Presenting a recent addition to my sketching tools collection: the
Platinum Carbon Fountain Pen. Had my eye on this sleek fountain pen featured at
Jet Pens for a while, and finally decided to try a second fountain pen as an early holiday present.
I suppose I should be careful not to get their refill ink cartridges mixed up to avoid unpleasant surprises.
The Platinum brush pen, fountain pen, and their refills naturally resemble each other.
Fountain pen disassembled right next to the long handle
Platinum brush pen.
Close up of the port joint where the ink cartridge is connected to the nib section.
Partially assembled.
Nib close up.
Just couldn't help but bring my
Rotring Art Pen F out of its storage drawer for a quick comparison. As much as I like the Art Pen's shape and the quality of its line strokes, I do not tend to use it very often given that the
Rotring ink cartridges are not waterproof.
Both fountain pen models look and perform quite similarly.
Water resistance test: brushing a sky blue
Akashiya Sai Watercolor Brush Pen over freshly drawn doodles quickly revealed a smudged outline with the
Rotring Art Pen sketch sample and confirmed the waterproof quality of the
Platinum Carbon ink.
Doodle test on
Exacompta sketchbook. The
Platinum Carbon Fountain pen produced a nice flowing fine line in every direction on this laid paper. It is certainly a fairly elegant and effective sketching tool for my drawing desk. Its long barrel might not really be practical for a field
sketching kit. Plan to doodle often with it to ensure smooth operation and already considering getting the
Platinum Fountain Pen Converter and a bottle of
Platinum Carbon Ink once I go through all my supply of refill cartridges.
Sometimes I just can't help myself when browsing through the
Pearl store in Ft. Lauderdale, especially when I have a 30% off coupon burning a hole in my pocket. I was this close to picking up a set of
Pentel ceramic tip disposable drafting pens that I spotted in a display case, and had been clearly there for quite a long time but I had not noticed before (I was unable to glean any further information on them online). Yet the realization that finding refills for it would be next to impossible, convinced me to put them back after doing a quick scribble test. The ceramic nib felt quite strong and glided smoothly on a scrap of paper, and I have the suspicion that they must probably outperform the plastic composite and felt nibs that are the norm these days in the long run. While this rare
Pentel set looked similar to the
Staedtler Mars Professional Technical Drawing pen, it retailed for over twice as much. Thus I ended up getting a nice set of 18
Caran D'Ache Supracolor II watercolor pencils that I had been itching to add to my collection for quite some time.
"No Virginia, all colored pencils are not created equal". It would be quite difficult to come up with better looking colored pencils with this level of performance. Both
Caran D'Ache Pablo and
Supracolor lines are fine examples of precision Swiss-engineering at work. They are pigment rich, sharpen well with strong points, smell nice, their smooth varnished surface feels great, and feature very smooth laydown. I would highly recommend trying them out if you come across their open stock display at an art supplies store.
Color chart drawn on
Clairefontaine watercolor pad and partially moistened with a
Pentel waterbrush. The smooth pigment rich lead cores allowed for very quick coverage with minimal effort, and the swatches of dry watercolor pencil readily dissolved upon contact with the water loaded nib.
They worked well with my pigment liner pens (
Copic Multiliner SP pen,
Prismacolor Archival Illustration marker, and
Staedtler Mars Technical drawing pen) and my recently acquired
Platinum Carbon Fountain pen.
The
Exacompta sketchbook paper readily accepted layers of dry watercolor pencil and even some light washes applied with a
waterbrush. I am quite happy with the quality and performance of all my new sketching tools.
Presenting a recent addition to my sketching tools collection: the Platinum Carbon Fountain Pen. Had my eye on this sleek fountain pen featured at Jet Pens for a while, and finally decided to try a second fountain pen as an early holiday present.
I suppose I should be careful not to get their refill ink cartridges mixed up to avoid unpleasant surprises.
The Platinum brush pen, fountain pen, and their refills naturally resemble each other.
Fountain pen disassembled right next to the long handle Platinum brush pen.
Close up of the port joint where the ink cartridge is connected to the nib section.
Partially assembled.
Nib close up.
Just couldn't help but bring my Rotring Art Pen F out of its storage drawer for a quick comparison. As much as I like the Art Pen's shape and the quality of its line strokes, I do not tend to use it very often given that the Rotring ink cartridges are not waterproof.
Both fountain pen models look and perform quite similarly.
Water resistance test: brushing a sky blue Akashiya Sai Watercolor Brush Pen over freshly drawn doodles quickly revealed a smudged outline with the Rotring Art Pen sketch sample and confirmed the waterproof quality of the Platinum Carbon ink.
Doodle test on Exacompta sketchbook. The Platinum Carbon Fountain pen produced a nice flowing fine line in every direction on this laid paper. It is certainly a fairly elegant and effective sketching tool for my drawing desk. Its long barrel might not really be practical for a field sketching kit. Plan to doodle often with it to ensure smooth operation and already considering getting the Platinum Fountain Pen Converter and a bottle of Platinum Carbon Ink once I go through all my supply of refill cartridges.
Sometimes I just can't help myself when browsing through the Pearl store in Ft. Lauderdale, especially when I have a 30% off coupon burning a hole in my pocket. I was this close to picking up a set of Pentel ceramic tip disposable drafting pens that I spotted in a display case, and had been clearly there for quite a long time but I had not noticed before (I was unable to glean any further information on them online). Yet the realization that finding refills for it would be next to impossible, convinced me to put them back after doing a quick scribble test. The ceramic nib felt quite strong and glided smoothly on a scrap of paper, and I have the suspicion that they must probably outperform the plastic composite and felt nibs that are the norm these days in the long run. While this rare Pentel set looked similar to the Staedtler Mars Professional Technical Drawing pen, it retailed for over twice as much. Thus I ended up getting a nice set of 18 Caran D'Ache Supracolor II watercolor pencils that I had been itching to add to my collection for quite some time.
"No Virginia, all colored pencils are not created equal". It would be quite difficult to come up with better looking colored pencils with this level of performance. Both Caran D'Ache Pablo and Supracolor lines are fine examples of precision Swiss-engineering at work. They are pigment rich, sharpen well with strong points, smell nice, their smooth varnished surface feels great, and feature very smooth laydown. I would highly recommend trying them out if you come across their open stock display at an art supplies store.
Color chart drawn on Clairefontaine watercolor pad and partially moistened with a Pentel waterbrush. The smooth pigment rich lead cores allowed for very quick coverage with minimal effort, and the swatches of dry watercolor pencil readily dissolved upon contact with the water loaded nib. 
They worked well with my pigment liner pens (Copic Multiliner SP pen, Prismacolor Archival Illustration marker, and Staedtler Mars Technical drawing pen) and my recently acquired Platinum Carbon Fountain pen.
The Exacompta sketchbook paper readily accepted layers of dry watercolor pencil and even some light washes applied with a waterbrush. I am quite happy with the quality and performance of all my new sketching tools.
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1 comments:
Sharing your addiction with pens and with Pearl Art Supply, I suggest that someday you make a pilgrimage to the Pearl mothership on Canal St. in New York. (That is, stop in if you are ever in New York.) It has five or six floors whose every nook is crammed with art supplies. I also spent many hours in the Cambridge Pearl where the staff were incredibly helpful.
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