5.6 mm leadholder doodling videos

My current collection of 5.6 mm leadholders flanked by spare drawing leads and a 5.6 mm KUM sharpener. While a couple of them have built-in lead pointers in their push buttons, they tend to be less effective than the KUM or even regular Staedtler hand held sharpeners in restoring the sharp points to the drawing leads. Starting from top to bottom:

• Art Alternatives full-metal model with built-in lead pointer from China.
• Creative Mark value model with rubberized body from China.
• e+m Holzprodukte Scribbler 1600 stubby wooden barrel model from Germany.
• Cretacolor 430 12 Ecologic wooden model from Austria.
• Cretacolor 430 00 economy model made of 100% plastic with rather brittle clutch mechanism (already broke one of the 2 that I got originally after very light use) from Czech Republic.
  
• Cretacolor Ergonomic 430 15 plastic model with metal jaws and built-in lead pointer from Austria.
• Cretacolor 430 01 plastic model with metal clutch jaws that came bundled with an assortment of drawing leads from Czech Republic.

Test doodles drawn with the entire collection of 5.6 mm leadholders as shown in this 3 minute Video #1.
The Cretacolor Ergonomic 430 15 is a plastic leadholder with an unusual shape that has to be tried to see if it suits your particular drawing style. While it features a built-in lead pointer in its push button, this sharpener has proven rather useless. This Ergonomic model might feel comfortable enough, but its distinct design really allows for just two grip holding positions and can not be easily rolled in the drawing hand to wear down the lead evenly. A sanguine oil lead was used to doodle a dragon head on this Video #2.
The Cretacolor 430 12 Ecologic Wooden leadholder was loaded with a Nero drawing lead (composed of charcoal and oil) and used to doodle a second dragon head as shown in this Video #3. Really like the warm feel and secure grip provided by its wooden barrel which can be easily turn to maintain its tip sharp longer. Perhaps its only drawback is that the unfinished wooden surface readily picks up stray graphite dust and dirt. When it gets too heavily soiled, an electric eraser can remove some of the stains but it can't really return it to its original pristine condition.
The Cretacolor medium Nero lead and Sanguine crayon are both oil based, so they are fairly smudge-resistant. Making them a good choice for sketching on the go with free-flowing strokes, but they are also difficult to erase completely. An electrical eraser did a fair job of lightening a test area, but a small "ghost" image still remained on the paper. Worth trying and adding to any sketching tools collection for working on larger drawings and adding some variety to your creative endeavors.

Spotlight on the Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens and the Sakura Koi Pocket Field Sketch Box

Been wanting to try this watercolor box for a while, and a 50% off coupon at Jo-Ann was all the incentive I needed to finally add it to my collection after conducting some demos for my cartooning trend classes this weekend. Also spotted this carded set of 2 black pens in the Target clearance aisle, and decided to test if they would play nicely with watercolors.
The Flair pens' felt tip nibs laid down deep black line strokes of even thickness. Brand new, the nib felt quite firm and glided quite smoothly while speed sketching.
The ink dried quickly and resisted smearing while doodling, but it did not dry waterproof. The black outlines bled and smudged when colored with this Akashiya Sai watercolor brush.
The Paper Mate Flair felt nib pen might be an adequate sketching tool for doodling and drawing black and white cartoons, but I would not recommend them for illustrations that you plan to color with watercolors.
The Sakura Koi Water Colors Pocket Field Sketch Box is a fairly compact set with 24 half pans about the size of a Cotman Water Colour postcards pad. The box lid can easily hold the pad of watercolor postcards.
The included waterbrush fits disassembled within the box. Found it a bit odd that the brush nib is secured on to the barrel by turning it counter-clockwise which is the opposite from my other waterbrushes.
The mixing palette can be attached in 3 different positions according to personal preference. There is a built-in finger ring on the bottom of the box for a secure grip while painting on the move.
Really like the selection of bright colors and how quickly the waterbrush can wet the pans and release their pigment load. It required very little effort to squeeze water through the brush nib to moisten the pans and rinse the nib clean.
Color chart on Daler-Rowney Cachet watercolor book.
Color chart on Exacompta sketchbook.
The Koi 24 pans Pocket Field Sketch box is a fun and convenient watercolor kit suitable for students and sketching while traveling without having to worry about the potential loss of a more expensive artist grade set.

Doodling with the Palomino Blackwing

I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly my order of Palomino Blackwing pencils was shipped from the West coast. Also got a few spare KUM blades to maintain my favorite sharpener ready to keep my new pencils razor sharp.
Quite happy to have the opportunity to try this updated version of the classic Blackwing 602 pencil cherished by top artists and animators from the past century.
Neatly sharpened with a KUM long point sharpener.
For the initial doodle tests decided to use my prized Exacompta sketchbook.
The graphite lead was darker than your usual HB pencil, and the lines produced were fairly smudge resistant. The sharp pencil tip glided very smoothly on the paper surface reminding me of the waxy feel typical of premium Japanese graphite pencils like the Tombow Mono 100 and the Mitsubishi Hi-Uni.
The Blackwing pencil readily laid down rich dark strokes and allowed for fairly quick shading. Its eraser worked reasonably well, yet it could not completely remove the darkest marks. The distinct-looking rectangular cap eraser is generously sized, wears down slowly, and can be easily extended with its removable holding clip. The cap eraser would likely meet the needs of writers for the life of the pencil, but artists would still probably want to keep their favorite graphite eraser on hand for making big corrections. The small trade-off would be that pencil extenders could not be used with the Blackwing pencil stubs.
Really enjoying these pencils and looking forward to trying them out on other sketchbooks and drawing papers. They would make a fine addition to any sketching kit. Highly recommended.

Cretacolor Monolith Box Review and Demo Video

Cretacolor Monolith Box (Made in Austria) and Koh-I-Noor 3.8 mm leadholder. A recent e-mail from a reader inspired me to take a closer look of this sketching set from my graphite collection and conduct a few quick tests.
Box contents: 6 Monolith woodless pencils (HB, 2B, 4B, 6B, 8B, 9B), 1 water soluble Monolith 4B pencil, pencil extender with marbled handle, pencil cap, compact metal sharpener, and kneaded eraser.
3-minutes demo video doodling with the Monolith pencils and Koh-I-Noor 3.8 mm graphite leads.
The faces on the far right were drawn with B and 3B Koh-I-Noor 3.8 mm graphite leads that were manufactured in the Czech Republic and are part of a Polycolor leadholder set. While they perform well, I do not use them often since they can be rather hard to find in open stock in the USA.
Cretacolor Monolith reference chart and test doodles drawn on 24 lb Xerox paper. I find the diameter of the Monolith pencils to be a tad too small for a comfortable grip, so I prefer to use them with a screw-type Kutsuwa pencil holder. The holder with the marbled handle included in the kit was not particularly useful since it can not grip most of them tightly enough even when sliding the holding ring all the way till the end. While the HB Monolith pencil felt a bit scratchy by comparison to the softer grades, a quick touch up sharpening got me past the uneven harder tip. While the included accessories might look nice in this sleek tin set, they can be hit or miss regarding their actual usefulness in the field given the minute differences in pencil thickness that prevent a tight fit with some of the included pencils. The woodless graphite pencils themselves are quite smooth and pleasant to use. Recommended.