Found this stainless steel flask on clearance at a local big box store for a dollar.
It can hold 8 oz of water for refilling my waterbrushes. Its hermetic screw-on cap is permanently attached to the flask body, so it can't get lost.
I know I could always used a water bottle, but this slim body metal flask should prove more resistant to punctures and prevent leakage within my sketching bag. Plus I think it looks pretty neat like something that you might have found in an antique watercolor kit.
This will be neither a review nor an expert demonstration. Simply playing a bit with my Japanese pen nibs and holders since I have received some requests for demo videos with them in my YouTube channel. Wet Paint has a nice intro page describing the different Japanese nibs available for drawing manga and calligraphy.
This "Spoon" nib felt quite comfortable for laying down thicker lines and drawing freely in every direction.
Some doodle tests on Rhodia dotPad paper.
This Mapping Round Maru pen nib is reportedly designed for making fine lines, but also yields wider lines with a bit of pressure. Found that it requires too frequent dipping for my taste, and it felt rather scratchy (yet I'm used to plastic tip marker pens, and I haven't practiced with dipping pens all that much).
Tachikawa comic pen nib holder and Nikko mapping pen nib
test inking marks on cartridge paper.
Video 1 - Just a few test marks made with a Nikko mapping pen nib.
Next we have some test doodles with Ultimate Crowquill Pen that a picked up at Jerry's a while back. Video 2. 
This nib holder is made of unfinished wood and is much longer than its Japanese counterparts. The unfinished wooden surface got soiled rather quickly during this initial test, but it was fairly inexpensive. The section of the barrel of the holder closest the the nib readily soaked the black ink.
Latest E-bay vintage drafting lead find just arrived: 2 mm TEC drawing leads. Manufactured in the USA in 1960s-70s according to the Leadholder Drafting Museum.
Back view of the paperboard box.
Side view.
The half gross of leads were packaged in six plastic tubes (12 leads per tube) with threaded metal caps that screwed on securely.
In order to lower production costs: these graphite leads were left blunt on both ends (no pointing), and feature no markings indicating their degree nor brand. I really doubt that they would have saved that much by not sharpening the leads, but this marketing quirk makes them rather unique among my selection of drawing leads. According to the paper insert in each tube each graphite grade corresponded to a given color. For example the 3B leads color code was maroon, yet no evidence of that color coding remains on the leads.
Sample doodle on printer paper: smooth, strong, long wearing point as advertised. If you can find them at prices competitive with modern graphite leads, I would recommend picking them up.
The latest addition to my leadholder collection, the No. 120 Tru-Point Automatic Lead holder, was obtained through an Ebay auction. I think this might be the very first American made leadholder to join its counterparts from Germany, Japan, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and China that make up the bulk of my sketching kit.
I was pleasantly surprised that the seller included the pristine box, display card, and advertising insert with this NOS leadholder. The leadholder is made entirely out of metal, feels well-balanced, and its "hybrid pushbutton spring clutch / pushbutton incremental advance" basically prevents the drawing lead from falling out accidentally when the push button is depressed. Each push advances only enough lead for pointing in a sharpener in a controlled manner.
Paper Insert featuring the entire line of Tru-Point professional drawing products in the 1960s through 1970s. Given the current state of the drafting industry (completely dominated by software at the exclusion of analog tools), the only tools actually manufactured in the USA would belong to the bygone era of the early to mid XX century.
The No. 120 leadholder disassembled into its component parts.
Close up of the clutch jaws piece.
The opening on the green push button was not a lead pointer, but an access port for new lead refills
New lead refill could be easily loaded through the push button without taking the pencil apart.
The leadholder arrived loaded with a 6H lead which was surprisingly smooth for such a hard grade.
6H and 3B test doodles on regular printer paper.
3B test doodle on Piccadilly sketchbook.
Test doodle on Rhodia Reverse book. The No. 120 Tru-Point Automatic Leadholder would make a fine addition to any leadholder collection considering it's unique push button incremental advance feature and solid metal construction. Recommended. 
The most popular cartoon portrait request today was Dragon Ninja at the Downtown Naples Festival of the Arts.
The black and white drawings were drawn with the pigmented Sakura Pigma Sensei 0.6 mm drawing pens, and the coloring step was done with a variety of mixed media: PanPastel, watercolors, Faber Castell Pitt pigmented pens, and even some Prismacolor Premier Double ended art markers.
Thank you very much to all the models that stopped by and patiently waited for their turn to become Dragon Ninjas in full color.
Just got the last package of leads won on an Ebay auction. A box of Mitsubishi Uni 0.7 mm leads that originally came with twelve tubes with twelve leads each. I knew it contained only 11 tubes, and most of them were completely full.
View of the back of the box.
View of the sides of the box.
The box actually contained two different designs of 0.7 mm containers. One labeled simply "Uni 0.7 mm HB" on the side of a rectangular tube, and the other was labeled "Uni Automatic Refill Leads EF Eberhard Faber -Made in Japan" on the side of the oval shaped-tube and "0.7 mm HB" on the plastic cap. Thus judging from the oval packaging and the sticker on the outside mentioning the Eberhard Faber company name, this 1 gross box of leads would probably be at least 20 years old.
The only other time I have ever encountered the rectangular tube design of graphite leads was a few years ago in a carded set of with a Mitsubishi Uni-ball Shalaku 0.5 mm mechanical pencil in Peru.
Samples doodles drawn on Strathmore Visual Journal vellum Bristol. So yes, these vintage 0.7 mm leads stored well and retained their functionality. They bear no clear indication of how old they might actually be and I have only found references to them in the Mitsubishi Pencil Australia website and other overseas sites, but I can tell you that I have yet to find a Mitsubishi Pencil Co. product that I did not like. As a general rule I do not hesitate to try any graphite art supply marked "Made in Japan" or "Made in Germany" regardless of age.
My set up at the live caricature drawing booth earlier today at the Art Festival in Naples Downtown.
The new addition to my live caricature drawing kit is the Winsor & Newton Arun table easel. It proved to be an effective working support allowing me to keep the model in view as I made marks on the paper. I should have used it from the beginning, for it also allows better viewing angles of the drawing in progress to other Festival attendants.
We had a good variety of requests throughout the day. Some were drawn black and white with Sakura Pigma Sensei pens, and the rest were colored with mixed media: Prismacolor markers, Faber Castell Pitt Artist Big brush pens, and watercolors.
My sincere thanks to all the models that stopped by to get their cartoon portraits drawn. I really appreciate your patience as we experimented with different media to color some of the caricatures of the day.
Laid down the skin tones quickly and easily with the recently acquired PanPastel pans.
After erasing the stray pastel marks, the images were completed with the markers and/or Sakura Koi watercolor and Faber Castell Albrecht Durer aquarelle sticks.
The PanPastel skin tones worked quite well in the field, so I will probably get a few more to expand the range of skin tones of my cartoon sketching kit.
You might be wondering where I might be stashing all the vintage leads I have been reviewing lately, so it finally dawned on me to spotlight one of my favorite storage boxes: the ArtBin Solutions™ Box 6-36 Compartments (4006AB). Unless I received them in a sturdy enough storage box already (like the Tru Point 1 gross and Eagle Turquoise 1/2 gross boxes), most of the individual vintage lead containers found a permanent home in one of my ArtBin customizable boxes.
Each box measures 10.75 x 7.375 x 1.75 inches divided in 6 long compartments that are just the right size for storing pens, markers, mechanical pencils, and lead boxes. They come with a bunch of plastic dividers, but I have used only a couple to prevent the lead packages from sliding back and forth and rattling within the box during transport.
While I might have overlooked them for a dedicated review in the past, these ArtBin storage boxes are an effective permanent storage solution that keeps a wide variety of drawing leads and mechanical pencils well-organized and easy to find anytime. Recommended.
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