Category Archives: Review

Review: Airmail 69T Fountain Pen

The Airmail 69T /Reg D is an Indian fountain pen that I purchased from Kevin at FountainPenRevolution.com It costs $16 plus shipping. I call it the Reg D due to the markings on the pen, but Kevin lists is as the 69T. For this review and currently for writing I've got the pen filled with Chelpark Royal Blue, a very nice regularly colored blue ink.

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This is a good looking fountain pen. Of all the Indian eyedropper pens I've ordered this is the best looking. The blue swirled acrylic is shiny and bright the surface is perfectly smooth. The clear acrylic portion of the pen is also perfectly smooth and crystal clear. The clear acrylic has the thickest wall of all the pens I've ordered from FPR and would not crack easily. It's very sturdy feeling. The pen is thick, but not too thick just  enough to encourage a loose relaxed grip which is fantastic for long periods of writing. The section is made of the same swirled blue acrylic as the cap.*

P4033955The trim is all silver colored while the fine pointed steel nib is gold colored. I always find this odd. The nib arrived quite scratchy. I used the macro lens on my iPoo touch to find out that the tip was not aligned, the left side was higher than the right. I was easily able to adjust this down. I then ran it over a nail buffer to smooth it out. I further adjustted the nib to write a wet line, rather than the somewhat dry line it was writing. Writing and sketching with this pen is now pure joy. In it's scratchy state it was okay, adjusting the nib would have sufficed, but the added smoothing of the nib just made it better.

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It is an eyedropper pen. For sealing it all that is needed is a small amount of silicone grease, I went ahead and added a small o-ring. Before tuning the pen I noticed some blobbing but I suspect that won't be the case now that I've adjusted the pen. The pen holds around 3ml of ink, which is pretty standard as far as eyedropper pens are concerned. It's also a pretty lengthy amount of drawing, especially with it's fine nib.

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Over all, now that this pen has been tuned to perfection I'm quite happy with it. It's a great fine pointed pen that is great for writing or sketching.

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E+M Products from @Jetpens

Today instead of a true review you get a bit of a story and some pictures. I'm sure you can deal. Back in the early 2000's I took a figure drawing class. Having taken but one other figure drawing class I decided I needed a set of charcoal in various grades, becaase the set I had wasn't good enough. This is pre-cult of stuff. My coworker and friend Chris told me about this glorious place on I95 in Woburn called Charette*. It contained all things fine art related and was a wonderland of awesomeness. One sunny weekend day I made the trek down the ever dangerous I95, so it's really only crazy dangerous during the week and during rush hour, but don't let that detract from my story. I made my way out of the city and into the dangers of I95 and finally to the office park goodness of Woburn, MA. Only to get lost multiple times trying to find the grail, I mean Charette. I drove around the Office parks, all of which looked exactly the same except for different large block numbers, until I finally found a Dunkin Donuts. Where I begrudgingly bought a coffee (maybe a donut, it was a long time ago) and asked the woman, "Can you tell me where the Charette store is." She gave me some vague directions and after a few more wrong turns, extended waits at long lights I found the right turn and found, Charette.

It was a dumpy little store situated in a dumpy warehouse off the main road and the only indication was a crappy little sign. My coworker's promises of arty goodness seemed as though they would soon be dashed in gloomy office park craptasticness. That is, until I went inside. To the right of the large double door was a copy center and tot he left, art supply glory. I wandered around, my depleted budget crying at the site of Sennelier watercolor sets, sheets of arches hot press and enough fabriano to roll around naked on, I mean, on which to paint tasteful nudes. I wandered, and wandered, and wandered. Places like THIS were why I moved out of the woods and to the city, easy access to less expensive and expensive art supplies that were not grossly inflated in price.

In the end I walked out with a set of Create-a-color leads with a lead holder and a sketchbook. I hated the lead holder that came with it, it was triangular and I never took a liking to it, and ended up using my old charcoal set from college at the figure drawing class. Recently I was at A&C and came upon their loose leads, and thought, "I should dig that out, see if I feel differently about it now." I couldn't find any whole leads, just a few broken pieces, but I did find the holder. I bought a few new leads only to find that I still hated that damn holder. The leads are super cool, all kinds of hardness and charcoal and sanguine. They are just awesome.

Jetpens started to carry a company called E+M who make a lead clutch in a variety of natural and brightly painted colors. I bought a deep blue color and it's lovely. Just a striking deep blue color that begs to be held and used. The clutch is sturdy and really clamps down on the leads, and the creat-a-color leads fit it perfectly, like they are made for it. The clutch is pefectly comfortable to hold and rests in my hand as if made for it. It's chunky and sturdy. It feels as though it can take a beating.

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Another item I ordered at the same time is the E+M peanpole**, (heh) or their pencil extender. This time I opted for the bright orange red, which if you have ever driven a Volkswagen from before 2000, you will recognize as the pre-2000 Volkswagen red- a seriously bright orangey red that is striking. I won't lose this peanpole (heh) in my bag anytime soon. Volkswagen red holds a special place in my heart as the first car I learned to use an industrial buffer and buffing compound on was a 1984 Volkwagen Jetta in classic Volkswagen Red. The peanpole (heh) is identical to the General's #205 Pencil Extender, from the metal to the wood, the only difference is where they are made- General's is made in New Jersey and the E+M is made in Germany. The General's is not finished as well and the handle is fixed to the metal slightly crooked but it was 1/2 the price of the peanpole (heh.) Both are nice. All in all I can't wait to put these 2 items through their paces, they feel good and look good too.

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Review: Pentel Hybrid Technica .04

 

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This pen came free with my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, I wasn’t expecting much from it, honestly I thought it looked like “just another rollerball.” These are available from Jetpens, Amazon, Blick and other assorted places all over the net. Blick’s seems to offer the best price on the 4 pack of sizes, and you’re probably going to want to test these out yourself after you read my review.

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So, yes, it’s a rollerball. It’s an ultra fine point rollerball with a tungsten tip. The 04 tip is fine, very fine, much thinner than any .05 tip I’ve seen. It’s close in size to the fine sized RapioCraft pen. The ink is VERY black and crisp. The edges hold up well even when writing across damp sections of the page. It doesn’t spread. It will spread if you add water to it when it’s still wet. Once dry this ink is waterproof, even on acrylic. It dries relatively quickly on paper but takes a LONG time to dry completely on acrylic. It writes well over acrylic, not quite as well as a regular cheap-o Bic but well enough that I’d use it again.

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It comes in sizes from .03 up to .08, with the .07 and .08 sizes more difficult to find. The pens also come in 4 packs of sizes .03- .06. I could see a 4 pack of these becoming a regular writing, drawing and sketching tool. It comes with a cap or as a retractableThe various websites make the following claims: acid free, archival, light fast, waterproof (true), and fade resistant. I can’t address the rest of the claims but I can say that it is waterproof.

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I’m definitely impressed with this pen. I’ll be buying more of these to have in my sketching kit as well as my art journaling kit.

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First Round: Ink Fade Testing (lightfast)

At the end of December I was wondering if my inks were lightfast, or not. I was wondering given that I’ve done a great deal of drawings with these inks, mostly sketches in my art journal and I was considering venturing out toward finished art with inks. I want to be sure that the art that I sell lasts longer than it takes me to create it. Art lives in very different circumstances from sketches, ie in full light and on the wall. My sketches stay in sketchbooks or live on the walls only when I’m contemplating.

Now, the middle of the winter in the Northeast US is a terrible time to test the light fastness of anything. We’ve had a pretty mild winter with plenty of sunny days.  I took all of my inks with my glass dip pen wrote their name on a sheet of paper twice and scribbled a roughly 1cm high line the width of the page.

Over the weeks I noticed that a few inks immediately changed color and some immediately faded.  Others didn’t show any changes until the last week or so of the test.

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The winners in terms of not changing color at all:
Noodler’s Black, Noodler’s Heart of Darkness, Noodler’s Luxury Blue

The near winners, or those that show little fading:
Noodler’s Eternal Brown, Diamine Chocolat Brown

Faded, but not badly:
Noodler’s Nikita

Terrible fading, losing a component of the color, color shifting, marked change in color and intensity:
Private Reserve Sonic Blue(withing a week), J.Herbin Bleu Nuit (within a week), Noodler’s Fox Red (within a week), Omas New Gray, Noodler’s Lexington Gray

Showing a color shift, and is truly darker than before, though not the same color:
Private Reserve Electric DC Blue

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So what does this all mean? Not much in terms of journaling and writing. I’ve looked at some of my sketches from a year or so ago using J. Herbin’s Bleu Nuit, Noodler’s Red Fox, and PR Sonic Blue and can’t see a difference. It takes time in the sun for much of these changes to take place and most of the issues won’t affect anything in a closed journal. I won’t stop using these colors for sketching or journaling anytime soon, but I will stop using the fugitive colors in finished art work.

Review: Pilot Prera Medium Fountain Pen

This is a small pen that is pretty sharp to look at. The clear acrylic is shiny and perfect. The white printing is crisp, every detail looks good. The smoke colored accent pieces on the end of the pen are nice, perfectly translucent yet perfectly gray. This is simply a really good looking pen. The nib is steel and shiny, again very good looking and is very smooth. It lays down a consistently wet line in what I would call fine but is really a medium according to Pilot.

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I immediately inked it with one of my favorite blues, Private Reserve Sonic Blue. Sonic Blue is a nice dusky blue that is perfect for work, journaling, and even sketching. It was great in this pen. I can imagine this pen doing well with a variety of inks. The nib is very smooth.

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The pen itself is very lightweight and for it to be comfortable, for me, I had to post the cap. When I say this pen is light I mean it, I could barely feel the pen, which caused me to write with more pressure.

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I’d heard so many WOWs on the ‘net about this pen I guess I was expecting…. more… It’s a nice pen but at an average retail of about $50 around the internet I’m left underwhelmed. After using it I’d have expected it to retail around $25- $35. It feels a lot like a school pen, one, kids would use, and I suppose that’s who Pilot is trying to appeal to with the bright colors. For $25 I’d have been blown away, for $50 I feel like I gave into peer pressure and spent a tad too much.

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If you are looking for a starter pen I’d steer you more toward a Lamy Safari for about $30, a Pelikano for $20, a Kaweco Sport for $22. IF you want to spend $50 get a TWSBI. All 4 of those pens offer a better value for your money than the Prera.

Check the ‘bay to see if you can find one for around $25- 35. I doubt you will for awhile, these pens are in strong demand right now and I paid a little more than I should have for mine and I waited 3 or 4 months for that deal.

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Review: Update Pentel Pocket Brush Pen to Eyedropper

I wrote about the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen here. I suggested in the post that perhaps the pen could be converted to eye dropper fill rather than use the carts. I find that the pentel carts are pretty pricey, though it is awesome ink. They range from $2 for 2 ($2 per cart whoa!!!) to $ 11 for 6! (Jetpens has about the best price I could find.) Converting this pen to eye dropper amount to a massive savings. I found I went through a cart pretty quickly in regular sketching and using the black to fill in the background.

 

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I loaded it up with some Omas New Gray. Which is a nice pale silvery gray that layers well, perfect for sketching. It is not a lightfast gray so it should stay in the journal and not on the wall. I’ve posted here about turning a pen like this into an eyedropper and this pen is no different. I used a blunt syringe to fill the barrel with juuust under 3ml of ink. That’s 3 carts of ink, in one fill. While I used a dye based ink I could fill it with a pigment based ink as it’s designed for that, which mean it’s even more awesome.

After letting the ink get to the brush I noticed that the ink flow is a little faster than with the Pentel ink. This could be because the Pentel ink has pigment or is thicker than the dye based ink. The Omas Gray ink has good flow even in a fountain pen. I’ll be trying out more inks once I run through this one. The other good thing is that I can fill my black pen up with Noodler’s Heart of Darkness once I run out of carts of black. (Scored 2 more with this pen.)

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The best thing about turning this pen eye dropper? It’s simple. All you need is a little silicone grease from the plumbing section of home depot and an eye dropper or a blunt syringe. Money saved? Each fill will save you about $3 over using cartridges.

 

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Review: Pentel Arts Pocket Brush Pen

I have been coveting a pocket brush pen for awhile. I have a brush pen but it has a incredibly long handle and is a pain because of that. I was comp shopping Michael’s when I came upon this pen. Imagine my horror when I got to the counter and found I’d left my 40% off coupon at home… I put the pen back and came back later. With my 40% off coupon I snagged this pen for a measly $10.83, which is less than I could find it online.

 

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It’s sold on a blister pack like most other markers and pens are at Michael’s. Once out of the packaging its a nice looking shiny black pen. It’s comparable in size to most pens on the market. It’s very light weight even with the cartridge plugged into the pen. After wielding a TWSBI 540 for an extended writing session earlier in the day, this is like writing with a cloud. The pen is all black except for a Kanji character on the cap near the clip and the pentel name on the opposite side of the cap.

 

 

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After installing the cartridge the ink descends into the brush rather quickly, the brush was fully loaded with 60 seconds of installing the cart. The tip is soft, flexible but springs to a point immediately after pressing it down fully. It is capable of giving a hair thin line or a swath of ink 5mm wide. The ink flow is generous and kept up with some very quick line work. The line variation is quite nice and relatively easy to control.

 

 

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The ink in the cartridges is reported to be in water resistant. Something that I found interesting is that the back proclaims that the “fittings” are leak proof. This tells me that with some silicone grease this pen could EASILY be converted to eye dropper fill. For me, this is a VERY VERY interesting thing. In my testing I found that the ink is water resistant once dry on paper and when wet gives a very nice wash effect with a nice even gray tone. In effect you could take just this and a water brush sketching and you could do the sketch, allow it to dry, add more ink, add water and get a nice gray tone for your shadows. The ink is not water resistant on acrylic paint until it is FULLY dry. It writes without issue on acrylic, no skipping or beading up. It does take quite some time to dry on acrylic paint- to get to the fully dry point it needs a few minutes.

 

 

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This pen is a very good price when 40% off but at full price at Michael’s I’m not sure. I’d rather put together a $25 order with Jetpens.

I'll probably do an update to this review once I run through the 2 carts that came with the pen and convert it to eyedropper style. (See update on eyedropper fill here.)

Reg $16.99 at Michael’s $14 at JetPens

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Review: FlexiSketch Sketchbook

I picked up this sketchbook on sale at Artist & Craftman. It was super affordable, more so than usual. It usually runs in the $10 to $15 range. The 8.5×11 inch sketchbook feels weighty in hand and looks nice. The green color is a soothing soft mossy green they call "Fern." I’m annoyed that the 25% more FREE stick is stuck to the cover and doesn’t peel off easily. I’ll be hacking at it with a knife to get it off. After opening up the package I notice it’s Smythe Sewn like a moleskine so it will open flat and flatter the more I use it. The binding is nice and flexible but the wrap around cover on the spine is less so.

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The paper is bright white, thick and sturdy feeling, 75lb/110gsm. There are 300 pages or 150 sheets. It has a soft texture and is nice with pencils. Wider nibbed pens glide over it’s surface but narrow nibs sink into it’s surface a little. The paper is absorbent with ink and watercolor. I didn’t notice any feathering with ink but most pens looked to be about a size larger than on other paper. I noticed some ink soaking through as I sketched and wrote. Nothing major since I didn’t plan on using both sides of the paper anyway. This isn’t a deal breaker if you use dry media like pencil or charcoal. The fact that the paper soaks ink up like a paper towel is annoying, and if I were using expensive ink, would annoy me.

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The cover is thick cardstock with a glossy finish. It scuffs easily, but I don’t mind that. If you are the sort who would like to decorate your art journal you’ll need to sand the surface to get gesso to stick. I managed to pop the glue that holds the back cover to the block off. Rather annoying but it also let me see the spine and that it’s glued sturdily and will survive a lot of abuse. This also makes me think I could cover this journal with little work

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Overall my verdict on this is that this sketchbook is a great value. The paper isn’t optimum for ink but it’s thick and sturdy enough to withstand pretty much anything an art journaler can throw at it. The paper has a nice surface for a variety of media. While pen does soak through in some spots it looks fantastic on this paper. I’d buy it again.

 

Review: Loew Cornell Simply Art Fine Tip Marker 4 Pack

Loew Cornell Simply Art Fine Tip Marker $5.99/ 4 pack @ Joann's

 

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I was doing some comparison shopping for my upcoming class on pen and ink drawing and I stumbled upon the Loew Cornell Fine Tip 4 pack at Joann’s for $5.99. They claim to be water resistant and non- bleeding. One look at the package and you can tell they are clearly a knock off of Pigma Micron pen put out by Sakura. The short cap, metal clip, and cap post on the end of the pen gives it away.

 

 

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The markers are sold in a blister package with some claims and suggestions. The first claim is that they are water resistant. The second they won’t bleed. The back of the package suggests that you can use them with watercolors and other markers. I’ll get to these claims shortly.

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The pens have a matte black barrel that is comfortable to hold. The pen is very lightweight. The cap posts securely to the back end of the marker with a satisfying click. While writing with the marker I found the ridge where the nib section meets the barrel to be quite sharp and uncomfortable. I suspect that this will be the main reason I stop using these markers.

 

 

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While writing I found the fiber tip to be quite smooth on all pens but the largest, .08, and that nib was dry, as if it had dried out in it’s packaging or was out of ink. The sketching experience was not bad at all, the line was smooth and consistent for each tip. There is no line variation unless you switch pens. The ink is black but seems to gray out as it dries, leaving behind a dark gray line rather than a black line.

 

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An additional flaw is that the cap is the only part with a size designation and it’s easily missed so caps could easily be put on the wrong pen. The barrels are only marked with the Loew Cornell name.

As for the water resistance, they are, sort of. I found that a lot of the ink lifted with a fast brush over with water. Leaving behind a strong gray area in any spot that was damp. There was a LOT of bleeding that would discolor any watercolor wash applied over it. This also washed out the lines. I went over my test area with another brush load of water and worked the area with the brush, nothing that would be called a scrub, and with a soft brush. The thinnest lines lifted almost completely and black lines were left grayer than before. The gray that is left is a very nice color. Knowing that these create a wash like this is actually pretty useful, one could throw these into a sketch kit with a waterbrush and get some pretty nice sketches with a wide range of tones of gray.

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All in all these aren’t a bad value for $6 as long as you take the negatives into consideration- the grip itself, that one of the 4 pens I got wasn’t working properly, they are kinda water resistant, and that only the cap is marked for size. On the good side of things, you get 4 markers that write a lot like a Micron for a lot less, make wonderful washes, are all black and write pretty smoothly.

I’d recommend these for anyone who is interested in trying out this style of pen- very fine fiber tip. I don’t think these will sell you on the style though, they are too uncomfortable to write/sketch with for long periods of time…. Though a nail file might take the sharp edge off the grip area… Might try that, if I do I’ll let you know all about it. I want to suggest these for kids, but I don't want people to assume that I'm saying they are only for kids. I guess I'd say these are good for older kids- teenagers who are sketching for art class, or are writing or for someone who wants to test this style of pen out. you won't get the same performance as you would with a Micron but it's a good point to start.

 UPDATE: I have been using these in SOME of my cowboy sketches and I've found them far more comfortable to sketch with than I'd have expected. We're not talk ing 2 hour long drawing sessions, more like 15 to 20 minute drawing sessions. I amend my previous statement about them being uncomfortable to being mostly comfortable for sketching. Add to that the blending capability when water or ink is added really adds an other level of darks to my gray ink brush pen. I'll need to test it and see if it's lightfast before I suggest it for anything other than sketching.

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Review: Jinhao 602 Fountain Pen

Every now and then I get a surprise in the mail. Today I got a Jinhao 602 fountain pen, a gift from Christie. She suggest I review it, so I'm being dutiful and doing so.

Pulling the pen out of the envelope I found it in a black flocked case. It felt rather heavy for it's size. The black paint is smooth, the gold colored trim is nice, even if it's gold (I prefer silver.) the grip section is oddly trimmed in brushed steel. It doesn't match the rest of the pen, even if it is comfortable. The pen is very slim measuring about 3/8th of an inch in diameter. It looks good.

 

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The nib is steel but colored gold. It is hooded so only part of it can be seen. The nib is stiff, with no flex or bounce. It produces an even fine to medium line with good ink flow. It would be great for sketching. The nib offers a little feedback but it's not scratchy

 

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The downside is that the cap does not post well, as this is a small pen it would be more comfortable if it were posted.

Overall this would be a very good pen for sketching, priced a little more than $5 you won't be heartbroken if it dies or you lose it. I was surprised at how well the pen wrote, it was remarkably smooth for $5. (Not as smooth as the Serwex Special I reviewed earlier.) Not a bad deal, head over to eB@y and search for one.

Unposted length: 4.5 inches

Posted: 6 inches Capped 5.5 inches 

Less than 1/2 inch in diameter.

Cost: About $5.50 shipping included on eBay.

A good value for the money if you like thin pens with fine nibs.

Unlike the Serwex Special I reviewed a few weeks back, this is not a candidate for abusing with India inks. The hooded nib means getting the feed out of the grip for cleaning is nearly impossible. India ink will gunk up this pen and render it unusable in short order. 

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