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Insane Continuous Doodle
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Author Archives: leslie
Starting off the Grand Experiment
I picked up a selection of needle point and ultra fine point pens from Uniball to use as part of the experiment Jane and I are conducting for the next issue of Put it on Paper as well as a regular blog feature. I can’t wait to tell you more about it. I had planned on using them ONLY for the experiment, but, well, I’ve gotten addicted. Damn these things are crazy fun. I could use my rapidocraft pens but these are so much smoother and I can use them at an angle, which means I can sketch more comfortably. The ink is gel style so it doesn’t feather, spread or bleed. I get a perfect smooth line. Better yet, it’s pigmented, fade resistant and waterproof when dry. Which means I can slosh watercolors on it ASAP.
I think I’ve died and gone to ink heaven.
I’m pretty stoked.
Within this post are a selection of drawings done with the Uniball Signo bit 0.18 and Signo DX in 0.28 and 0.38. (With a smattering of brush pen and watercolor added, because I can’t restrain myself.)
Put it on Paper Blog Button
Hey all I've been asked for a button that people can put on their blogs for Put it on Paper.
(Thanks to StrayDreams for reminding me to do this!)
This is what it will look like:
and the text in red is what you'll copy and paste to your blog:
<div style="background-color:#F6F6F6;border:7px solid #F6F6F6;-moz-border-radius:4px;-webkit-border-radius:4px;width:150px;"> <a href="http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/394512/follow"> <img src="https://comfortableshoesstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/d072de8746b2fb468dbef67480c444df.jpg" style="width:150px;border:0;" alt="Put it on Paper Vol 1 #1" /> <img src="https://comfortableshoesstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/small-widget-foot.png" style="width:150px;margin:0;border:0;" alt="Find out more on MagCloud" /> </a> </div>
State of the Weekend: Fiddle Jam
I’ve taken the last couple of days off of work. The first day was for a long overdue dental appointment (yuck) and the second was to deal with the publishing of the zine. Publishing went far smoother than I had expected so I decided I was going to congratulate myself on a job well done by taking a walk to a coffee shop. I had to decide if I wanted the familiar hipster din of Atomic or the relative anonymity of Starbucks. I decide to go to Atomic because I could walk in less traffic and go to the bank without going out of my way, and uh, way better coffee, local business blah blah blah, yay for killing 4 birds with one stone.
In accordance with my new health goal, inspired by Paula, Journal Fodder Junkies, and goaded by my Doctor, I walked, briskly to both the bank and Atomic. I walked in and instead of the typical hipster din I was greated by 3 fiddles and an acoustic guitar! What a pleasant surprise. I’d planned on working on my fountain pen class and another class I’ve got in the works. I couldn’t help myself, I got out my new Uniball needle tipped pens and started to sketch the fiddlers and the guitarist. My coffee came up and I decided to really just sketch, forget the working, I can catch up on that tomorrow! After all, laundry can wait!
Normally when I’m sketching at the coffee shop I fill one page or so in an hour and I get bored then leave. Tonight I sat and sipped my Americano (black) and sketched for nearly 2 hours. I filled 8 pages, 2 were kind of duds that I added color to and salvaged when I got home. The sketches were done on location from life and I added the watercolor later.
I had nearly forgotten how uplifting it is to see some talented people make great music together. Apparently these fiddlers and the guitarist get together and jam at Atomic Cafe every other Friday night. I know I’ll be going again! (I've taken to calling it Fiddle Jam.) 
It’s Alive! Put it on Paper!
I am absolutely overjoyed to tell you that the new zine Put it on Paper is on sale starting today. 6 months ago Jane and I sat in Jaho Cafe in Salem Mass during our regular art dates when we started to talk about zines and how cool Art Journaling: It’s All Good was and how I rather missed putting together a zine and that I had some ideas for one off solo publications. Jane casually suggested we do another zine together. After some chatting the basic idea of Put it on Paper was born.
After that meeting we’ve met nearly every weekend for the last 6 months to chat about art and the zine. PioP (as I like to abbreviate it) is a testament to perseverance, there were several issues that made us both think that at times PioP just wouldn’t happen. It’s amazing how fast something like this finally comes together.
What is amazing about the 2 of us working on this have also been working full time jobs plus part time gigs on top of working on this zine. It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world but it’s made me realize that no matter what whatever we can do it. No matter what happened during the time we worked on this we finally got it together and got it done.
I’m so proud.
The digital download is $7 and the print copy is $14 + shipping. You get a free digital download with your print copy
Get it here:
Review: Canson XL Recycled Drawing Pad
Basics:
- 9×12 inches, 60 Warm White sheets to a Coil bound pad
- $8.99 at AC Moore
- 70ld/114gsm
- Perfed pages
- Acid free blah blah blah
It seems Canson has a “true to size” sheet thing on almost all of it’s pads now. So if it’s marked 9×12 inches on the cover the sheet you tear off is actually 9×12 inches. This is a really really great thing. I always have hated that many pads would lose a ½ to full inch to the perf. I really like that.
The paper responds well to ink, nibs are true to size and there is no spread or feathering nor soak through on these pages. The paper is not glassy smooth but has enough tooth to accept pencil and charcoal well. It accepted watercolor well, but did show some cockling that did not even out completely when dry. Though it did flatten quite a lot, so that it’s just slightly wavy.
I really enjoyed how this paper accepted ink and watercolor. The watercolors really look great on it’s warm white color and ink melds with the paper in such a way to just look like it’s been there awhile.
I’ve been testing several new pens on it and I really like that the nibs stay true to size and don’t spread all over the place when testing them. Even when my Noodler’s flex pens were flexed to their widest and bleeding ink onto the pages, there was no soak through or bleed through. I can’t stress that enough. It was pretty amazing to find an easily available pad that accepts ink as well as this and for a relatively inexpensive price compared to other fountain pen friendly paper.
Awesome Day
Occasionally my DayJob is beyond awesome. Yesterday I got to meet the guys behind FireSeedArt.com, see the tail end of them hanging a show, and then my coworker asked me for some interview questions. We all know how much I like to pester artists with questions. (Wait until you see my interview with Ted Micu in the first issues of Put it on Paper!) I got my coworker to agree that I could cross post the blog, with a link, to my blog here. So you guys are in for a treat, an improtu interview with a really inspiring artist. Plus some great pictures.
Here are a few teaser pics:
Spring Fever
Spring. I love it. The weather gets warmer, the grass gets green, everything goes into blossom and then I can’t breath. I’m always torn between going outside and soaking up the sun or staying inside so I don’t have to take all kinds of medications to just breath. Sometimes I just go outside anyway and then feel the pain for days afterward. Pain radiating out from my sinuses, my eyes watering and my throat feeling like it’s going to close off from all the post nasal drip, nauseated from the dripping and then being unable to sleep from the pills, or alternatively being unable to stay awake or drive from the other pills. Worse yet, I can’t think straight, I can’t focus on anything for more than 5 minutes thanks to the medications.
It’s not surprising that my head gets kind of messed up in the spring. Love it or loathe it, I end up on an emotional rollercoaster where I’m trying to stay awake and work on my goals and then there are days when my goals seem so unattainable that I feel like giving up on everything. I think, “Why bother? I don’t have the energy to work on anything anyway. It can never happen because I don’t have the energy and thus don’t have the time.” I stop working on the stuff that matters the most to me, the blog, my classes and art.
I go to work. I come home. I try and sleep. Or I sleep all the time.
Attempting to make time to walk or eat right go out the window. I fall into bad habits and start to feel worse. I start to think, “Why bother?”
It’s that one thing that is the pin to all of this. Without the allergies I wouldn’t feel like this, so terrible.
And then things ease up, all the trees aren’t in blossom, the allergy medications start to work better as I’m not fighting off the pollen from everything. My breathing is more even and not raspy in my throat. My face doesn’t feel like someone tapped me with a baseball bat. Finally I can think again.
Review: Canson Classic Cream Drawing Paper
Basics at a glance:
- 9×12 inches
- 24 ivory colored sheets to a coil boundpad
- $7.50 at AC Moore
- 90lb/147gsm
- Acid free blah blah blah
The paper is a warm ivory color and the texture is smooth to the touch with a little visual texture. Pens offer some feedback on the surface and work well. Most ink does not soak through and most lines do not spread, staying true to the nib width. The paper is stiff and heavy, and at 90lb/ 147gsm it is a stiff paper.Light and medium heavy watercolor washes did well without soaking through the page. The paper did cockle while wet.
The paper would make a great art journal due to the lack of show through. Another thing I really like is that the sheets are truly 9×12 inches as the perf is at the 12 inch mark unlike other pads which have the perf at 11.5 inches with the last half inch including the coil binding. Some of the inks I tested on the pad feathered, but most did well. Watercolor performed well and looked good on the page. I’m going to have to test this pad out a little more before I decide if it’s a buy or not. At $7.50 for 24 sheets it’s a tad on the pricey side for general sketch paper and I’m not sure it’s a splurge or not.
Next week I'll review another Canson pad, the XL Recycled drawing pad.
How Creativity Works