52 Table of Contents Pages Welcome 2 Alcohol Ink... Sara Felix 3 Iroshizuku Take- Sumi Ink 5 for Instance... James Bacon Enabler.... John Dodd 7 In Praise of Doodling.... Helen Montgomery 11 Harvest Moon... Ann Gry 14 Envelope Art... Marguerite Smith 16 A Southpaws Guide to Pens... John Vaughan 17 The Ink Stuff I have been doing... Chris Garcia 24 Pen Dragon... Rhonda Eudaly 26 Thank you for the art that was provided for this issue. Chris Garcia, Sara Felix, Ann Gry, Vanessa Applegate, Helen Montgomery, and Marguerite Smith and all the lovely picture of pens and mail from John Dodd, James Bacon, Ann Gry and John Vaughan. Welcome Ink. Versatile memory sharing art medium. I’m very grateful to all our contributors here they gave us time during this tricky year and it’s lovely to see Welcome to this issue of journey planet. such wonderfulness. Chris and I are especially thankful to Sara for coming on board to co-edit this issue we are I’m really so pleased that Sara Felix came onboard to so impressed with the wonderful layout the extensive co-edit this issue which looks at ink. use of art and also helping us to find and solicit such great pieces of work. Sara is an incredible force in I’ve loved Sara’s artwork over the years and as her fandom, especially so when it comes to the promotion own work in ink developed and then Chris also of artists, running the Chesley awards her own work started to use ink as an artistic medium I realised that being recognised as a Hugo finalist and when she’s there is an incredible bond between these fluids that asked to make incredible awards we are very lucky and become permanent on paper and our experiences and grateful to have such a versatile artist give their time to memories of the now. Ink can be incredibly joyous this fanzine. and beautiful incredibly artistic and then in a sense I probably end up using it for a very normal things, We’d love to hear from you, as you read or enjoy this sending thanks, well wishes or just catching up. fanzine, know you’re not alone, at any stage if you would like to contribute and be part of this wonderful I find myself writing much more than I anticipated ongoing fun endeavour that is Journey Planet please this year, sending much more post some of which is do contact us and we’ll be happy to tell you what just to keep in touch, some of which is in response themes are upcoming if you wanted to contribute. Do to incredible kindness, post this year has become so not ever feel that you’ve missed an issue or a chance to much more important, could I have a long list now of contribute we can always find space referring back and all the things that I did not anticipate arriving which also so things we love do recur. I’ve turned up, it’s been absolutely amazing to see si-finds so willing to share and I work really hard to Email [email protected] reciprocate. Please now enjoy this fanzine and once again we’d love My letters are adorned with thanks to the Royal Mail, to hear from you, An Post, the USPS with an added tag line of ‘...in gloom if night....’ as I watched on and saw that service James dreadfully undermined in an act of anti-democracy. I’ve used ink to create rainbows, anavar so started my own decorated envelopes which I describe as ‘soiled ink art’. 2 AlcoholBy Sara ink Felix This feels a bit daunting, where to start? Hi, I am Sara My work in this medium has been a lesson in letting and I am an artist. And that is why I was brought on to go. A really valuable lesson that has especially helped guest edit this issue, oh that and I love ink…. flowing, me in 2020 and with my art in general. Not trying vibrant ink. I am an artist who works in a lot in ink. to control all aspects of my life has been a very very Abstract, spacey ink. Bold colors and big puddles helpful skill. I am not a neat, precise artist. And of ink. Blowing ink around on the page using blow with my kids I have short bursts of time that I can dryers and straws and canned air then layering more focus. I have a hard time drawing small details and ink with brushes on top of that. There are plenty of for me the fun is the sweeping colors in a piece. I don’t artists who use ink in a controlled manner but for me have to be fussy about how the color moves or how ink is a medium where the release of control is what the straw blows it around. I can put it on the page in makes it so satisfying. I let the ink do what it wants the general placement that I would like and it reacts because ultimately it does. The ink does what it wants differently to other inks almost every time. So I have and I get to admire its beauty. no preconceived ideas of what a piece will look like when it is done. Did you ever do that project in school with markers and coffee filters? Or sharpies and alcohol to make tie At first there is a puddle of ink on the page, maybe dye? multiple puddles that start to move slowly outward. Then the ink is blown or the paper starts to tilt and the Growing up I was always fascinated by ink starts to separate into different colors and that is chromatography, the separation of mixtures into its when the piece really starts to get interesting. Adding individual components. Alcohol inks are a blend of more alcohol the colors tend to bleed and change and pigments and dyes that separate and dry at different within that I see a universe or a pattern that the piece rates and that mixture of components is what makes is based on. There are moments in each piece where some colors more interesting than others. Blacks bleed I find it awful and think it can’t be saved. But more into greens and purples and blues. Some greens have a manipulation of the colors on the page and then the lot of yellow, blues and purples have pinks that create final piece emerges and colors move and details are halos of color. And there are the metallics. One of my added. favorites….a sheen of copper overlaid on a background of blue from the dyes and particles in my favorite My art is truly mixed media with alcohol ink, acrylic color Blue Raven Bronze. Each ink reacts differently inks, acrylic paints, spray paint, glitter, and sometime making each piece unique. topped off with resin. The building of the layers is what makes a piece have a depth and more interest than just 3 one layer of color. Like many artists I have a bit of imposter syndrome. I don’t paint beautiful landscapes or create intricate And now I have added spin art to the mix. The kids illustrations. I blow ink around. I let it run together art toy has become a favorite of mine. There is some and separate into other colors. And I embellish the method to the spinning as the speed controls how the colors and find a beauty in that process. When a piece ink flows outward but you never really know what the works it brings a happiness to my heart that makes it ink will look like until you completely stop the wheel. all worth it. Alcohol ink, acrylic, and watercolor resist Texture paste, acrylic, and alcohol ink 4 Iroshizuku Take-Sumi ink for instance. My Favorite. By James Bacon Early March 2020 and I am looking at my ink bottle No problem, I reach to the other box. I open it. An as it goes down. I love how it goes clear and the ink empty clean bottle. I worry. You see, this is what I do, I lowers and so one can see that soon it is time to replace keep them for future just in case, and indeed, in the lid it. This is no problem, I have two silver boxes in my I have noted who I was with, or where they came from desk. I was in Broomfields in Boston, my usual source and in some cases who gifted them to me. but availed of other things, because I had those boxes in my desk. There is an older slightly used Box, and so I pick that up, maybe this is the one, nope. Mid March. Things have been going odd in the Another Empty Bottle. World for some time now, and I need to consider consolidating living arrangements and making a move The Box I have been using then, could well be 3 bottles perhaps in support of those more vulnerable to me. ago, although I think I have used more, because I know I am writing letters, more than usual, but wanting to I have been using it for nearly 6 years now. And that personally connect with friends and fans, as I know ties in with when I got my Mont Blanc 146. how, and I know how much joy a letter, card, and in this instance, some comics are.