Author Archives: leslie

Reflect on 2 years of Drawing Practice

I’ve been doing a lot of research for my pen and ink booklet/class that I intend to release into the world at some point in 2012. One of the books I’ve been reading as part of the research is “The Naked Art: Why We Draw” by Peter Steinhart. It’s not recommended reading for everyone. His writing while good, might bore anyone not interested deeply in art and why we draw.

I picked it up because it came up in a keyword search of my local library’s books on drawing. I’ve continued to read it because it’s written from the perspective of a person who does not consider himself to be an artist. He writes about how drawing the figure is meditative and trains his brain. There is an entire section devoted to the idea and process of training your brain. If you’ve been reading this blog for any period of time you know that this is a concept that I hold dear and affects me deeply.

This book reminds me of when I decided I wanted to draw better. That was 2 years ago and I knew that what I had ahead of me was work and practice. I gathered my tools and I started to work. I had an understanding of art. After all I had taken drawing and painting in college, but only one included real practical advice for drawing. That one class rocked my world. In one month my drawings went from… not very good to better. Had I stuck with it I can only imagine the draughtsman I would be today. Instead, I saw and felt that drawing was a lot of work and took time I did not have.

So my drawing went by the wayside.

For 10 years I ignored drawing as a skill and a tool that I needed to work on. Instead, I drew when I felt like it and not enough to exercise my brain.

from 2 years ago

When I started to draw again, everything felt stiff, and as if it didn’t work. I produced a lot of terrible drawings, things that I simply flipped the page to the next and moved on from. Each terrible drawing was a learning experience. I had to be sure to NOT let them get me down. Each one was a step forward. Eventually as time went on, my drawings became better and better. At some point, I felt I was getting a realistic enough representation that I could move toward giving my drawings my own style- a tweak, if you will, of me.

from 2 years ago

One of the many things Steinhart probes in his book is the idea that through drawing, we better ourselves. Although I can’t say I’ve bettered myself, I know that through observing the world more closely that I’ve definitely stretched my mind. While sketching, I’ve been able to make some difficult decisions that I’d otherwise not have been able to come to as easily. A rough day at work melts away when I pick up my pens and brush, even if the sketch doesn’t look quite right. The important bit is that I pick up my pens and brushes that day and draw.

recent image

There are many sites that promise success in drawing in 5 to 10 minutes a day, but I don’t think that’s enough time. It’s a great start to get you fully addicted to drawing and it will exercise your mind to increase your ability to look and observe the world around you. 5 or 10 minutes is simply enough to get your drawing to a point where it will rock your world. I draw for the same reasons some of my friends do yoga. I draw because it is as essential to my happiness as eating, drinking and exercise. My friends who do yoga say the same. Yoga is a core part of their day. Without it they would not find themselves centered and rooted in reality. None of my friends do yoga for only 5 to 10 minutes a day, but rather 20 or 30 minutes. Why are people willing to devote 20 or 30 minutes to exercise their body, yet they avoid spending 20 to 30 minutes to exercise their mind?

recent cafe sketch

Like my friends who do yoga, I was so inspired by my brief time practicing drawing for 15 or so minutes that I found a way to give myself 20 or 30 minutes to draw. I gave up TV. I draw on my lunch breaks. I moved a TV tray table into the office to draw on while my partner studied. I found a way to make 20 or 30 minutes of drawing per day. Now I bring a sketchbook with me everywhere I go and draw every free moment. The time I spend drawing is never time wasted.

I’m happier, possibly a better person, and definitely more relaxed and centered- all for the cost of a few sketchbook, pens and time.

For me it’s very much worth the time that I spend drawing. I’m happier, possibly a better person and definitely more relaxed and centered, all for the cost of a few sketchbook and pens.

Review: Stillman and Birn Gamma Series

Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper

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Welcome to the July 3, 2012 edition of carnival of pen, pencil and paper.

art supplies

ComfortableShoes presents Review: Platinum Carbon Black posted at Comfortable Shoes Studio.

Peninkcillin presents Noodler's Fox Red ink review posted at Peninkcillin – A cure for pen and ink addiction is needed.

Sandra Strait presents Life Imitates Doodles: Comparison of the Stillman & Birn Sketchbook Series posted at Life Imitates Doodles

Sandra Strait presents Review & Bleedthrumanades in the Stillman & Birn Epsilon Sketchbook posted at Life Imitates Doodles

Azizah Asgarali presents Review: Pentel Pocket Brush Pen for Calligraphy posted at Gourmet Pens.

pencils

Good Pens presents Knock, Knock? posted at Good Pens.

ComfortableShoes presents Review: STAD One Touch Pencil Extender posted at Comfortable Shoes Studio.

pens

East…West…Everywhere presents East…West…Everywhere: Fountain Pen Review: Sailor HighAce Neo posted at East…West…Everywhere.

An Inkophile's Blog presents The Kaweco Classic Sport, A Modern Pocket Pen posted at An Inkophile's Blog.

The Pen Addict presents The Pen Addict – Blog – Hacking a Pilot Hi-Tec-C Refill into a Retro 51 posted at The Pen Addict.

The Inked Nib presents The Inked Nib • Review: Lamy Nexx posted at The Inked Nib.

Peter Warrior presents Pilot B2P Ballpoint Pen Fine 0.7mm Review posted at Tiger Pens Blog.

Maybelline presents On Fountain Pens: Stabilo: Pen 68, point 88 and pointVisco pens posted at On Fountain Pens.

Cheryl from Writer's Bloc presents The Platinum Plaisir vs The Platinum Preppy Fountain Pen posted at Writer's Bloc Blog.

Azizah Asgarali presents Review: Pilot Parallel Calligraphy Pens: 1.5 mm, 2.4 mm, 3.8 mm posted at Gourmet Pens.

Azizah Asgarali presents Review: Render K Aluminum Custom Machined Pen posted at Gourmet Pens.

notebooks

Tim Leffel presents A Travel Writing 2.0 Conversation with Lavinia Spalding posted at Travel Writing 2.0

Okami0731 presents RAD AND HUNGRY – STMT X Denmark posted at Whatever.

EuropeanPaperCompany presents Guest Post: Sketching + Watercolor in the Stillman & Birn Alpha Art Journal posted at The European Paper Company.

lifeimitatesdoodles presents Comparison of the Stillman & Birn Sketchbook Series « lifeimitatesdoodles posted at lifeimitatesdoodles.

recordingthoughts presents The Leuchtturm 1917 Master Dots 4 Months Later posted at recordingthoughts.

miscellaneous

Travisthetrout presents to do lists (and drawing tick boxes) #filofax #icad posted at Notes in a Book.

Jonathan Milligan presents The Benefits of “Morning Pages” and Your Productivity posted at Simple Life Habits

Sandra Strait presents Life Imitates Doodles: New steampunk tangle pattern & Children's book posted at Life Imitates Doodles

Estivalia presents The Girl and the Goldfish posted at 365 Drawings Project"

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of pen, pencil and paper using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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State of the Weekend: radiant

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In stark contrast to last week this week has been pretty darn amazing. I’m shocked that so much positivity can be jam packed into one short week, but it can. At the start of the week I went to the Beverly Farmer’s Market and bought some great fresh produce from local growers and it was amazing. I took a moment to sketch a tomato, see it on PioP. It seemed to set my week off on the right foot. Then in the middle of the week I received a package of Stillman and Birn sketchbooks, if you’ve read here, you know I am already a huge fan. I immediately cracked open a 4×6 hard bound Gamma and wow, just, wow. I’ll have a full review up on Thursday. I’ve been walking more consistently and my ankle is starting to feel better and I find that I have to wear my brace less and less. Which is a giant positive in this heat, since the brace causes much uncomfortableness.

At some point during the week I talked to one of my friends about recent happenings and it caused a shift in my thought processes and a deep realization. I’ll share more in the upcoming weeks. Just know that this realization will involve some major life changes for me and I expect it will make some major differences in the blog, art journaling ning, and life in general.

After the shift in my thinking things only went up from there. I got spectacular news on Friday. Friday night we walked up to Atomic expecting fiddle music only to find that the fiddle music is on the 1st and 3rd Friday of the month. We sat in the relatively quiet shop and chatted and ran into an old friend. The temperature and humidity were simply perfect for the night and walking. We also got word that C got the extension on her fellowship.

It’s not so much that I was super positive about things, it’s that I decided that a major and realistic change NEEDED to happen sooner than I had planned and expected. It seems that things are falling into place just as we need them to. This week I’m going to hold that in my thoughts, I’m going to look for one amazing thing and take time for it tomorrow and set my week off on the right foot.

Week in Photos #3

Review: Stillman & Birn Alpha Coil Bound Sketchbook

The Watercolors I Use

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PJ asked me what I use for watercolors. I’m not brand loyal with watercolors and I’ll try anything generally in a tube form. The biggest part of my “collection” consists of a lot of older Cotman watercolors as well as Grumbacher Academy. I bought them back when I was in college and they represented a good value at the time. They were also easily found. I’m also a sucker for clearance rack stuff and bought a bunch of Academy paints on clearance.

As I’ve used watercolors more and more and I’ve discovered what colors I like I’ve been adding to my modest collection with a variety of higher priced brands, namely Winsor & Newton and Holbein. Mostly because I can walk into Artist & Craftman and peruse the shelf and pick up one color and then put it back and then pick up another and another. I'll splurge and reward myself with a tube of Holbein or use it as a pick-me-up at the end of a rough week.

I keep a list of paints that I’m running out of in my planner so that I always know what colors I need so I never run out. If I’ve got a coupon for AC Moore I’ll use it to replace one of my tubes with the higher priced Winsor & Newton.

I also snagged a sample of Sennelier watercolors through their website. I really like those so I’ll be looking for some of those to add to my collection. (Samples are no longer available.)

I’ve also tried out Koi watercolors both in pan and tube. They are good for student grade colors. They are also very reasonably priced. Van Gogh brand watercolors are another student brand that I like very much. They are also VERY reasonably priced and have great intense colors.

My favorite splurge watercolors are the Holbein. I have them in a variety of my watercolor sets and I like that they always rewet easily. A touch of the brush to the blob of dried paint leaves me with a nice amount of paint on my brush. I don’t need to scrub the blob to get the color going, just get it wet. It’s a really nice feature especially if I’m using one of my mint tin watercolor sets to paint in the cafe or park.

When I’m testing out a new brand I buy one of my 2 favorite colors: sepia or indigo. I can then compare how that brand’s version of the color looks and performs.

I have 3 brands of pan colors: Koi, Angora, and Cotman. I prefer the Cotman over the other 2. The 2 Angora sets I have are the smaller pocket size that they no longer make. I really like the size and portability of these 2 sets. They are the perfect size for sketching in the park or cafe. I was looking for a new version of these and was pretty sad to find they are no longer made. The Angora paints are more like a pan gouache than watercolor. The colors are very chalky and opaque. The Cotman colors are pretty traditional and work very well. I prefer the Pocket Sketcher’s set over their other sets. Their colors are pure and mix well. The koi colors are very bright and I find do not mix well. The colors are nice and bright though. I find the plastic of the koi set to be heavy.

For travel sets I really prefer to make my own and put my own color in from tubes.

My must have colors to always have on hand:

Cad Yellow light* and medium
Yellow Ochre*
Red Earth*
Hooker’s Green*
Perm Green (a light yellow green)
Quin Magenta*
Cad Orange
Cad Red Medium*
Turquoise blue
Ultramarine*
Raw Umber
Cerulean Blue
Payne’s Gray*
Sepia
Indigo

I’ve starred the colors I think are starter colors. If I were suggesting to someone just starting out with watercolor I’d suggest that they purchase those 8 colors and add to the set from there.

My Week in Photos

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A Busy Week and Some Drawings

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So the state of my week has been… a total pain in my rear. First our VW breaks down in only the way a VW can- expensive and then the muffler on my Versa decided to jump off. This is right after I order both my new video camera AND a new laptop with some of my stock option money from my DayJob, I gave myself a budget! I shopped around and found the best deal on both the laptop, quad core ASUS for just under $450 and a refurbished Canon VIxia HF R200. All told I spent less than half on them than a fancy new DSLR would have cost, mostly because I have been researching these 2 items for months and months. I did have some buyers remorse when the VW broke down. Luckily the rest of my stock option money came through to help with that bill. Then the muffler… Sometimes you just can’t win. Such is life though. I’m happy that I have a great DayJob with benefits like stock options to help me through these tough times.

Anyway, on the positive side of things the new laptop kicks some serious ass. I can process longer videos faster and with color correction and speeding things up. Crunching a 35 minute video of me drawing down to 2 minutes now takes about 20 minutes whereas with my old laptop it took several hours and I couldn’t add any effect or correct for brightness and contrast.

The new camera, well, it also kicks ass. I am able to shoot bright focused videos with only my 2 halogen bulbs lighting my work area, which means i’m not getting blinded. No matter how many lights I had on my old camera just couldn’t shoot anything bright and it would go out of focus a lot. The old camera does okay outside but just didn’t do anything nice inside. So I’m really excited about that. the last camera I bought with a small amount of research this camera I took months to decide on.

Here are some videos shot with the new camera and processed on the old laptop:

Review: Platinum Carbon Black

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I picked up a bottle of Platinum Carbon Black ink from a new vendor, Gumwater, more on them at the end of the review. When the ink arrived on my doorstep I immediately cleaned out my fine nibbed TWSBI 540 fountain pen and loaded it up. I found the ink to be black, very very black. It’s relatively well behaved on all my sketchbook papers with some minor soak and show through on my Field Notes, but that is to be expected with Field Notes. I didn’t notice feathering on any of paper that I’ve tested it on so far.

I did notice some lift when I was putting a watercolor wash over the top of it. I suspect this is because it hadn’t dried fully. What little did lift was a neutral gray color and thus didn’t turn the color of the watercolor off.

The ink lubricated the pen well. I never felt like I was writing on sandpaper but I didn’t feel like I was writing on glass either. That might change if I was loading it into a different pen.

If I were to rate the darkness of the black inks I have in my possession I’d rate them as follows:

Platinum Carbon Black
Noodler’s Black
Noodler’s Heart of Darkness
Pelikan Fount India
Chelpark Permanent Black
Pelikan Black in International Long Cartridges

Platinum Carbon Black is a carbon basesd ink, which means it's pigmented with microscopic particle of carbon, which gives it the deep black color. Pigmented inks are a little more high maintenance in fountain pens. If you put a pigmented ink in your pen you'll need to clean the pen a little more often and watch to be sure it's not getting mucked up. Honestly though, I've been using Pelikan's Fount India regularly for 6 months now and I can say I've noticed no long term ill effects from using a pigmented ink in my pens, and I don't clean my pens regularly, nor do I use them everyday. I take all dire fountain pen warnings with a grain of salt.

The price of Platinum Carbon is, well, not cheap. I pulled the trigger on it because Gumwater was having a sale on it in their “Daily Drop.” Their daily drop puts one item in their inventory on deep discount for a day. The ink itself was $16.50 for 60ml, minus my Fountain Pen Network discount of 5% for a total of $15.68. Which if you look at a few places on the ‘net you’ll find that is anywhere from 1/2 to 2/3 the regular price of Carbon Black. Shipping was reasonable as well $4.41 for priority mail shipping. So I got a very expensive ink for $20. If you order over $50 Gumwater does shipping for free. If I’d known I was going to like the ink as much as I do I’d have ordered 3 bottles to get it over the $50 mark.

The ink was packaged very well. The small ink bottle was nestled in it’s own box and swaddled in bubble wrap then put inside a small sturdy box. The box arrived in good shape and quickly. I ordered on June 6th and received it on June 11th.* It was fast shipping. Overall I was pretty happy with Gumwater’s service. Their prices are reasonable, they packaged the items well and they arrived to me fast. One thing that I didn’t like was that every interaction with them was peppered with bible quotes. I’m not against religion but I’m against it being shoved in my face at every turn. I find religion to be a very personal thing so to have it on an invoice and packing slip feels a little strange to me. I mean why risk offending a customer with a differing religion?

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