Colorverse & Lucky Star Pens Collaboration: Cosmic Violet

I had originally started to write about this lovely inky color in my “pen show haul” blog post, but decided this lovely ink was unique and it deserved its own special blog post.

While I was creating the swatch card for this ink I uncovered some interesting characteristics I did not notice before. It did not show up in my writing samples or in my pen & ink wash sketch.

Let me start from the beginning. I purchased a bottle of this ink from Lauren at her Lucky Star Pens table at the pen show. I mentioned to her that I would be right back with a sketch. I had seen a few ink swatches on IG and I had a good feeling about this ink.

I quickly found a table and immediately filled my new Zodiac pen with this new ink. The initial inky color I saw was a dark Indanthrone blue color with some light blue sparkles. I created a quick pen & ink wash sketch of circles. Everything looked mostly dark blue with some underlying colors that made an appearance when water was introduced.

I took this picture at the pen show while I was waiting for my sketch to dry

A few hours later, I came home from the show and decided to take another look at my pen show journal to see how the ink behaved after drying.

The shimmering sparkles were showing up nicely on my paper. I could also see the rosy-pink undertone colors.

I think the best way to describe this ink color is BLURPLE.

Something else caught my eye. Do you see what the label on the bottle is doing depending on how the light hits it?

If I compare the colors I see from my sketch with the watercolor paints I use, here are the color ranges I see: Indanthrone Blue, Prussian Blue, Amethyst Genuine, and Rose of Ultramarine. That would be the colors I would use to recreate my pen & ink wash sketch.

I was curious to see what the shimmers looked like. I turned the bottle on its side and I could see blue and purple shimmers inside the bottle.

Again, the label on the bottle changes depending on how the light hits it. At the moment, I’m fascinated with moving this bottle around my studio desk.

Let’s take a look at the swatch I created using a Col-o-ring card. I have to mention that it’s been months since I last swatched a fountain pen ink and so I was a bit rusty in my process.

As I was “painting” the ink using my 3A Automatic Pen, I could see a very dark blue color on the paper. I let the wet paper dry a bit and then added some water to different areas of the swatch card. This created the “blooms” and showed the underlying color(s) of the ink.

I drew a solid line to the right of the card. Looks dark blue with a hint of purple

While my swatch card was drying, I could see a slow shift in color.

The underlying color was rosy-pink. The sparkles were bright blue. Unfortunately with my lighting and taking a close up picture, the sparkles are bit faded in color. Trust me the sparkles are a bright blue.

The blue sparkles present in the word “Cosmic”

I went through my shimmering swatch cards to see if I could find another color in my inky stash that would match or come close.

I’m happy to say I don’t have any sparkling inky colors that come close to this unique ink.

I did the same with my regular non-shimmering inky colors.

Nothing in my inky stash came close. Maybe Thunderstorm as it has a rosy undertone color.

This Cosmic Violet ink has a lot of personality. In my journal the ink writes like a dark blue and dark purple ink with some bright blue shimmers. It definitely looks BLURPLE to me. On my swatch card I’m seeing some sheen-like properties. Like a maroon sheen.

For my pen & ink wash sketches, this would be a great color to use. I could get a really dark Indanthrone Blue or Prussian Blue color while using less water. For the lighter blue colors I would use more water or an extremely wet water brush. The rosy undertones will also appear when more water is used.

I decided to create another swatch of this beautiful ink. I was decluttering my studio and came across my Stalogy journal full of inky swatches I created over the years. I was able to find my Colorverse page and an empty space to add Cosmic Violet

I had used my Automatic Pen to create the colorful swatches. I like using this pen as it grabs a good amount of ink from the bottle and I can lay down some intense colors.

Here’s a good look at the shimmering particles. A lovely bright blue that matches the underlying blue color.

There is definitely some sheening properties present in this ink. The sheen is more of a maroon color. That’s why the dark areas of my swatch leans more towards a red-purple.

I’m sure the ink will show up differently depending on the paper used.

I have to admit this is now one of my fave inky colors to write with and to use in my pen & ink wash sketches. It’s a gorgeous and beautiful color with a lot of personality.

Ink: Colorverse & Lucky Star Pens collaboration – Cosmic Violet. A glistening ink. You can find Lauren’s ink here.