“Waterproof.”

Recently I bought an ink pen professing to be “waterproof”:  the Akashiya New Brush Pen — Super Fine — Black (Waterproof ink).

“Waterproof ink” is right there in the title of the product. So I proceeded to ink a couple of etegami. The pen draws wonderfully, very fluid and smooth. This could save me time grinding out the sumi ink from an ink stone, for those times I just want to draw something quick.

But… when I went to apply the watercolor, it was a runny mess. They call it “waterproof.” I think,  “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

On the left, I painted from a photo of a fly on a flower… attempting a bit of word play on “fly on the wall.”  On the right, I painted a piece of Swiss chard and black-eyed peas, key ingredients in Hoppin’ John, a new year’s recipe in the US South.

I’ll save this pen for inking in words on etegami, in space safe from any watercolor.

For my ink lines, I guess it’s back to the sumi-ink grindstone.