Testing some X-mas loot and video capability while making an ATC sketch card

Among my Christmas loot, got some neat items for enhancing future blog content or serve as the subject of art material reviews. The Targus Grypton Portable Tripod XL should make it easier to post short videos to enhance product reviews and record sketching demos. Thanks Cuti for making the trip to Greer Chicago and getting me the tube with 12 Graffiti 3.15 mm colored leads! now I can simply take it along with one of my e+m Holzprodukte Graffiti 1983 leadholders to sketch in color anywhere.
The leads feel like hard wax crayons and make fairly bright strokes. Though some of the colors like the red and pink leads seem to have a higher tendency to crumble. While I am not about to test them under extreme storage conditions, it would be prudent not to leave them exposed to high temperatures for long.
Sample color chart drawn on white card stock.
The colored leads do have an advantage over regular sized pencils: they take up far less space than their wood encased counterparts making them more efficient for lightweight sketching kits.Thanks Caro for the packs of Blue Line Art Artist Sketch Cards. Each pack included 12 standard 2.5" X 3.5" sketch cards along with 12 plastic sleeves to protect them. They feature non-repro blue grid lines printed on both sides: one box on one side for filling in the artist name and contact info, and a larger outline printed on the other side to frame the original art of the Artist Trading Card (ATC). These Blue Line Art cards were printed on smooth Strathmore Bristol board which readily accepts graphite, ink, and assorted coloring media (Yet the 12 cards and sleeves are certainly not worth their $9.95 list price). A significantly better value is available in the form of the 20-card packs of Canson Fanboy Comic & Manga Trading Cards which also include the 20 protective sleeves and are listed at half the price of the smaller Blue line pack (and they can often be found on sale for 2-4 bucks). Similar blank Strathmore ATCs can also be found online in packs of 20 cards for about a dollar and a quarter. Most trading card supplies (like protective sleeves, 9-card protective sheets, and rigid top-loading vinyl sleeves) tend to be priced more competitively at your local big-box stores and specialty comicbook shops. A bag with a 100 ATC protective sleeves should cost about a buck. If you have the time, a metal ruler, and a sharp art knife, it would naturally be more cost-effective to cut your own blank ATCs out of your preferred paper supports. Yet the pre-made packs can be pretty convenient and time-saving so long as you can find them at a reasonable price.
Also got this gag present given my fondness for Mountain Dew soda which I know should probably cut from my diet. Maybe it should be my New Year's Resolution, ... nah!

Testing my new Targus Grypton Portable Tripod XL with my compact digital camera to create a speed sketching demo video while trying out one of the Blue Line Art Artist Sketch Cards. The flexible legs of the tripod provided a stable support for the camera on the inclined drafting table after just a quick adjustment.
Inking with a Prismacolor 05 Archival Illustration Marker. The sturdy pen nib glided smoothly on the card surface creating a waterproof and alcohol marker resistant outline suitable for coloring with Copic Sketch markers or even watercolor.

Erasing pencil marks with a Sakura Foam eraser. This efficient eraser is quite gentle on the paper surface, and it is fairly clean to use since its debris tends to roll neatly into a single strand which can be easily brushed aside.
Started recording the coloring stage with the Copic Sketch markers but then ran out of room in my SD card. Tried using another spare 4 GB card, but its writing speed was not up to the task.

The Lexar 2 SDHC SD card stopped video recording after just a few seconds. Thus, I got a 2-pack of 4 GB Sandisk Ultra II SDHC cards to facilitate future video recordings.
Finished sample dragon card.

Closer look at the Rhodia Pad#11 Leatherette Holder and the Prismacolor Illustration Markers Manga Set

While I got a few Rhodia pads orange and black covers to use as gifts, I picked the black Rhodia Pad#11 Leatherette Holder for myself for its understated sober look. Though the orange version would certainly be easier to spot when digging for it inside a black backpack.
The holder folds neatly behind the #11 pad and works just like an elegant old-fashioned reporter style notepad.
The inside of the cover features a small pocket for storing stray bits of paper like notes or business cards.
I am so convinced of the value and usefulness of the Rhodia pad #11 for artists and field work, than getting a few holders and spare pads for some of my own holiday presents was a no-brainer. They are quite portable given their pocket size, the paper performs flawlessly with many graphite and ink tools, feature easy tear-sheets, and they are solidly built. With the added protection of the holder, they should remain in fairly pristine condition during their useful life. Recommended.
Now let's have a look at one of the newer Manga drawing sets in the market: the Prismacolor Premier Archival Illustration Markers set of 005, 03, 05, 08, chisel, and brush black pens; and 005 and brush sepia pens. Considering their manga designation, these fine line markers were appropriately made in Japan.
I really like the clear plastic box used to package this set. It offers adequate protection while keeping the pens neatly organized and clearly visible. The plastic material has enough rigidity to maintain its sturdy boxy shape while empty or full and ensures the repeated functionality of the cleverly designed reclosable flap.
Initially the marks drawn with the black and sepia brush pens looked almost identical in hue, so I thought that the sepia pen had been mislabeled and mistakenly loaded with black ink at the factory. Yet the following morning its marks grew lighter and came across more like a "dark brown".
Thus it would definitely be a good idea to draw your own reference color chart when getting a new set, for the sepia brush pen from the Manga set turned out to be a darker brown than the sepia brush pen included in a 8-color brush pen set that I got a while back. So you might also encounter some variation between production batches.
Setting that hiccup aside, the pens worked quite smoothly on the Strathmore 300 smooth bristol. This sample chart shows the range of different line widths and specialty chisel and brush nibs marks that could be accomplished independently with each pen. By working gradually in succession starting with the smaller pen nib and going through the larger nibs, it is quite simple to create lively sketches with fluid lines of varying thicknesses. Their pigmented inks are waterproof, so the drawn outlines could easily be colored with watercolor media.
The Manga Set of Prismacolor Premier Archival Illustration Markers is a nice versatile sketching kit. Particularly a good value if purchased at discounted online prices. When shopping for them locally at arts and crafts retail shops, you might want to get the discount coupons often published on the Sunday paper flyers. Worth trying.

Sneak Peek of Reviews to Come

Just arrived in the mail! a few supplies for gifts, reviews, and some further class development. Will review some of them in the near future. Gotta run now. Have a great weekend and safe holidays!

Giveaway Winner

Thanks to all the readers that entered the Holiday Giveaway. Random.org has determined the winner of the Giveaway, and it is comment #12 by bea

"Congrats on your 200th post and I hope you keep posting more. :)

I hope I win but even if I don't, this is a great post and I hope to pick up some of your recommended art supplies when I get the chance to visit an art supply shop here".

Congratulations Bea! Please leave a comment on this post and send me your name and e-mail as soon as possible so that I can relay that information to Jet Pens.

Platinum Carbon Fountain Pen and my new set of Supracolor watercolor pencils

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.

Morning Glory Mach II Liquid Ink Pen quick impression

I received this nice holiday surprise gift in the mail from the Jet Pens team (Thank you guys!) along with some of those nifty Midori Christmas clips (see first photo of previous post and visit the Office Supply Geek for a thorough review on these paper clips).
This Korean liquid ink pen has a sleek look and nice foil lettering on the side of the barrel. A quick swipe with a waterbrush revealed that its ink was not water resistant. While it might not be suitable for coloring with watercolors afterward, the liquid ink flows smoothly without skipping for an effortless writing experience.
On the Georgia Pacific white card stock, the liquid ink tends to pool in spots when lingering too long in the same place. On the blank Rhodia paper, the Mach Pen II produces smooth uniform lines even when slowing down a bit (I had to really slow down my doodling speed to get the same effect on the sample on the right). The Morning Glory Mach II Liquid Ink Pen is certainly a good choice for taking notes quickly and even some smooth doodling. It reminded me of why a long time ago I used to enjoy the Pilot Precise V5 rolling ball pen (Nowadays I go for a trusty gel pen instead). Just keep in mind that the ink is not waterproof to avoid unpleasant surprises when planning to color your ink drawings with watercolor.

Helix Technical Drawing Value Pack Review

While browsing through a local office supplies store, I spotted the silver leadholder of the Taiwanese Helix Technical Drawing Value Pack. Given my fondness for this drafting tools, I just had to pick one up for closer examination and review.While they might look a tad similar with their silver finish, the Helix leadholder is to the Staedtler 925-25-20 leadholder like comparing an economy vehicle to a luxury model.
The Helix interior chamber is made out of plastic and tends to rattle within the barrel when shaken. The exterior barrel and nose piece have a silver metallic finish that looks pretty shinny. The barrel grip is a bit thin for users with large hands.
Unlike most clutch pencils where the metal jaws are exposed, the Helix nose piece conceals the light blue plastic clamp that holds the lead. While it maintains an adequate grip on the lead, it requires more pressure to advance and to retract the lead back into the barrel. I suspect that in the long run, it will end up loosening up.
The included 12 graphite lead refills measure just over 3.5" in length each and come packaged 6 to a tube. While they are reasonably smooth, I find them rather scratchy compared to my favored Uni graphite leads.The included blue lead pointer and eraser combo (exactly the same design as the Chinese version included in the Staedtler value pack) is less efficient than any of the other lead pointers shown and tends to break the lead in shards yielding an uneven point. No wonder it does not feature any brand markings nor list the country where it was manufactured. In my opinion it is just a poorly built accessory and not particularly useful.
The built-in lead pointer in the push button yields a rather blunt point and can be rather messy to use spreading graphite dust all over the work area. It is fairly unique in that the interior workings of the sharpener are exposed (light blue plastic section with the sharpening blades peeking through the rectangular opening in the middle) unlike the concealed sharpeners in the push buttons of the Staedtler 780 and the Caran D'Ache Fixpencil.
For a reliable sharp point, I would use the Staedtler rotary lead pointer and limit the push button lead pointer for emergency use only.
The Helix leadholder is a nice addition to a mechanical pencil collection given its sleek design and unique features. It certainly seem like a fair value with all the graphite lead refills and accessory included with it for under 10 bucks. Yet for a beginner's choice and frequent regular use with smoother operation, I would recommend trying the Staedtler Mars Technico 780 or the Mitsubishi Uni leadholder instead.