Mid-InkTober Change-Up: Pitt Artist Pens

 

Out with the Staedtlers; in with the Pitts

While I was using Staedtler Pigment Arts brush markers, I complained that the only significant flaw in the “Nature Colours” set is insufficient midtones. To suit the way I’ve been choosing palettes lately, I like having a warm and a cool of light, medium and dark tones (this is the same basic principle I started developing at the beginning of the year). While the preselected palette was generally satisfactory for urban sketching in autumn, I missed having a true orange. The light blue was OK as the cool light tone, but it hardly showed up when I used it for sky. Although I carried all 12 of the Staedtler pens in the set, I hardly used the medium blue because it was too dark to use as a midtone, and indigo made a much better dark tone.

With all of that in mind, I pulled out my Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pens and picked out a palette to use for the rest of InkTober. The page below from my color journal shows the Staedtler palette at the top, followed by the Pitt colors I auditioned. The bottom row with color numbers is the final palette: a solid range of at least one warm and one cool of each of the three values.

My color journal page where I auditioned Pitt colors; bottom row shows final selection
(medium gray not shown because it's an everyday essential).

My first shot at the new palette and pen set was Friday at Swansons Nursery. It was a bit disorienting at first to have an unfamiliar palette to work with, especially in a location that tends to overwhelm me anyway. The brush tips and ink, however, felt so similar to the Staedtler brush markers that the transition was mostly seamless.

My first try with the new palette at Swansons last Friday

As with the Staedtler palette, it’s not a full rainbow, which is a limitation that I’m really learning from. Despite my own objections, I always (annoyingly) tend toward coloring things as close as possible to “reality.” Lacking the exact hues I see, I’m reminded to look at their values instead – and I can simultaneously kick myself in the rear to stop being so literal about color! Win-win!

In fact, after Friday’s first trial, I’m wondering if I should remove a couple of colors – it almost feels like too many. Although I have the same number of Pitts, some of the Staedtler colors weren’t useful, so I had fewer self-imposed choices.

One purely mechanical issue with Pitt markers is that they are gravity-sensitive: If they stand nib end up in my bag or in a desk cup for a while, the ink will run down to the base, and the pen will be dry until the ink starts flowing again. (The manufacturer recommends that they be stored horizontally.) To begin the month, I’m going to go ahead and carry them upright in my bag as I prefer to do with all my daily-carry materials. The Staedtler markers fared fine that way; we’ll see how the Pitts do. If they start having issues, I may have to resort to a different carry method.