Holiday Gift Guide and First Giveaway Contest sponsored by Jet Pens - My top 10 categories for basic sketching supplies

Happy Thanksgiving! Woo hoo this is my 200th post! Thank you for stopping by dear readers. This Holiday Gift Guide compiles my top 10 categories for my favorite sketching tools with links to previous review posts and online vendors where these quality tools can be found. Naturally selecting art supplies can be rather subjective, and individual mileage might vary. Yet, I believe these basic choices are a good starting point for building your own sketching kits and putting together some fine gift sets for the artists and creative types in your holiday lists.
1. Mechanical Pencil: If I had to pick just one 0.5 mm mechanical pencil for my sketching kit, it would be the Pentel Graph 1000 for Pro Mechanical Pencil for Drafting. Perfectly balanced for drawing precise strokes and quite comfortable for drawing for extended periods. Recommended refills: Pentel Ain leads.
2. Leadholders: Convenient choice for drawing with graphite leads of different diameters and grades with a holder that does not change in length after every sharpening. While they seem to be disappearing from many conventional outlets, they can thankfully still be found through several online retailers. In the 2 mm range, I believe the Uni-ball leadholders and packs of 6 Uni graphite leads are one of the best values around. For a step up and a fairly unique choice, try the Staedtler Silver Series 2 mm Lead Holder. The larger diameter 3.15 mm clutch pencils feature greater resistance to breakage, and my favorite choices in this category are the Worther Shorty and the Lamy Scribble (shown in the photo above). The Shorty is my favorite choice for when I do quick cartoon portraits and entertainment sketches at classes and events. Recommended accessory: KUM lead pointer, and do not forget to get some 3.15 mm graphite refills for they are virtually impossible to find locally at most brick-and-mortar stores.
3. Premium Wooden Pencils: For both writers (HB) and artists (2B or 3B pencils are quite suitable for sketching), a box of Japanese premium pencils would make for a pretty original and welcomed gift. The Mitsubishi Hi-Uni and the Tombow Mono 100 pencils are the top pencil offerings of two respected Japanese manufacturers, and they are considered by many to be the very best wooden pencils in the world. I suspect they must have some secret wax ingredient in their lead formulation, for they are super smooth and fairly smudge-resistant compared to similar grade pencils from other brands. Recommended accessories: KUM sharpeners and a Pilot Foam eraser.

4. Pigment Liner Pens: For sketching with ink pens of different widths (0.1 mm, 0.25 mm, 0.3 mm, 0.5 mm, 0.7 mm, 1.0 mm), I would recommend starting with a set of Sakura Pigma Sensei pens or a set of Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens. Also worth trying: the Staedtler Pigment Liners and Prismacolor Premier Illustration marker sets.
5. Waterbrushes: The Pentel Aquash waterbrush was my first exposure to this innovative and convenient watercoloring tool. They are the perfect match for a set of fine watercolor pans, crayons, or pencils. Good tool choice for sketchcrawls. Try the Niji waterbrush with a flat head and a set of Pentel Aquash waterbrushes to determine which ones suit your personal sketching style best.
6. Brush Pens: Convenient tools that allow you to sketch with ink (cartridges) anywhere with the performance of a high quality synthetic brush (usually made with nylon filaments) eliminating the need to carry a cumbersome ink bottle and regular brushes. While there are many brush pens available, I think most users would be pleased with either of the two following options for their value and performance: The Pentel Pocket Brush Pen or the Kuretake No. 13 Fountain Hair Brush Pen loaded with waterproof Platinum ink cartridges. For fancier gift options, check out these sable hair brush pens.
7. Watercolor Kits: I often carry a tin set with 15 Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watersoluble crayons or a Derwent canvas wrap loaded with 36 Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils, for they make for fairly compact and versatile watercolor kits.
8. Pencil Cases: While they are fine presents on their own right, they make even better presents if loaded with a few of the other sketching tool options listed on this post. I own several to keep different supplies organized. I like the convenience of having multiple sketching kits ready for different occasions and environments. I use the orange-grey Kokuyo NeoCritz Transformer Pencil Case to store an assortment of premium pencils (this model is particularly useful for its ability to stand upright like a pencil cup anywhere). This khaki Nomadic PE-10 Tri-Fold Pencil Case functions as my studio organizer for a variety of mechanical pencils, leadholders, and pens.
9. Sketchbooks: Always a good gift choice to encourage the recipients to continue to explore their creativity and develop their artistic skills throughout the following year. While there are many choices and styles available, perhaps a French fine art paper sketchbook might make for a pleasant surprise. In the past few months I was able to try a variety of Rhodia and Clairefontaine papers, and I was quite pleased with their quality and performance. I would recommend trying out a blank Rhodia pad for brainstorming and random doodling and the Exacompta Sketch Book for experimenting with a variety of media.
10. Gel Pens: Fun for smooth sketching on most papers and available in many bright colors. A favorite choice in my daily sketching kit remains the black Uni-ball Signo DX UM-151 Gel Ink Pen with a 0.38 mm nib, for it works well for sketching waterproof outlines that can be colored with watercolors without smearing. The new Pentel Slicci metallic gel pens would make some nice stocking stuffers or a neat little present as a set for the teenage girls in your holiday gift list.

Prompted by Lily from Jet Pens that is generously supplying a $10 gift certificate as a prize, we are going to have the very first contest giveaway at the Lung Sketching Scrolls. Inspired by the mechanics of the efficient and frequent giveaways by Brad at The Pen Addict, the rules are quite simple:

1. Leave at least one comment on this post anytime between now and December 12th Saturday night at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. At this time I will not limit the amount of entries, but I will moderate all comments to weed out spam. Feel free to link this giveaway on your blog, or share it with anyone interested in art supplies and fine stationery. If you have a blog, I would love a link back, but it is certainly not required for entry into the contest.

2. For this contest, I will pick one winner at random from the comments section of this post. The comments will be numbered in the order they are received, i.e. the first comment is #1, the second #2, and so on. The Random Integer Generator at random.org will be used to pick the number of the winner.

3. The contest winner will be posted on Monday, December 14th. The winner will have until Friday 18th to email me (listed in my profile contact information) his or her name and e-mail address.

4. The winner will receive the $10 gift certificate by email.

Comment Responses:
Wow, so many entries already. Yup, contest is open to everybody with a name and a e-mail address, for the prize will be sent by e-mail and Jet Pens ships internationally. The grip on the Pentel Graph 1000 feels quite solid and comfortable on the original matte black version, for I do not like it as much in my limited edition silver and blue color mechanical pencils. I do love my leadholders for field sketching, and I prefer the 2 mm and 3.15 mm versions. Guess I should work on tutorial demos for both blogs, for I tend to post them mainly for the benefit of my elementary and middle school students in my cartoon sketching blog http://cartoonsketching.blogspot.com/
Hmm, 49 entries already and still another week left to enter the contest. Got to remember to add the DUX 3-way sharpener to my list, thanks for the suggestion che Pablo. I wasn't familiar with the Pilot H32, but after finding it in the Cult Pens website I realized that it is the ISO colour coded opaque plastic version of the Pilot S3 which is indeed a fine economy drafting pencil.

Pearl loot: New Art Knife and couple of new Sketching Supplies

Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy browsing through actual art supplies stores? I was able to peruse the aisles of the Pearl corporate store location in Ft. Lauderdale a couple of days ago and picked these few items for my art tool box and reviews.
This Japanese Olfa AK-4 precision knife features an anti-roll device on the yellow handle and the included protective cap for greater safety. Its grip design and heftier weight give it a more balanced feel than my old X-acto knife.
This Olfa set comes with 3 different shaped replacement blades.
Since I was already using my last X-acto No. 11 blade from my spare blades box, it was a good opportunity to also upgrade my paper-cutting studio knife.
The components of the disassembled AK-4 knife.
The Olfa AK-4 Precison Art Knife is easy to control and razor sharp. It should meet most paper-cutting needs at most studios splendidly. Its substantial weight seems to reduce the amount of effort required to make precise cuts. "...slice like a ninja
Cut like a razor blade" (cue in Vanilla Ice)
Buried among the bins loaded with loose pencil accessories, I came across a lonely KUM Onit 233 lead pointer. This type of lead pointer used to be fairly common, but this red model was the first one that I have found at an actual store in years. Thus I just had to add it to the collection.
The KUM Onit 233 lead pointer worked well with a 2 mm Caran D'Ache Fixpencil yielding a nice sharp lead point in not time, though it can be a tad messy to use. It certainly outperformed the built-in sharpeners featured in the push-buttons of many leadholder models. This compact and efficient lead pointer could be easily secured with a lanyard to a pencil case or sketching kit, but it can be rather hard to find in brick-and-mortar stores these days.
After noticing a bucket of General's maroon-colored pencils marked "discontinued", I spotted the same pencils as a carded 2-pack on a nearby peg. Thus I figured to give them a shot, for I had not tried them before.
The General's Draughting Pencil No. G314 single available graphite grade proved to be fairly smooth, but not quite as dark as the Pentel Black Polymer 999 and the Mitsubishi Hi-Uni HB pencils. Adequate sketching pencil if you can find it locally or care to order it online.
Also got a pack of General's Pencil Sav-A-Point plastic caps that are quite useful to protect the sharp points on my premium graphite pencils. The included red plastic General's All Art pencil sharpener performed so poorly on my regular size graphite pencils breaking the lead points and yielding uneven shavings, that I immediately tossed it in the trash in disgust (side note: it is probably not a good idea to test new supplies and try to do a review when you are tired and grumpy). Though I ended up fishing it back up for further testing since something bugged me about the wobbly fit. I tried it with my wider 8 mm Derwent Drawing and Pastel pencils, and it worked fine. Thus make sure you match the diameter of the sharpener opening to the appropriate size pencils for optimal results.
At the pen aisle I spotted some pens that I had not tried before, so I picked up a pack of Stabilo Sensor extra-fine line porous point pens. All four pens were exactly the same extra fine point size, and a couple were a tad dry. Not too surprising since their copyright label was dated 1997 and by all appearances their design predates the current model offered in the market. It is likely that these pens were manufactured over a decade ago, and these sets probably have been hanging on pegs with the pen nibs pointing up for a long time pooling the ink away from the pen tips. Yet after storing the pouch with the pen points facing down for 24 hours, adequate ink flow was restored to 3 of the pens.The working pens felt quite smooth and readily produced uniform dark lines that were fairly water resistant. Brushing the lines with a waterbrush had no visible effect. Their adequate performance after such a long shelf life is a testament to the fine quality of disposable German pens in the past decade.
Since the rear screw cap could be removed quite easily, I tried refilling the drier pen of the set with some Rapidograph ink.
Carefully adding some ink drop by drop.
Ooops! ended up adding too much ink and spilling through the vent near the pen tip. Good thing I had some scrap paper underneath.
The test marks on the far right did come up darker after adding a couple of ink drops, but sadly the normal ink flow did not last.
Though the refilled pen worked a tad better initially with the Rapidograph Ultradraw ink, it quickly dried on the porous pen nib clogging it.
After repeated unsuccessful attempts to restart continuous ink flow, the porous nib ended rather deformed compared to the pristine pen nib on the right. The test pen finally ceased to function and was only suited for the trash bin. Thus these Stabilo Sensor pens are clearly meant as single use tools and are non-refillable (at least not with the Koh-I-Noor technical pen ink I tried). While not a bad choice for a sketching pen given its adequate performance and inexpensive price point, I would suggest trying instead the reliable and easier-to-find Pigma, Faber Castell, and Prismacolor pigment liner pens that are currently available in a variety of nib sizes and styles.

Gripsharp Pencil Grip/Pencil sharpener combination review and performance tests

As a frequent user of traditional wooden pencils for sketching, I am always interested in accessories (specialty sharpeners, point protectors, grips, lengtheners, and holders) that could enhance the experience and optimize the practical applications of my hard-to-find premium pencils. Ever since I spotted them at the Office Supply Geek blog, I thought the Gripsharp pencil sharpeners might warrant some testing as unique accessories for a sketching kit.Thanks to Les from Tad Products Inc., I received this week a sample set of Gripsharp pencil sharpeners to try and review.
Optimistically I started trying the Gripsharp with a brand new Mitsubishi Hi-Uni 3B premium pencil, but I was quickly disappointed when the soft lead kept on breaking off after repeated sharpening attempts with two different Gripsharp units. Finally ended up sharpening it without problem with my Panasonic electric sharpener (confirming that the pencil lead was not the source of trouble in this equation). From then on, I continue these tests only with harder F, HB, and B grade pencils. I found the sharpening function to be rather average. I expect a brand new sharpener blade to effortlessly yield a long continuous sliver of shavings, and a couple of the Gripsharp samples produced shard-like fragments and snapped off the leads on several pencils that were later successfully sharpened with conventional sharpeners. I would attribute this to quality control issues, the selection of an inferior cutting blade, and/or a built-in conflict with its grip function that might prevent a smooth sharpening experience every time.
Doodle tests charts drawn on smooth Strathmore Bristol.
Comparison doodles drawn with conventionally sharp conical pencil points (top row)and the blunt Gripsharp blunt tips (bottom row).


The elongated exposed graphite lead tips produced by the Gripsharp are similar to the first stage of sharpening a pencil with a Kum Automatic Longpoint Sharpener (also reviewed in the Pencil Talk blog here). For leadholder users, it would be like drawing with the blunt end of a 2 mm graphite drawing lead.By turning the pencil and using the edge of the cylindrical lead core, it is still possible to draw fairly thin lines. The sketching experience proved to be reasonably smooth with the Tombow Mono J F, Pentel Black Polymer 999, and the Mitsubishi Unistar B pencils, but a bit scratchy with the novelty Transformers and Recycled paper pencils. While in general the F, HB, and B pencils worked well with the Gripsharp, the thicker lead was not really completely impervious to breakage under normal drawing pressure.
The yellow version tends to easily pick up stray graphite dust and display smudges on its surface rather quickly.
Doodles drawn with a Pentel Black Polymer 999 HB pencil.


The Maped Tip Top cap pencil sharpener and the Faber Castell Perfect Pencil (Kids version) are other pencil accessories in the market that share some of the functionality (sharpener, point protector, grip/holder/lengthener) of the Gripsharp but yield conventional sharp points.
This close up shot shows the typical blunt thick drawing tips produced by the Gripsharp sharpeners. It also highlights the uneven trim of the colored plastic sections at the joint lines with the black plastic sharpener frames that detract from their sleek design and suggest that there is still room for improvement in their Quality Control. This product could be improved by selecting stronger more resilient plastics and ensuring consistent precise trimming of its fitted components (check out the perfect fit of assorted multicolor plastic sections of the Iwaco novelty erasers).
The Gripsharp is designed to remain fixed to the pencil during its useful life. By retracting the pencil lead within the grip, it can also function as a pretty effective point protector rendering any regular pencil pocket safe and preventing lead breakage during transport.The 5 colors available could be used to quickly identify different pencil grades or brands in a sketching kit, but they might be a tad too bulky for compact sketching sets.

Some blue plastic eraser-like debris could be seen on the pencil after removing it from the grip suggesting that the fit will probably loosen up over time as more of the soft plastic interior is worn down. The Gripsharp pencil sharpener/grip combination is a fairly original product concept that deserves a novelty spot in any pencil accessories collection. It works well as a grip and point protector. Though its sharpening performance could be improved with replaceable KUM quality blades (while still not perfect, these German engineered blades generally provide better service than no-name blades used in cheap sharpeners) which would likely result in less lead breakage and bolster its claim of being a "green" sharpener option. Its actual usefulness for artists might vary depending if they can adjust their styles to drawing with blunt cylindrical graphite leads (rather than razor sharp points) or if they enjoy the Gripsharp's comfortable grip and potential use as a point protector after sharpening the exposed graphite core with a KUM leadpointer (I count myself among the latter group).Thus while I wouldn't recommend the Gripsharp as the primary stand alone sharpener for a sketching kit, it does play the dual role of a pencil point protector and ergonomic grip quite effectively while serving as a handy back up sharpener. Worth trying.