Dominant Industry Ink Archiving Book: A Log of Atlantis

December 18th, 2024

The Dominant Industry Ink Archiving Book: A Log of Atlantis is a hardcover B6 coloring book for fountain pen inks, and hands-down one of the products I have enjoyed most this year.

A hardcover book with a dark blue cover and intricate design of a frame with a diamond shape in the center in bronze gold foil on the cover.

The book has an elegant dark blue cover with bronze gold foil, filled with over 250 pages of ivory 100gsm fountain pen friendly paper. The page designs are in the style of a field journal documenting the creatures and environments of "Atlantis."

An Ink Archiving Book

I think you could use a variety of materials such as traditional watercolor paints, markers, colored pencils, etc. in this book, but I love that it's been designed to use with fountain pen inks. Since I have more skill in using color than drawing, I am really enjoying using my growing collection of inks to paint these "coloring book" designs. The watercolor style really brings a lot out of these inks.

Five glass bottles of Sailor Manyo fountain pen ink, a water brush, and a ceramic paint palette with ink next to an open page in a hardcover book showing a scene of fish swimming around coral painted in muted shades of purple, blue, yellow, green, and pink.

Dominant Industry lists the paper as Be Seven 100g/m² and it holds up to fountain pen ink and painting very well. The color representation of inks reminds me most of Cosmo Air Light or Iroful. The inks that tend to look much more blue on those papers also look more blue here.

Hardcover book open to a painted page showing different species of rays painted in warm and cool shades of gray.

A Log of Atlantis

The Atlantis theme involves a lot of undersea creatures, but some of the most delightful art in this book is a juxtaposition of things from the human world in an undersea environment.

The contents of this book are thoughtfully laid out in three distinct sections. The first section has full two-page spreads of art to color in, with two sets of the 24 designs. The designs are a combination of full scenes and studies of a particular group of creatures. The pages include lines for text and small "swatch" squares for documenting the inks used.

Hardcover book on a desk opened to a page showing a whimsical undersea tea party with a tray of seashell treats, a teapot, glass, and mug that look like coral, surrounded by more shells, painted in shades of pink, orange, dark blue, sea green, blue green, and purple. Small boxes show swatches of the six colors with the names written next to them.

The middle section repeats a third set of the same artwork but with a blank page inserted in the middle of each spread to allow for free-form drawing, painting, or writing. I think the repetition of designs is a feature—I look forward to seeing how the same design will turn out completely different with a new selection of inks.

Hardcover book open to an unpainted page with drawings of several sea stars and crabs in separate boxes on the left page and a blank right page.

Hardcover book open to an unpainted page with larger isolated sea stars and a small scene with crabs and sea stars on coral on the right and a blank page on the left.

The last section has 50 pages of boxes and lines for swatching and describing 300 inks, though I'm sure it would also work well for tracking other things like currently inked pens.

Hardcover book open to pages that each have a column of six squares down the left and lines for writing to the right with 8 labeled fountain pen ink swatches of Teranishi Guitar inks Modern Red, Opera Rose, Nostalgic Honey, Gentle Green, Brilliant Mint, Smoky Navy, Innocent Mauve, and Antique Black.

Painting Toolkit

I'm curious about how others are using this book—this is my typical setup. It may look like a lot at first, but it's essentially just tools I use for ink swatching plus a paint palette and a water brush. I think just about anyone who enjoys inks and is interested in getting a little artsy could have some fun with this book.

Silicone Placemat

This is optional, but the Modern Twist silicone mat creates a nice, cushioned work surface that easily wipes clean.

Fountain Pen Inks

For each page I'll pick a group of 3 - 10 inks to use, usually related in some way—all the same brand, color family, etc. This is also an excellent way to use up samples, or the ink that's left in a pen you want to clean.

Paint Palette

My favorite palette is a white ceramic dish in the shape of a flower with several asymmetrical wells in a variety of sizes, which makes it easier for me to remember which colors I put where.

Glass Stir Sticks

These glass sticks are great for swatching the inks and then transfering a few drops of ink into the paint palette (a little goes a long way, especially with darker colors).

Dip Pen

I'll grab a dip pen like the Pilot Iro-Utsushi pen or a glass nib pen to write down the ink details for the swatches and any other text.

Water Brush

I use a single water brush to paint, which is a synthetic paint brush with a water reservoir in the handle that you can squeeze to deliver water to the bristles of the brush. I use the water in the brush to help rinse inks between colors, or to dilute inks in the ink palette.

Shop Towel

The iconic blue shop towels are sturdier and leave fewer fibers than regular paper towels. I try to avoid getting excessive amounts of water or pooling ink on the pages so I'll dry the brush a bit on the towel if it's getting too soaked, or may occasionally blot the page with a clean section of towel if it gets too dark or wet in spots.

Glass Jars

I use glass food jars, especially some that originally held yogurt, to hold inky glass stir sticks and catch rinse water.

Glass Dropper Bottle

I fill a small glass dropper bottle with clean water to use to rinse tools like dip nibs in between uses.

An example painting kit set up on a desk including a rectangle ceramic paint palette with a shell design, a water brush, a dip pen, a glass dip pen/muddler, the ink archiving book open to a unpainted page of a glass dome underwater, a small glass dropper bottle, and two small glass jars with a few glass stir sticks.

A similar kit I put together uses a shell palette design that complements the theme of this book well.

Example Pages

So far I've used this book to explore different groups of inks—such as a selection from a particular brand or series or inks from the same color family.

This year I've been on the hunt for earth-tone, dusty blues that for lack of a better descriptor I've dubbed the "interesting blues," and these whales are showing off some of my favorite discoveries.

A hardcover book opened to a page of whale drawings painted in similar shades of dusty, medium blue ink.

Orange, anyone?

A hardcover book opened to a page of clownfish and anemone drawings brightly painted in ten different shades of orange.

This page used an autumnal palette of Dominant Industry Inks, including several Pearl (shimmer) inks.

Hardcover book opened to a busy drawing of an undersea grotto filled with objects like a typewriter, phonograph, telescope, old cameras, chests etc. painted in warm shades of green, beige, brown, and orange.

Another thing I wanted to explore in this book is mixing inks. For this page of jellyfish I used inks in "CMY" (cyan, magenta, yellow) colors from Birmingham Pen Co. to mix a whole rainbow of vibrant colors.

A ceramic paint palette with a rainbow of ink colors, water brush, and hardcover book open to a page of jellyfish painted in bright pink, orange, yellow, yellow green, green, blue green, blue, indigo, and purple that were all mixed from only three colors of ink: cyan, magenta, and yellow.

This next page uses those same Birmingham Pen Co. cyan, magenta, and yellow color inks but adds in black (a CMYK palette) to mix a range of natural, earthy shades.

Closeup of drawing of manatee, fish, plants, roots, etc. underwater painted in soft natural colors including light blue, cool gray, green, yellow, and browns.

On another page I took these three Pennonia inks from Amarillo Stationery that are blue, bright pink, and yellow, but not quite the "CMY" shades, yet still produced an interesting range of vivid colors when mixed.

Hardcover book open to drawing of sea creatures like octopus, nautilus, fish, and sea slugs exploring a laboratory with glass containers of all shapes and sizes on wooden shelves, painted in vibrant blue, purple, pink, yellow, green, orange, and brown.

Painting Tips

It's much easier to paint a light background with very diluted ink first and let that dry a bit before painting the foreground objects with darker inks. Otherwise, painting light next to something dark can pull the dark ink (even if it's dried, unless it's very permanent) into the light area.

Close up of drawings of turtles on a page with the background area painted a very pale green and pieces of seaweed painted a darker green, and a partially painted turtle shell.

Use the shading marks on the drawings as a guide for where to add darker shading. Make those areas a little darker, and leave areas without many lines lighter for shading that will add depth.

Close up of a drawn stone gazebo underwater with coral growing on it and sharks swimming in the background. The stone is painted with a pale gray that is darker where there are more shading lines and lighter elsewhere.

Close up of a large whale tail sticking up out of the water, painted in blue that is darker where there are more shading lines and lighter in areas without shading lines.

It's ok to let ink dry out in the palette and resume painting later, just add drops of water or use a damp brush to start painting again. Maintaining the proper ratios and viscosity is crucial for using an ink in a pen, but that doesn't really matter when painting with a brush.

Asymmetrical round ceramic paint palette with the residue of several green inks in the bottom of the wells.

A Log of Atlantis Stamp and Inks

When this book was released, there was also a stamp and two new inks sharing the "Atlantis" theme. I really like both of the inks. Seaweed is a lovely chromashading green. Atlantis is a blue green with some of the shiniest blue shimmer I've ever seen in an ink, but has performed very well in a TWSBI Diamond 580 with a fine nib over the last several months.

A notebook with two stamped fancy bottle designs and ink swatches for two Dominant Industry inks, a blue green ink with bright blue shimmer called Atlantis and a shading green called Seaweed, plus the bottles for the two inks and the wooden stamp.

Ink Archiving Vol. 2

I'm really enjoying the Atlantis theme and artwork in this book, but there's a new theme on the horizon! Dominant Industry has been sharing previews of the next book in this series called "A Log of Elixir" which has a black cover and is expected to be available in early 2025. There will also be a new stamp design and two inks released with the book. The new inks look really good, I can't wait to explore this new theme too.

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