I wanted to show everyone what the Lamy nibs looked like so I shot a few pics. I'll load these to the review as well:
Lamy Nibs
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Review: Lamy Safari and Joy
I had resisted my urge to buy a Lamy pen for quite some time. I didn’t want to just buy another pen that everyone said was great. The selling point for me is it’s ability to swamp out nibs even when fully loaded with ink and start writing almost immediately.
The Lamy uses a proprietary cartridge system. This annoys me. So I searched for ways to turn it into an eye dropper style pen. I found a simple solution- buy a fountain pen and roller ball set and swap the bodies. Then fill the end of the roller ball body with silicone caulking and let it dry. The body of the pen will hold 3 ml of ink. Otherwise you need to buy the cartridges or refill used ones with a syringe.
I bought a glossy black set and it’s been great. A friend gifted me with the Lamy Joy with a black body and a red wire cap with a 1.5mm tip. To swap the tips you can grab the tip with a rag, piece of rubber or tape and gently pull the nib off. I find the nibs swap out pretty effortlessly but the first time was a little tougher. The new nib simply slides onto the section and in a few seconds is ready to write.
Depending on where you buy your nib they cost around $10 each. But considering that they can be used on any of the Safari, Al-Star, Studio, Accent, or Joy series pen bodies, it’s a pretty sweet deal. I’ve got a medium, broad and 1.5mm tip. The broad nib flips over and easily writes a fine line. With some smoothing it would be fine for writing. With this assortment of nibs I can easily do a variety of sketching. The medium is my usual nib of choice for regular sketches and writing. It’s thick enough that my lines look deliberate and not wimpy. I can also use it fill in a decent area of color without too much work. If I’m looking for something a little more bold I can switch to the broad nib and really lay down some bold lines. The 1.5mm nib allows me to get calligraphic lines and fill in a lot of area fast.
I keep this pen filled with Noodler’s Black. It’s the only pen I’ve got that I match the ink color to the color of the pen. It makes sense for me to keep this pen filled with black in as it’s my go to pen for quick on the go sketches. The body of the pen is made of ABS plastic and tough as nails. This is one of the few pens I’ve got that I’m not that careful with. I’m not that worried about breaking it or causing harm to it. It’s tough. I’ve dropped it, on hard cement flooring and into dirt.
This is considered a beginner’s pen in terms of fountain pens. It will set you back about $30 no matter where you purchase it. Unless you chose to buy one used, in which case I suggest you check out the Fountain Pen Network’s for sale section. You can occasionally find one for sale for around $20. These pens are all over eBay as well. Gouletpens and Jetpens both carry the pens themselves as well as the nibs.
The downside of the Safari, Al-Star, and Joy pens is that they have a triangular grip which forces you to hold them tripod style and can be somewhat uncomfortable if you are like me and hold your pens in a variety of styles. This can be solved by purchasing one of the other pens that the nibs fit but those are significantly more expensive. But if you can tolerate the triangular grip of the Safari et al it’s a winning pen for sketching that will survive even very tough conditions. The Joy has an elongated body shape that is similar to a desk pen. Normally pens like this do not post but the Joy does post, which is good if you like that but I don't tend to draw with my pens posted.
Anyway, check out some of the drawings I’ve done with this pen.
All Wrong
Perhaps I've been going about this wrong.
Maybe looking at it all from the wrong angle, perspective or what not.
The question and analysis I SHOULD be doing is looking at what I've got and not looking at what I don't have.
I should see what I CAN do.
Rather than focus on what I CAN'T do.
See the difference there?
it's not a subtle or minor shift in thinking, it's a major shift.
Here's what I'm going to do:
- Clean my studio, yeah get it organized, I did that winter storage area thing again.
- Look at the art I really like doing and do it.- bookbinding, art journaling and painting. I like all of it so why aren't I doing it MORE?
- Drawing things from life (more on this in another post)
- Get back to my writing, this has gone to the wayside as I focused on so many other things.
Getting into that fender bender a month ago jostled my noggin, and not in a good way. It let me seep down into what I call the pit of dark. It's an angry lonely place. I blamed the other person, I blamed the road, I blamed the brakes. I said a lot of "if only" and "I should have's" and "I would have's" and other assorted garbage which only served to lower my head further into the pit.
So sunday while I drew my friend in her fabulous 40's vintage clothing (killer red heels oh my!) I had this thought that I needed to own the fact that I'd let myself slip and get into that dark rut.
Here I am taking ownership of it.
Now lets get out of it and see what can happen.
Drawing People is Good
On Sunday my friend Jane and I got together with my friend Jasmine for a little drawing session. A little back story here. Jasmine and I are coworkers and she facebooked that she wanted to wear 40’s era “city lady” clothing all the time. I commented she should turn it into an art project with photographs, taken out of time and place. Then I suggested she model for my friends and I in her clothing as a way to raise funds. We had to cancel once and I thought that the drawing session wasn’t going to happen.
This Sunday it happened. She showed up after getting lost and got dressed into her fab black dress. (I should have taken pictures of it.) We did some short poses of the her in the clothing and then she switched outfits and we did some longer poses.
It was a great way to help her raise some funds, granted I hope that if we do this again we get a full house and she’s able to really add a lot more to her collection of fantastic 40’s era clothing.
Take a look at my quick watercolors, I did a quick 10 minute pencil sketch and then added some watercolors to block out the shading. Sometimes adding a time restraint can be freeing.
Also, I'm counting this as my drawing-a-day post for sunday and today.
thoughts on drawing-a-day
I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to continue with the drawing-a-day project. I’m devoted to it, but there are some days when I am simply not going to be able to do a drawing. I get stuck in traffic, or have a ton of errands; you know regular life stuff that gets in the way of good times. I’m thinking of how I can continue with the drawing-a-day but with a few built in excuses.
I made it through week 1, but barely. I made it 10 days and then my allergy meds kicked my butt (got to love spring) and then last night I cooked dinner and fell asleep.
I think that on those days I can’t do the drawing-a-day I won’t stress over it. You know, life gets in the way. Until I’m doing art every day for a living I have to be aware that I can’t do it all. Even if I want to.
Today I'm making more books with fresh "new" recycled covers for my artifre shop, I've got a sale going on, check it out
Pics and Copyright
I think about copyright a lot. Usually in terms of copy “wrong.” You know when someone does the wrong thing with someone’s images, design or workshop materials.
Quite a few years back I was at a craft fair and I had already bought a ton of stuff when I got to a booth with the most amazing lamps. The seller was chatting up some people while my friend and I looked at the lamps. They had her photography on the shades. Each shade was one of a kind and totally unique. They were amazing. When she finally turned her attention to my friend and I, she made a face, and said in her most condescending voice, “Can I help you.” Now she judged me on my appearance, I had hot pink hair at the time and was dressed, well, not particularly well, but I’d saved my pennies before that trip and could have afforded one of her lamps had I wanted one.
Her attitude toward me was not nice, but before I could realize she was being a jerk I exclaimed that I felt the lamps were really cool, very interesting to look at and I bet they cast the best shadows. She melted a bit, but then I said “How’d ya do it? Won’t that plastic melt?” Which I really meant as “it’s really super cool” not as a “tell me your secrets so I can rip you off.”
She took it the wrong way and she went even colder, but explained it was mylar and wouldn’t melt.(We could debate that, but his isn’t about that.)
I made a mistake and she’d pre-judged me anyway the whole thing went pear shaped from there. I walked out feeling awful. I have a thing about people stealing other people’s craft designs, and don’t do it. While I was young back then (it was over 14 years ago that this occurred) I still had a firm policy of never ripping people off.
What brought this up in my head was this article over on CreateMIxedMedia by Rice. It got me thinking. I rarely use photos in my art journals but the other day was looking for texture inspiration and realized I should be shooting more photos. So I started to throw my point and shoot camera in my bag and started to snap more pics. Here are a few:
BarnBurner sale
I'm doing a sale for my artfire shop. Get 10% off of anything in the shop, your whole order, once, by using the coupon code "barnburner" from 4/15- 4/30/2011.
read the rest of the story:
I posted a few days back I posted this pic:
That was my "studio camera." The one I used for product shots for my artfire shop. I left it on my tripod awhile back and it got knocked over (I'll blame the dogs.) When it fell, twice, it landed on it's lens. This knocked the lens off it rails, and though it was a mid level camera, I was told repeatedly it was more expensive to fix than it was worth. Sigh. So I decided to take it apart and see if the dead camera that would no longer focus could be fixed. Yeah, by me, don't think I'm insane. I figured better than nothing. And, oh baby, let me tell you something, it was a done deal as soon as I cracked that baby open, that thing wasn't being fixed. So anyway, that brings me to today and I need a new camera and well, the money I was saving for a new camera (or laptop) had to be spent on car repairs.
That leaves me with a shiny car but a dying laptop and a point and shoot that seems like it can't do he job for what I need it to do, ie large enough files for zazzle and redbubble. My scanner can handle the drawing-a-day stuff, but not the watercolors for the face experiment.
So I'm doing a sale for my artfire shop. Get 10% off of anything in the shop, your whole order, once, by using the coupon code "barnburner" from 4/15- 4/30/2011
Flickr Find Friday: Sketchbuch
Tell me this guy’s work isn’t awesome?
you can’t can you? I knew it!
Drawing-a-Day: Gold Fish
“Gold Fish” measures A5 or 5.75×7.5 inches. I did a quick sketch with pencil and then used a couple of fountain pens filled with Noodler’s Black. The blue is is J. Herbin Bleu Nuit.
Cost is $25 USD, shipping to CONUS included.
Review: things that make me go Meh
When I started doing reviews on here I debated the smarts of posting negative reviews. I have to tell you, there are things I don’t like. There are tools that I hate and will never use again nor recommend to my friends but they are few and far between. I decided to do a round-up of stuff that made me go, meh. These aren’t bad things they just aren’t stuff I’m raving to my friends about. You may have different feelings.
Noodler’s Nib Creeper Fountain Pen
The nib is fine to extra fine with no other option other than flex. You have many color options including clear. The colors all have that vegetal resin smell that to me, frankly it smells like fecal matter. I have read several reviews that this offensive odor is not offensive to all people, I happen to be of the group of people, like those that think cilantro tastes like soap, that think this stuff smells awful.
The pens themselves are nothing special, a rebranded Indian (Dollar)made pen that sells for less without the Noodler’s branding. They are light weight and feel pretty cheap. They hold 1ml of ink, almost exactly, and lay a wet even line. There is a tendency that if you are writing fast for the nib to dry out and will require a dangerous shake to get ink to flow.
Noodler’s Luxury Blue Ink
This is a blue that is nothing to write home about. It’s blue, like a ball point pen and it flows. It’s not special. It does dry mostly waterproof. I found that in EVERY pen I used it in there was a tendency for nib creep. Which is just messy.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice enough blue but for a 1oz bottle at the regular 3oz prize I’d rather get another blue that I like.
Moleskine 3x5in Graph Notepad
I bought this. Yeah, I have a drawer full of moleskins I was given for doing a giveaway on my blog years ago and I bought this because it had GRAPH paper in it. I love the look of the moleskine; the lovely black covers, the great bindings, the pocket and the place marker. I love everything BUT the paper. This paper sucks. Even my EF pens filled with well behaved inks soak through its paper, everything feathers on it and well, MEH!
Strathmore Visual Journal Bristol 3×5 size
Sturdy spiral binding and very sturdy covers filled with nice paper should make this a winning journal. I just can’t seem to bond with it. It’s nice, just not for me.
Sanford Peel-off Magic Rub 1960 Eraser Stick
I used to buy these in college for detail erasing. They were the only stick erasers available then and did its job well enough. I saw one at Artist& Craftsman and picked it up. It’s just like a Magic Rub but in stick form. It’s soft and is prone to smudging stuff. Magic Rub Erasers are not a favorite of mine for this reason. It will also lift some ink and smudge that too. Meh.
Mio Paper 146×87 mm Campus blue label
This is one of the most expensive notebooks I’ve ever bought. I picked it up on jetpens because I’d heard the MIO paper was amazing for fountain pens. Guess what? It’s is, smooth, perfect for writing and nothing soaks through it but the wettest pens and there isn’t even a hint of feathering at all. Ink DOES take forever to dry on it and smudges even when the ink looks dry. The cover is cool with subtle texture and coloring. It’s small enough to slip into a back pocket, purse, or where ever. This is another one of those notebooks I should love but I haven’t bonded with and thus it sits in a drawer mocking me for the money spent on it.
Sharpie Pens
I don’t like ‘em. I bought a couple of packs of them when they first came out and liked them for quick notes but they seem to dry out fast and I break the tips and they are too fine for me. It’s okay, everyone else loves them.
So that's my round up of stuff that makes me go meh.