Fun day at the 32nd Naples National Art Festival

We had a great turn out this weekend for the 32nd Naples National Art Festival. Yesterday I volunteered at the T-Shirt/Naples Art Association tent, and today at one of the entrance gates.There were lots of artists' tents with pieces executed in a variety of media. Yet it was the sculptures that drew me in.
This hanging sculptures display was located behind The von Liebig Art Center building.
These weathered replicas of ancient designs ranging from Egypt to Medieval times quickly caught my eye.
This particular tent near the Food Court attracted quite a crowd for obvious reasons (hint: it wasn't the food).
Visitors admiring the display of polyester resin sculptures that strongly resembled wax figures from Madame Tussauds.
Pretty lifelike huh? There sure were quite a few fun stops at the Festival this weekend. If you are a local reader, make sure to sign up to volunteer for the upcoming events at The von Liebig Art Center.

Just got my Sakura Pigma Sensei Manga Drawing Pens boxes of 12

Yaaay! my boxes of 12 Sakura Pigma Sensei Manga Drawing Pens with 0.6 mm and 1.0 mm nibs arrived today. Super happy that I no longer have to keep getting whole drawing kits to replace my two most used pens. They come super handy when sketching caricatures and manga cartoon portraits quickly.
View of the back of the box detailing the properties of the water based ink and listing the nib sizes available of these archival pigment pens.
Video: quick doodle demo.I am really happy that I can finally get my favorite cartoon drawing pens by the dozen in case it didn't show.

Sketching Video Tests with new materials

Borrowed a laptop and a tripod to try to post some sketching video blog reviews while on the go.Test Video 1 was done using a 0.5 mm Pentel Graph Gear 500 mechanical pencil loaded with 3B graphite leads on a Maruman Croquis sketchbook.
Test Video 2 was done using a Sakura Pigma Sensei 0.6 mm pen and a field pocket set of Sakura Koi watercolors on the Strathmore Watercolor Visual Journal.
The resulting colored sketch from test video 2 after adding a bit more shading and more saturated washes. Bit brain dead right now, better catch some zzzzs.

First impression of the Strathmore 140 lb Watercolor Visual Journal

Let's take a look at the 3.5" X 5" Strathmore 140 lb Watercolor Visual Journal that I picked up on a recent trip to a Jerry's Artarama store.
While I found the text-heavy cover shown in most catalogs a tad garish, I was quite pleased to discover that the actual cover is really a much sober textured brown rigid card stock with a glossy coating.
Decorating the first page with a Koi waterbrush and watercolors.
While featuring the same off-white 140 lb watercolor paper , the 3.5" X 5" Visual Journal provided almost double the working area of an Artist Trading Card (some surface area was lost to the wire binding).
The Sakura Pigma Sensei 1.0 mm manga pen drew easily on the rough surface paper.
After applying some coloring with a waterbrush and Koi watercolors. The page warped noticeably after the light washes dried out.Yet they flattened reasonably well within those thick brown textured covers. This compact 3.5" X 5" Visual Journal is a good size to carry in a pocket and for testing different materials quickly. While there are plenty of sketchbooks out there, they usually tend to feature light weight papers that don't work well with wet media nor stand to heavy handling. Strathmore has developed a creative product with quite a lot of potential by simply binding their sturdier drawing supports and watercolor papers in the familiar spiral bound sketchbook format. Might have to pick up one the visual journals loaded with smooth Bristol pages one of these days. Worth trying.
UPDATE: uploaded a short video showcasing this small watercolor journal turned into a custom coloring book for my nephew and my first pages on the larger Bristol and Drawing Visual Journals.

Trying out the Mobius & Ruppert pencil sharpener

Since the KUM sharpener wedges (brass and magnesium with older blades that still adequately sharpen graphite pencils) in my sketching kit produced blunt tips on these Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils, it was a good time to break out my recently acquired Mobius & Ruppert pencil sharpener from its blister card to test if it was up to the task of regular service.
No matter how good a pencil sharpener might be when new, its cutting blade will inevitably get dull with use sooner or later. Ideally a good supply of spare blades should be the green solution to this reality. Yet they are not always easy to find at cost-effective prices to justify the search. Often the expense of buying whole new sharpeners is fairly close to getting replacement blades.
Sharpeners equipped with German blades have historically provided me with longer reliable cutting service than no name blades.
Also proudly displaying its German heritage on the bottom of the block.
Well this M+R pencil sharpener did a good enough job at the first try to earn its spot in my main portable watercolor pencil wrap. Hope its blade will remain sharp for a good long time and shall keep you posted on its performance.

Drawing Caricature Practice with Sakura Pigma Sensei and Pigma Graphic 1 drawing marker pens

Comparison chart of the marks made with Sakura Pigma Sensei Manga Drawing pens and Sakura Pigma Graphic 1 pen on white card stock. The shading of the dragon was painted with gray Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pens.
Comparing some of my favorite marker sketching pens by drawing a few cartoon versions of my nephew.
Manga-style caricature drawn with the 0.6 mm Sakura Pigma Sensei drawing pen. This medium size nib allows for greater detail and fairly uniform strokes while speed sketching.
Cartoon portrait sample drawn with the Sakura Pigma Sensei 1.0 mm drawing pen. One of my favorite pens for drawing caricatures quickly thanks to its consistent ink flow and broad nib that allows some line variation by changing the angle of the pen against the paper.
Sample drawn with the Sakura Pigma Graphic 1 pen. This pen actually laid down a thinner line closer in size to that of the Sakura Pigma Sensei 0.6 mm nib pen. A fine sketching pen if you can find it.
Mateo looking over the cartoon portrait samples.
"Is this supposed to be me? thought it was a girl". Oh well, at least the lines drawn with the 1.o mm Sakura Pigma Sensei Manga drawing pen are nice and bold and can be easily seen from a distance or captured clearly with a camera. Back to practicing for I'll be doing a another caricature tent at the 2nd annual Mercato Fine Arts Festival on March 5th & 6th.

Jerry's Artarama Loot Preview

Since it has been a tad stressful trip with an ongoing family medical emergency that shook things up a bit, I took a small detour on the way to the hospital to the local art supplies store for some relaxation/browsing and ended up picking up the loot above.
Kum Lead pointer for 2 mm and 3.15 mm leads with cleaning sponge and sandpaper pad, and Mobius & Ruppert classic magnesium sharpener, and Kum Correct-stick eraser. The KUM lead pointer is probably the best value for a compact and efficient sharpening tool for leadholder users, and it has been a permanent fixture in my main sketching kit for the last few years (it was about time I replaced its broken lid).Pentel GraphGear 500 drafting pencil. An inexpensive model that should tie me over until I can get back to my usual Graph 1000. It does resemble a dart, and its center of balance is close to the tip. Basically this is another well-built light weight mechanical pencil from Japan. This economy model performed adequately and would make a fine addition to a field sketching kit since it wouldn't be too hard to replace if it were to get lost during a sketching trip. Keep in mind that its fixed 4 mm sleeve is not retractable hence not pocket-safe. Unless you want to risk stabbing yourself with it, use a pencil case with adequate cushioning or sturdy metal walls to prevent damage either way. Also was quite pleased to find the Sakura Pigma Graphic 1 pens in open stock, for you can usually only find them in carded sets packed along with two chiseled-tip pens which I do not use as much. Thought they would be a suitable stand-in for my preferred 0.6 mm and 1.0 mm Sakura Pigma Sensei Manga drawing pens, but I just saw them available in open stock here (wohoo, now I will be able to get boxes of 12 pens next time I have to re-stock my supply drawers).
Initial test doodles drawn on white card stock with the Sakura Pigma Graphic 1 pen and the Pentel GraphGear 500 mechanical pencil using HB and 3B leads.
Kum Correct-stick eraser test: worked well but left more debris on the paper than my preferred foam erasers. With its unique ergonomic shape, it would make a nice addition to any eraser collection. Overall I am pretty happy with the initial performance of the tested supplies. We'll see how they hold up in upcoming sketching demo videos.