Monday, January 31, 2011

More tool reviews

Lately, I haven't been loving the brush. I probably just need to break down and buy some new ones, since my current sable brush like one year and 60+ pages old, but buying brushes is SO HARD. And I'm tired of the struggle and hand cramps.

I've never been able to draw with a nib. We all had to give them a try during our first year at CCS. I would scratch with the thing until I wore a hole in the paper and still never get a line out of it. It's just not my thing.

Since these tools aren't doing it for me lately, I've been giving pens a try. These two valentines were drawn with a Pentel Tradio, which has a felt tip that kinda acts like a nib, except with it decides to spray ink everywhere.

valentine-dog

In retrospect, these cards probably aren't going to do well. Do people buy Valentines for their pets?

valentine-cat

And these sketches were drawn with a Right-Handed Pelikano Junior (which is amazingly comfortable, and they make a left-handed version, too) that I outfitted with a fountain pen converter, and filled with black Speedball ink.

Pen Test

Girls in gouache

The Pelikano inked just fine over gouache, which was nice.

Next I might try drawing comics with the fountain pen, unless the brushwork really does look better? I really can't tell anymore.

3 comments:

  1. I like the pen! Looks really good!

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  2. Oh, I was thinking about fountain pens a couple months ago as a possible alternative to the disposable PITTS etc that I use, but bogged down with option overload & stopped looking. It looks like you were able to get at least a little line variation with the Pelikano. Is that difficult? Does the nib have any flexibility, or...?

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  3. Hey Colin! The Pelikano has a little bit of flexibility, but it's also fairly wide nib to begin with. I'm actually liking this Centropen better-
    http://www.jetpens.com/index.php/product/view/products_id/6058
    It's really flexible, but only comes with blue ink and I haven't found a converter to fit it yet.

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