

You are going to first want to attach your nib to your holder. Now start to dip your nib until it reaches the vent hole. You are going to want to make sure that the vent hole is filled with ink and get the excess off by either wiping it against the bottle or start flicking the rest of the ink back into the bottle.

This was just a simple answer, so now I am going to be going more in-depth on how you can load your nib with ink.

• How To Dip Your Dip Pen Into Ink
• Using A Brush To Fill/Load Ink Onto Calligraphy Pen
• Some Problems You Might Encounter

How To Dip Your Dip Pen Into Ink

For this article, I am going to be talking about the dip pen that we use for pointed pen calligraphy or also considered a type of modern calligraphy.

Anyway, let us get started.

As a beginner, you see all of these people simply dipping the nib into the ink and start to write, looks so easy right. Well, there is just a bit of learning curve and some things that you are going to learn when dipping the nib into ink.

Here is the step by step process to dipping your nib into the ink for beginners.

STEP 1

Before you even start putting your nib into ink make sure that you have the nib attached correctly into your holder.

I recommend doing this because if you dip your nib into the ink and find out that the nib is not put in correctly it might get a little messy when trying to put it in the right way.

STEP 2

Identify where the vent hole is. The vent hole is the hole that is in the nib. This hole is just a place where the ink is stored while you are writing.

It is important to identify this so that you can understand if you are dipping your pen correctly into the ink.

STEP 3

You are now going to dip the nib into your ink.

When doing this you should not be covering the whole entire nib with ink. Instead, you should dip your nib until it reaches the vent hole.

One of the biggest indications that your pen has enough ink is that the vent hole can not be seen anymore, since there is ink inside it.

STEP 4

To avoid any big ink blots you should clean off the excess of ink.

There are two ways that you can do this.

One of the easiest ways is to simply just wipe you nib against the ink bottle which will get the excess ink right off.

Another thing you can do is gently flick your dip pen inside the bottle. This can get a bit messy, especially if you don’t have a big enough ink bottle.

STEP 5

Start to draw out your lettering calligraphy illustrations. 

As you can tell it is not a big learning curve but there are just those few things that you have to learn when dipping it into the ink.

How To Use Brush to Fill/ Load Ink Onto Pen

In my opinion, this isn’t that necessary unless you want to make sure that you don’t make a big mess.

There can also be some other reasons for doing this.  

For example, instead of using ink to load your nib, you are using gouache or some type of watercolor.

With watercolor, you can’t necessarily dip a nib into it.

Essentially using a brush can be a mess-free way to filling up your nib.

STEP 1 

You are going to grab your nib and make sure that it is facing the opposite way from you.

Instead of holding it like you would do when drawing, you are instead going to “flip it around”.

STEP 2

You are going to now dip your brush into the ink, watercolor, or any medium that you use.

When doing this I found if you really get the brush filled with watercolor it can be easier, instead of having to go back and forth with putting ink onto the brush.

STEP 3

You are going to leave little drops of the watercolor onto the nib. Instead of brushing on the ink or watercolor, you should instead just let the watercolor fall onto the nib in drops.

The reason being is if you brush the ink on, you are going back and forth with the brush. This motion can just lead you to pick up the ink that you already put on.

STEP 4

Now you are going to make sure that the vent hole is filled with your ink. Afterword start to take the excess ink off by either flicking the nib or putting it against the ink bottle.

STEP 5

Start drawing your letters!!!

Problems You May Encounter

One of the main problems that you may encounter is that the ink is not sticking to your nib.

A lot of times people just think it is because the nib doesn’t work with a certain type of ink. This is not entirely true.

There may be another reason why this is happening.

When you get a brand new nib the manufacturer always leaves a residue on it. This residue can lead to the ink to not want to stick onto your nib. 

It is important when getting your new nibs to clean them correctly.

A lot of people do this in many different ways.

Some people like to:

• Boil it in water
• Clean It With Acetone
• Rub It With Tooth Paste
• Clean It With Detergent
• And Even Stick It Inside A Potatoe

So as you can tell just make sure that you clean your calligraphy nib in the best way possible so that the ink can stick to your nib.

If you are having problems cleaning your nibs in any type of way go check out my tutorial all about it here.

Final Thoughts

So you have all successfully dipped your pen into ink.

With calligraphy, there are learning curves, don’t get let down if you keep getting these big ink splats.

Usually, when starting out you can start coming up with your own tricks on how to do things.

If you are struggling feel free to comment with your questions.