Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor Sticks - the morning after

Since I left the whole watercolor set up out last night, I figured I might as well check how well the palette washes performed the morning after drying out for a few hours. The Cobalt Blue wash was still pretty juicy since it started with so much water. I just decanted some of the excess water and proceeded to mix in some Alizarin Crimson to get a light purple wash. I really like the convenience of mixing the colors in the porcelain palette by simply swirling another stick into the previous wash.
Sketching with the moistened Permanent Alizarin Crimson stick on my Hand Book Artist Journal.
The dried Permanent Alizarin Crimson wash in the palette from the previous night re-dissolved easily and completely with my water mister yielding nicely saturated washes. The dry pigment marks also blended quite readily with a flat brush loaded clean water. The watercolor sticks handled very much like quality pan watercolor.
Applying some purple wash with a 1/4" Winsor & Newton Sceptre Gold II flat brush
Adding some crack lines with the #3 Trekell Kolisnky 7000 round brush by picking the pigment straight from the watercolor stick. This approach picks up a really saturated pigment load that is perfectly suited for drawing controlled strokes and fine detailing with a brush.

Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor Sticks - first impressions

Finally got a couple of Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor Sticks to try. While I plan to conduct some comparison tests with the other watercolor kits in my studio, I decided to post my first impressions and initial doodles with them.
Brand new, the Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor Sticks are a tad too long to fit in any of the plastic wells of the Faber Castell Albrecht Durer aquarelle sticks tin set of 20. Initially they will stay in an Altoids tin. They are about the same diameter as the aquarelle sticks, and feel harder and drier than the waxy aquarelle sticks. Pity they do not ship in a convenient storage case of their own.
The cobalt blue stick produced rather faint lines while the Permanent Alizarin Crimson stick laid down darker marks when used dry to sketch.
The dry strokes were blended with a waterbrush.
Additional pigment wash was picked up straight from the stick with a moistened waterbrush and applied to paper to reinforce the preliminary shapes.
Using the Cobalt Blue watercolor stick to make a color wash by rubbing it with water on a porcelain palette in a similar fashion to grinding a sumi ink stick on an ink stone. The resulting colored wash was a bit pale because I started with too much water in the palette well. The watercolor stick does perform as a pretty efficient watercolor pan readily releasing pigment when swirled inside the water.
The wet stick was then used to scribble on the journal paper leaving more interesting marks than when used dry.
Using a smaller amount of water to start with in the middle palette well, the Permanent Alizarin Crimson watercolor stick produced a richly saturated wash in not time.
Scribbling with the wet Permanent Alizarin Crimson stick.
While I do not like the resulting abstract mess on my journal, this playful experimentation has given me a better understanding of the sticks' handling properties.
Using a #3 Trekell Kolinsky 7000 round sable brush to doodle a phoenix with the Permanent Alizarin Crimson wash. I really do enjoy drawing more than painting since I feel I have more control over the end results. I still have a long way to go on both creative activities regardless.
Couldn't go to sleep without trying out Gentian's suggestion of splattering paint directly from the wet stick with a brush. Finished my dragon and phoenix watercolor doodle by picking pigment directly from the cobalt blue stick with a wet brush. These watercolor sticks certainly seem to open other creative avenues that I had not explored before.

Pentel Slicci 0.8 mm metallic gel pens first impression

Some of the other Pentel samples I received this week: 0.25 mm and 0.8 mm Slicci gel pens. I did not know that Slicci pens came in metallic colors with 0.8 mm tips.
First test doodle using the Pentel Slicci sample gel pens on a Moleskine daily planner.
Drawing a coloring outline with a black Slicci 0.25 mm gel pen on white card stock.
Coloring with other Slicci 0.25 mm red, blue, and green gel pens.
Finished coloring with the Slicci 0.8 mm metallic pens. Some "Kaiju" Japanese creature designs drawn with an EnerGel® Deluxe Retractable 0.7mm metal tip liquid gel roller pen and colored with the Slicci gel pens and a Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Multi pen.
Ever since I found them in a store in Shanghai, the Pentel Slicci fine point gel pens replaced the Pilot Hi-Tec-C as my preferred color sketching gel pens with their sturdier pen points and sleek-looking caps. I have suffered too many Hi-Tec-C pens' ink flow failures while I have yet to experience the same problem with any of my Slicci pens. When new, both pen brands perform smoothly laying down uniform colorful fine lines without skipping. Yet several of my Hi-Tec-C 0.25 mm and 0.3 mm pens either dried up or suffered clogging damage to their tips during regular use and stopped writing while still having an ample supply of ink left. Now I tend to use just the 0.4 mm and 0.5 mm Hi-Tec-C pens along with a Coleto multi pen that remain in my supply drawers and still write well. The new Slicci 0.8 mm gold, bronze, and metallic red made a positive first impression with their smooth ink flow and thick sparkling lines. They would certainly make nice tools for decorating journals and greeting cards, but I have yet to find out what retail outlets will be carrying them. So far I have been unable to find any further info on them in any online searches.

Yet my absolute favorite gel pen in my daily sketching kit remains the black Uni-ball Signo DX 0.38 mm gel pen, for its waterproof ink allows me to color my black and white sketches with water soluble crayons or actual pan watercolors without any smearing of the inked outlines. For all their virtues, the Slicci and Hi-Tec-C inks are unfortunately not waterproof.

UPDATE: This post was included in the first edition of the "Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper", go check it out for other interesting articles and nice blogs that you might want to add to your reading list.

Graffiti Pin Head Colored lead holders review

While teaching my cartooning lessons and doing graphite sketching demonstrations on an easel or inclined drawing board, I prefer to use shorter ergonomic leadholders loaded with sturdy 3 mm leads that allow for quicker coverage while resisting breakage. There is no need for frequent sharpening so long as the barrel is rotated periodically, and sometimes I even allow to drawing lead to get blunt on purpose for shading faster. The problem is that this leadholder size has grown increasingly rare, and that the few models available tend to be rather expensive. Thus I was quite happy to find these Graffiti Pin Head Colored leadholders listed under the Daniel Smith Outlet Pencils discounted section.
My current selection of 3 mm leadholders (clockwise starting on the lower left corner): 3.15 mm Lammy Scribble, 3.15 mm Worther Shorty, 3 mm Caran D'Ache Fixpencil, and the 3.15 mm Graffiti Pin Head Colored leadholders.
This color chart, drawn on a Hand Book Artist Journal, revealed the Graffiti colored leads to be basically thin wax crayons that can make marks on many surfaces.
The color lead points got blunt rather quickly while coloring this small doodle on Moleskine Daily planner paper.
While the colored leads can be easily re-sharpened with a KUM lead pointer, their refills are rather hard to find and wear down too quickly to be a practical coloring choice for daily use.
I find the original 3.15 mm colored leads included with these ergonomic leadholders to be more of a short-lived coloring novelty. Their crayon-like consistency makes them rather prone to breakage, jamming within the leadholder chamber, and staining the barrel and surrounding areas with their pigmented debris. The Graffiti's strong clutch jaws tend to cut deep grooves into the soft colored leads preventing them from advancing smoothly, and the colored leads often get stuck to one of the jaws. This efficient jaw pressure clamp can securely hold graphite leads ranging from the Caran D'Ache Technograph 3 mm leads to the Worther Shorty 3.15 mm drawing leads without harming them. The clutch jaws grip the leads firmly preventing no axial rotation, so they can be easily sharpened with a lead pointer and allowing great precision while drawing.
Given the scarcity of 3 mm leadholders these days, it is quite nice to have a handful of them available for sketching worry-free in the field. In case of theft or loss, it is reassuring to know that you still have a couple of spares left back at home. The Graffiti Pin Head Colored leadholders' wide natural beech wooden barrels are quite comfortable to hold and prevent slippage during long drawing sessions. Resting the colored push cap on the webbing between the thumb and index finger of your drawing hand allows great control and natural movement. While I'm not particularly impressed with the quality of their colored crayon cores, I find the Graffiti leadholder to be quite a comfortable and effective sketching tool that fits easily in a pocket on a moment's notice. Color chart of the additional colors available of the all surface drawing leads.

Quick peek into my Studio

For too long my drafting table had disappeared under a mountain of papers and drawing supplies, so it was well past time for some clean up and reorganization. It remains a work in progress, but it has become a lot more efficient in its current state.
Had to cut down on excessive clutter and reduced the number of reference figures on display. Think I managed to get a good balance with my quick-reference library and supply drawers.
Reorganization accomplished just in time for my niece to take advantage of it on her recent visit. Children can benefit enormously from working with artist's materials under appropriate supervision. Faber Castell products are fairly safe tools since they are non-toxic. Here Nicole is coloring with a Light Flesh #132 Pitt Big Brush Artist's Pen which is a good choice for coloring skin tones in manga drawings.

Pentel Hi-Polymer Eraser review and comparison tests

Ever since I took a technical drawing class in college, the Staedtler Mars Plastic was my eraser of choice for its erasing effectiveness and non-abrasive nature that prevented damage to most papers. As my exposure to Japanese stationery items grew (thanks largely to Jet Pens), my favorites became the Pilot Foam and the Mitsubishi Uni-ball Boxy erasers for their self-cleaning nature (their erasure debris tends to clump together into a single strand for easier removal from the drawing surface).
Oddly despite the rather large proportion of Pentel mechanical pencils in my collection, I never got around trying one of their block erasers until this week. Thus enjoy my unscientific comparison tests cobbled together with some of the drawing supplies from my collection and the sample erasers generously provided by Kristen and Nicole from Pentel's PR an Marketing Communications departments.
On this regular graphite lines test on white card stock, both the Pilot Foam ER-F10 and the Pentel Hi-Polymer ZEH10 erased them cleanly without leaving any traces nor damaging the paper. Either one would be a good choice for a field sketching kit. While in general I do not tend to use erasers too often while drawing with the softest darkest grades of the graphite range, I thought it would be fun to do a few eraser comparison tests with a variety of pencil brands and support papers to put the block erasers through more challenging trials.
Erasers' comparison chart (Mitsubishi Boxy EP60-BX, Pentel Hi-Polymer ZEH-05, Pilot Foam ER-F10, and Pentel Hi-Polymer ZEH10) on Georgia Pacific white card stock using swatches drawn with Tombow Mono (3H to 6B) wooden pencils.
Erasers' comparison chart (Mitsubishi Boxy EP60-BX, Pentel Hi-Polymer ZEH-05, Pilot Foam ER-F10, Pentel Hi-Polymer ZEH10, and Staedtler Mars plastic) on 150 Canson Fanboy Drawing paper using swatches drawn with Faber Castell 9000 (2H to 8B) and Mitsubishi Uni-ball Penmanship Writing (4B & 6B) wooden pencils.
In this Staedtler Mars Ergosoft pencils (HB, B, & 2B) test index card, the Pilot Foam eraser erased the graphite swatches faster but producing considerably more erasure debris while the Pentel Hi-Polymer eraser accomplished the same task on the HB and B swatches with considerable less wear. Thus the Pilot Foam eraser would be a good choice for users that prize speed regardless of how quickly it gets used up, and the Pentel Hi-Polymer eraser would suit users that value a longer lasting eraser with similar erasing performance that takes just a bit longer and a tad more elbow grease to get the job done. My old Staedtler Mars Plastic eraser acquitted itself well with the HB swatch, but left a darker ghost residue after erasing the 2B swatch. Given its bulkier size, it hasn't seen much use lately since I favor more compact erasers in my field kits.
For the final comparison test, graphite swatches were applied heavily to this gridded index card with a selection of Mitusibishi Hi-Uni wooden pencils ranging from HB through 10B grades. The Mitusibishi graphite's waxier formulations tend to be harder to remove completely, but all three erasers did a fair job with the HB swatch.
After erasing the graphite swatches from 2B to the softest 10B, all three erasers left visible graphite ghost residue on the index card. There was no significant difference in performance among the these block erasers at the harder middle-of-the-range graphite grades most often used for writing and preliminary sketching. Ultimately retail price and local availability would likely be the determining factors in selecting one of them, but any of the erasers tested are likely to meet the needs of the average student and artist under normal field conditions. Thus the Taiwanese Pentel Hi-Polymer erasers held their own against my favorite German and Japanese block erasers.

Pentel Eraser and Pen Samples

Yesterday I got this huge batch of samples from Pentel to test and review, so I guess I will have plenty of materials to blog about in the coming days.
This was the first time I noticed the "Recycology" label on some of the pens and highlighters which indicates that they are made out of at least 50% recycled materials.After organizing them, I completed this initial test chart. All of the pens started writing right away without any undue coaxing. The RSVP ball point pens worked well enough, but I prefer the smoother feel of the Slicci gel pens and the EnerGel® Deluxe Retractable 0.7mm metal tip liquid gel roller pen.
Funny how despite having tons of Pentel mechanical pencils, I never got around trying their block erasers before.
For a quick test of the Hi-Polymer ZEH-05 eraser alongside the Boxy eraser, I scribbled some HB swatches on the white card stock that were quickly erased without damaging the paper surface and just leaving a faint trace of graphite behind.

Gel Pen sketch of Shonen-type characters

Just a random doodle drawn with a Uni-ball Signo DX 0.38 mm gel pen on white card stock.

Recycled Paper Pencils review

Found this neat kraft brown paper box with 16 Recycled Paper Pencils for $1.00 at Target. It was manufactured by Prince Stationery Ind. Corp. in Taiwan.
These pencils are unvarnished and have a round profile, so they have a tendency to roll off an inclined drafting table.
The recycled paper barrel sharpened easily with a standard KUM wedge magnesium sharpener.
Freshly sharpened. When sharpened with the Panasonic KP-310 electric pencil sharpener, it can attain a standard long point while producing confetti-like shavings.
Reasonably smooth, this recycled paper pencil produces fairly dark marks that are cleanly erased with its own eraser. This is my first time trying out a paper pencil, and it seems to perform reasonably well fresh out of the box. Though the barrel does not feel as solid as a standard wooden pencil, and I suspect that they might not function well in humid environments given their lack of a varnishing coat. Sweat and moisture are likely to weaken them. Will have to field test them to verify their durability under extreme weather conditions, yet they seem perfectly adequate for regular office and school use at just over a nickel a pencil.