Product Review: Super 5 Fountain Pen and Ink

9/9/14 Platinum Carbon ink, Pentel brush pen, Inktense water-soluble colored
pencils, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

One of the gifts I received in my Urban Sketching Symposium swag bag this year was a Super 5 fountain pen. Made by a German company, the sponsorship was arranged by USk Development Director Omar Jaramillo, who helped fill all the pens individually during the symposium with the participant’s choice of ink. Apparently for many participants, it was the first fountain pen they had ever used.

To evaluate it fairly, I have to use the pen for a while longer – I haven’t even used up the converter of ink I received in Paraty – but so far, I’m not overly impressed. It’s a bit heavier than I like (the body is plastic and metal), and the nib is sometimes skippy. Its idle time, especially, has been disappointing: Just a few days of nonuse renders it skippy.

8/28/14 Super5 pen and ink, Pitt Artist Pen, Moleskine watercolor sketchbook

But – and it’s a huge but! – the ink it’s filled with is fantastic! Among several colors, I chose Sepia, a very dark, almost-black brown. I had assumed the ink was water-soluble. I used it at my first workshop, Simo Capecchi’s “The Sketched Reportage,” because I thought it would be fun to try out swag products while at the symposium. The day turned out to be rainy, and at some point while sketching, some rain splattered on a sketch – lo and behold, the ink was waterproof! Not only that, it dried very quickly – just as quickly as Platinum Carbon, if not more so. (Sketch at right is a detail to show the ink color.)

I’ve been looking for a waterproof brown ink for a long time. I’ve tried Platinum Sepia, but it’s too pale and reddish for my taste. (Don’t talk to me about Noodler’s inks . . . don’t even say the name if I’m in the room!) So this new Super 5 ink is verrrry interesting to me.

When I inquired, Omar said that the company is quite new – its logo was still in development as the symposium was gearing up – so finding the ink in the U.S. might be a challenge. But you know me – I’m always up for a challenge, especially if it involves hunting down an art material. Stay tuned.

Some of the swag I received at the symposium.

As long as I’m talking about symposium swag (thank you, all sponsors!), this photo shows what I brought home. Not all of what I received made it home – some items I tried and gave away there, and others were consumed (edible products, not art materials). I probably won’t review anything else I received, but two things are worth noting:

The Moleskine watercolor sketchbook is the “new” kind (the one that watercolor divas like Liz Steel and Shari Blaukopf are looking askance at), and I used it for almost all my symposium workshops and activities. My watercolor painting skills are such that the paper made no difference to me – I’m sure I could live with it. My complaint is with the landscape format, which I hardly ever have use for (although the linear, process-driven aspect of Simo’s workshop actually made good use of the format).

The second item worth noting is the small lime green book at upper left. Handmade by Laloran, it’s a beautifully crafted, Japanese-style, accordion-folded sketchbook with a very subtle impressed Paraty symposium logo on the cover. It was delivered later than the rest of the swag (I visualized the artisan frantically assembling all of them on her kitchen table the night before, trying to get hundreds of them done in time!), and I didn’t get mine until the symposium was over, so unfortunately, I didn’t get to fill it with any symposium sketches. But I wanted to mention it because it was so delightful to see a handmade book among the swag!

Edited 12/3/14: Ayumi (below in comments) just let me know that the inks are now available at GouletPens.com. Goulet is also carrying Super5 fountain pens.

Brazil, Part 5: Symposium Workshops and Activities

8/29/14 twig, Chinese ink, Moleskine watercolor sketchbook (Sketched after
being inspired by KK's magical demo. I found the twig on the ground.)

My posts about Brazil are winding down, but I have yet to write about the meat of the symposium: the workshops and other activities I attended. Different from previous years, the Paraty symposium offered attendees the option to choose from different levels of participation. I chose the full workshop, activities, social and sketchwalks pass, which enabled me to choose up to four workshops and as many other activities and sketchwalks as I wanted. (I got Greg the lowest-tier sketchwalk pass, which allowed him to come to the opening and closing receptions and sketchwalks. He also received his own swag bag and certificate!)

This flexible attendance plan really appealed to me because I had the opportunity to experience a wider variety of activities and meet more people whom I probably would not have been able to meet if all I had done was attend workshops.

8/28/14 Super5 ink, Pitt Artist Pen, Moleskine watercolor sketchbook
("The Sketched Reportage" at Engenho D'Ouro Alambique Cachaca distillery, Paraty)

My first workshop was Simo Cappechi’s “The Sketched Reportage,” which was one of the most interesting experiences I had in Paraty. Participants got to take a bus ride to the Engenho D’Ouro cachaça distillery and sketch the distillery process as we learned it. Rather than teaching sketching techniques, Simo focused on the process of telling a story through sketches. (As it turned out, this was the only day of the symposium with torrential rain, so I was happy to spend it mostly under cover! Other workshops weren’t so lucky.)

8-29-14 watercolor, Museum pencils,
Moleskine watercolor sketchbook ("In the Mood":
Two sketches of the same scene -- calm above, and stressful below)

The next morning I attended Nina Johansson’s “In the Mood,” during which we explored using color, texture and other techniques to convey different moods and feelings with our sketches. A particularly interesting class exercise involved working in small groups, which allowed us to discover that different cultures can apply very different associations to colors.

My third workshop was “Feeling the Edges” with Liz Steel. Although she is a professional architect, Liz’s approach to sketching has always struck me as

8-29-14 Diamine Grey ink, Cretacolor Studio Artistik
marker, Moleskine watercolor sketchbook

uniquely expressive, and her workshop reflected that expressiveness – all without uttering the P (perspective) word! While the first half of the workshop was about learning to be as careful and accurate as possible in understanding an architectural form, the second half was all about expressing that form. She also showed us an easy way to make all the windows line up!

In the afternoons I attended a variety of activities that gave me a wide range of fun and enlightening sketching experiences. At the “Portrait Exchange” (also referred to as the Portrait Party), led by Juliana Russo, pairs of participants spent short periods sketching each other, producing a series of portraits. The group I attended was so large that we didn’t form the traditional matrix of drawings that usually results from this exercise, but it was still just as fun to meet our partners, sketch each other and see the amazing results. (A few of the portraits I made are shown in the previous post.)

8/30/14 Museum pencils, Moleskine watercolor sketchbook
(In Liz Steel's workshop, this was my careful, accurate rendering
 of Santa Teresa church. See Brazil, Part 2 for the expressive
version.)

Hearing Ch’ng Kiah Kiean’s presentation and then seeing a demo of his unique style of dry twig sketching was nothing less than magical. KK’s demo was so popular that he ran out of sharpened twigs that he had prepared in advance, but being the DIY girl that I am, I picked up a twig from the ground to give it a try. I’m going to be doing more twig sketching soon!

8/29/14 Platinum Carbon ink, Moleskine watercolor sketchbook
("Color Swap": my drawing, color by Flavio Ricardo, Bandeira Square, Paraty)

“Color Swap,” led by USk President Jason Das, was a fascinating exercise in collaboration. Participants paired up, and both made a waterproof ink drawing of the same or different scenes. Then the pair switched sketchbooks and applied color to the sketch drawn by the partner. (For one of the sketches, my partner turned out to be Flavio Ricardo, a sketcher whose work I have seen and admire on Flickr.) It was inspiring to see the way another sketcher would interpret my line drawing – and the way I painted someone else’s sketch.

8/30/14 Super5 ink, Moleskine watercolor sketchbook
(Part of my sketch map from Richard Alomar's
activity to make a guide of Rua do Comercio. Note the sleeping
black dog, who appears in my sketch of the Rosario church
in Brazil, Part 2.)

Probably the single-most practical sketching idea that I learned at the symposium was in Richard Alomar’s “Unfolding a Sketching Story.” Specifically related to travel sketching, the activity involved walking along a Paraty street and making what I would call a sketch map: an idiosyncratic visual and verbal guide for oneself to get oriented to a new place. Richard showed us several examples of his own sketch maps made in accordion-folded Japanese sketchbooks during his travels. I wish I had learned this idea my first day in Paraty! I would have figured out the lay of the land much more quickly, because a map of one’s own making is always more memorable and functional than one handed out by the tourist’s info office. Going forward, I’m going to start every travel adventure by making a sketch map of a new location.

Finally, here’s the activity that left me beaming: At the symposium’s closing party, instructors and other participants donated original sketches for a silent auction, and I took home a breathtaking sketch of Paraty by João Catarino. I can’t think of a better souvenir.

The sketch by Joao Catarino that I won in the silent auction!

Brazil, Part 4: Paraty and the Urban Sketching Symposium

8/27/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink,
Canson XL 140 lb. paper
(Pizzeria da Cidade, Paraty)

Paraty was a delight – and full of surprises. When I had first started seeing images of the coastal village in southern Brazil – one I had never heard of before the announcement that the 5th Annual International Urban Sketching Symposium would be held there – I was immediately taken with its small-town charm. Unlike Barcelona’s spectacular urban vibrancy (which inspired and invigorated me even as it intimidated me), Paraty seemed more my pace. Perhaps I could leisurely walk its streets without being watchful of pickpockets!

As it turned out, I had to be as watchful as ever in Paraty, though not of pickpockets. Instead of looking around for thieves, I had to look down with every step – or risk tripping on the rough stone streets and sidewalks everywhere! Or if my timing was off, I might be trapped on one side of the street or another when the high tide came in and the streets flooded with a sudden, temporary river.

As small as the proverbial “one-dog town” (in fact, there were at least three, including the black one that was always asleep next to Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário; if you look through the symposium Flickr group, you’ll see that the dog is a fixture in several sketches of the church), I could walk from end to end in a short time (though it always took me longer than I expected because I was trying not to trip). Despite its initial impression of being a sleepy town, Paraty is anything but quiet. I woke every morning to a cacophony of exotic birdsong and church bells. One day at 6 a.m., we were awakened by fireworks honoring a patron saint. Music was often playing, and the voices of local business owners and patrons filled the streets.

8/27/14 Super5 pen, Canson XL
(Our hardworking symposium staff at the opening reception)

Barcelona last year is the only other symposium I attended and can compare Paraty to, so I don’t have a broad range of reference, but to me Paraty was an ideal symposium location in several ways. Its small size made it easy to run (I mean walk – no running on those stony streets!) between the various symposium events, and it was so much fun to see other sketchers everywhere, anytime. The scale of the architecture was less imposing (can you say Sagrada Familia?), and I enjoyed the smaller workshops and activities more. In Barcelona, the culture was to dine late in the evening, so I missed most of the informal drink-and-draws because I was usually in bed by the time they took place. In Paraty, I could attend group dinners without losing beauty sleep. Stone streets notwithstanding, Paraty was more my pace.

8/26/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi ink,
Canson XL (Caramujo Restaurant, Paraty)

The symposium structure itself keeps maturing and improving. This year I could choose to attend a mix of workshops and activities (details in the next post), giving me a broader range of experiences. For example, by opting to forego the Thursday afternoon workshop and attend a portrait exchange instead, I met a number of people who had not registered for the workshop pass, so I probably wouldn’t have had an opportunity to talk to them otherwise. Even better, I spent time with each one sketching their portrait.

Which brings me to the same conclusion I came to at the end of the Barcelona symposium last year: Regardless of the location or specific workshops (which were enormously useful), what I value and remember most about the Urban Sketching Symposium are the people I met or became reunited with there. I heard a number of attendees use the term “family reunion” to describe the atmosphere, and it’s exactly appropriate. I cherish the time I spent, both at the symposium and later in Rio, with people whose sketches I keep up with online all year round or just met and look forward to seeing again at a future symposium. Time and time again, I was moved by the communication that can transpire even without much of a common spoken language when we all share the common language of our love for sketching. I feel privileged to be part of this vast global network.

8/29/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Moleskine watercolor sketchbook
(Cafe Do Fogo, Paraty)

8/29/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Moleskine watercolor sketchbook
(Cafe Do Fogo, Paraty)

8/28/14 Cretacolor water-soluble colored pencils, bond paper (Sergio)

8/28/14 Cretacolor water-soluble colored pencils, bond paper (Marcia)

8/28/14 Cretacolor water-soluble colored pencils, bond paper (Fernanda)

8/30/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Zig markers (symposium closing sketchwalk, Matriz Square, Paraty)

Brazil, Part 2: Architecture and the City Scene

8/26/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolors,
 Caran d'Ache Museum pencils,
Canson XL 140 lb. paper
(Pousada do Ouro courtyard, Paraty)

You know I’m not a fan of sketching architecture, my persistent sketching nemesis. But even I was inspired by the lovely colonial buildings and colorful doors and windows of Paraty. My favorite architectural sketch of the whole two weeks is the one at right of the hotel where we (and all of the symposium staff, it turned out) stayed in Paraty, the Pousada do Ouro. This courtyard showing some of its brightly colored windows and doors is emblematic of Paraty’s charm.

Rio, too, was full of majestic architecture, but there I was more taken with the overall city life rather than individual buildings. After spending all day at one major tourist attraction or another (more on those later), I looked forward to coming “home” to our hotel neighborhood and sketching ordinary folks hanging out in parks and squares.

(For more sketches as well as photos from my Brazil travels, see this Flickr album.)

8/27/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Museum pencils, Canson XL (Paraty)

8-30-14 watercolor, Moleskine watercolor sketchbook (Santa Teresa, Paraty)
This is only the portion that would fit on my scanner. To see a photo of the
whole sketch in this landscape-format sketchbook, see my Flickr album.

8/31/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Canson XL
(Igreja de N. Sra. do Rosario, Paraty)

9/1/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Canson XL
(Ruo do Comercio near the bridge, Paraty. This was my farewell-
to-Paraty sketch just after sundown.)

9/1/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Canson XL
(back view of Igreja de N. Sra. do Rosario, Paraty)

9/4/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, J Herbin Vert Olive ink,
Kuretake brush pen, Canson XL (Sao Bento Monastery, Rio)

9/1/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi, Diamine Grey, J. Herbin Vert
Olive inks, Zig marker, Museum pencils, Canson XL
(near Theatro Municipal, Rio)

9/5/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Take-Sumi, Museum pencils, Canson XL
(men playing cards at Largo do Machado, Rio)

9/7/14 Take-Sumi and Diamine Grey inks, Museum pencil, Canson XL
(sketched from a cafe on Rua de Catete, Rio)

9/7/14 Platinum Carbon and Diamine Grey inks, watercolor,
Museum pencils, Canson XL (my farewell-to-Rio sketch at Largo do Machado Square, Rio)

Paraty, Here I Come!

See ya later!

I’m heading out to Paraty, Brazil, for the Fifth International Urban Sketching Symposium plus a week of exploring Rio de Janeiro! I probably won’t blog while I’m away, but you can keep up with photos and sketches I post in this Flickr album. A full report when I return!

All My Bags Are Packed. . .

8/21/14 Platinum Carbon ink, Van Gogh watercolor, Stillman & Birn Delta sketchbook
(My faithful Rickshaw finally gets to travel with me.)

Well, not quite all, but my Rickshaw Zero bag is!

During the past two years that my purple Rickshaw has been my faithful everyday carry, I’ve always taken some other bag when I’ve traveled because the Rickshaw just isn’t big enough for all the additional essentials that travel requires. But taking an unfamiliar bag meant feeling disoriented – nothing was where I expected it to be (as if travel isn’t disorienting enough).

Not this time! My beloved Rickshaw is coming with me to Brazil, along with a simple tote for the rest – a sweet solution. As a result, the following are the only sketch-material-related travel prep tasks I had to do this week:

• I stitched up 10 signatures for the Stefano. Think that’s too many? I filled nine last year in Barcelona and Germany during a trip almost as long. (I’m putting the signatures – along with inconvenient items such as clothes – into my roller bag this afternoon; we’ll see if I have to leave a few of those 10 behind.) (Edited 3:15 p.m.: They all fit! I may have to check a bag on the flight home, though.)

• To avoid inky messes (like the one I got last month flying to L.A. because I forgot the lesson I learned two years ago), I filled my fountain pens and ink-filled waterbrushes completely. This seems counterintuitive – wouldn’t more ink in the reservoir allow for more leakage? But at high altitudes, air expands, pushing the ink out. If a reservoir is completely filled, there’s no air to expand, reducing the chance of leakage. That’s the theory, anyway. (If that solution happens to fail, I put potentially leaky pens and waterbrushes in a sealed plastic bag.)

• The supply of watercolor paints, inks and other materials that I carry every day should be sufficient for the duration of my trip, so I’m not taking spares (last year I brought several ink cartridges that I never used). The only exception is one spare cartridge of Platinum Carbon Black, because that’s probably difficult to find in Brazil.

That’s it! Travel prep is easy when I “travel” every day.

DIY MOO Cards

My DIY Moo-like cards printed on my inkjet printer.

I first learned about Moo last year when bloggers preparing for the Urban Sketching Symposium in Barcelona were showing off the cards they had printed by the online company. Especially popular were the double-sided, 2.75-by-1.10-inch Moo MiniCards. I was tempted to do the same, but I never got around to it. Instead, I simply printed a stack of conventional-size business cards with my self-portrait, contact information and Urban Sketchers info (the same cards I hand out when I’m sketching and someone asks me about Urban Sketchers). They didn’t have sketches printed on them, so they weren’t as cool as MiniCards, but it was still fun to exchange them at the symposium.

This year I recently started seeing Moo cards again on blogs I read, and I felt tempted again. Why not order a stack of Moo MiniCards, too? I picked out several sketches that I thought would reproduce relatively well in a tiny format and started going through the Moo site. Then it struck me: Why don’t I print them myself the same way I print my usual cards?

Shown at lower right is the front of the cards (I have both portrait and landscape formats) printed with my Bitstrips-like self-portrait (done without the app, of course) and contact info. The backs are printed with several sketches that best represent my hometown and the kind of sketching I like to do. It took me only a few minutes to print them on my inkjet printer (although cutting them apart with my paper trimmer took quite a few more minutes). I used matte-finish card stock that I bought at Office Depot.

A friend (you know who you are) once affectionately called me “the Martha Stewart of urban sketching.” I wanted to deny it. But I guess I can’t.

Farewell, Travel Sketching Angst

My bag dump! (For a detailed description of my bag's contents, see "Current Favorite Art Materials" link at top right.) I don't usually include my glasses when I photograph my sketch bag contents, but I love these new purple specs (they match my bag, of course) that I got a few months ago, so I put them in. After all, they are an essential part of my sketch kit.

In three weeks, I leave for Brazil, where I’ll be attending the Fifth International Urban Sketching Symposium in Paraty!

Tote on the left, Rickshaw on
the right.

Compared to last year when I was prepping for the Barcelona symposium (it took two blog posts just to discuss the art materials I was considering), I hardly have anything to do (other than learn Portuguese and pack, both of which I’ll begin in about two-and-a-half weeks!). Much to my relief, my ever-critical bag issue – the one significant equipment failure last year – is now resolved. I recently reviewed the supply lists for the three symposium workshops I’ve signed up for, and none of the instructors is requiring or even suggesting unusual materials that I don’t already carry regularly in my everyday bag anyway. Sweet!

For transit: the Velo backpack.

A couple weeks ago when I packed for a few days in L.A., it was a similar experience. I just checked to make sure my pens were full of ink, grabbed a few signatures for my “Stefano” sketchbook, and threw my everyday Rickshaw Zero bag and its usual contents into my Rickshaw Velo backpack (for transit only; once I arrived, the Velo stayed in my hotel room). Art material packing done.

"Travel" sketching at my neighborhood park.

There’s liberation in knowing that I don’t have to bring anything “special” just because I’m traveling. (Or maybe it’s the other way around: I “travel” every day, even if it’s only to the park.) My sketching life is completely incorporated within the rest of my life – even when I’m not home.

Top view of my Rickshaw Bagworks Zero messenger bag's contents.

Paraty, Here I Come

I’m in! I’m registered for the Fifth International Urban Sketching Symposium in Paraty, Brazil!

Compared to last year, when the registration time was 6 a.m. PDT, this one was a piece of cake – registration for me was 9 a.m. I started clicking the refresh button at 8:59 a.m., got into the site at 9 a.m. sharp, actually remembered my password from last year, and five minutes later, I was done. It was almost anti-climactic! But I know the fun is just beginning. Paraty, here I come!