Have a Nice Day!

1/12/14 Platinum Carbon ink, Van Gogh watercolors, Stillman & Birn Epsilon
sketchbook

What a lazy Sunday! I was too lazy to even walk downstairs to the kitchen for some fruit. This still life is one I see on my desk every day. It’s one of the first things I sketched back in September 2011 when I first made the commitment to draw every day. I’ve apparently acquired a few more pencils since then.

Beating the Idle Fountain Pen Blues: The Pilot Petit1

The tiny green Pilot Petit1 Mini shown next to a Lamy Safari.

Anyone who uses a fountain pen knows that if you leave it idle for too long, it will clog and need to be flushed. If you own numerous pens, most fountain pen maintenance advice recommends using only a few at a time and rotating the collection so that each will get used frequently enough to keep it flowing well. I generally heed this advice, keeping three or four sketching pens in my bag at a time (plus a few more at home for writing).

The one exception has been an ongoing dilemma for me. When I go on fitness walks around Green Lake a few times a week, I take only my ultra-minimalist sketch kit housed in a Travelon Convertible Travel Wallet (you can see it on my Current Favorite Materials page). I generally don’t sketch on these walks, but every now and then I’ll spot a heron or some other wildlife, so I always carry sketch gear with me, just in case. The kit includes nothing more than a Lamy fountain pen filled with water-soluble ink, a waterbrush, a dark gray Kuretake Zig Clean Color brush marker and a handmade sketchbooklet.

Posted, the Petit1 is still shorter and lighter than the Safari.

A couple months ago I had the frustrating experience of wanting to sketch a heron, but because the Lamy Vista I carry in the bag rarely gets used, it was all clogged and barely useable. I know it needs to be in the regular rotation to keep it flowing, but since I rarely use it, I don’t remember to rotate it.

Fast-forward to yesterday, when I was going through some fountain pens that I’ve stopped using for various reasons. One was a Pilot Petit1 Mini, which is ridiculously inexpensive ($3.80 at JetPens.com) and comes in lots of novelty colors. Reading many favorable reviews about it, I bought one on a whim, unable to imagine how good (or bad) a pen this cheap could possibly be. As it turns out, the nib is surprisingly fine and smooth, and I enjoy using it. I thought that once I used up the bright apple green ink it came with, I’d fill it with sketching ink and take it out sometime. But before using up the green ink, I forgot all about it.

I bought the pen about a year ago, and I hadn’t touched it in probably 10 months. I figured it was all clogged up and hardly worth flushing – but shock of shocks, it started writing smoothly from the first stroke! I’m not kidding – it was as fresh as the day I first popped the cartridge in. It has the added benefit of being very small and light (see photos).

Immediately dumping out the remaining apple green ink, I syringe-filled the cartridge with Private Reserve Velvet Black ink and put the pen in my ultra-minimalist bag. I may not see the heron again for several weeks or months; will the Pilot Petit1 be ready? Stay tuned.

Updated 1/20/14: To learn about another pen that I've discovered has a long idle time, see my review of the Pilot Metropolitan and an idleness update on it.

Updated 2/7/14: I didn’t have need for my Pilot Petit1 today, but the results of the idleness test I was running with my Lamy Vista vs. Pilot Metropolitan filled with Platinum Carbon reminded me that I hadn’t used the Petit1 since I filled it with water-soluble Private Reserve Velvet Black ink on Jan. 12. I just tested it – and it wrote like a charm! No skipping, blobbing or clogging after being idle for 24 days. I wonder how it would do if filled with Platinum Carbon and left idle for 14 days. . . ? Stay tuned!

Updated 2/22/14: Even waterproof Platinum Carbon ink, which is hard on most fountain pens when left idle for any length of time, didn't cow the tiny but mighty Pilot Petit1! See the full results of my test in which I pit the Petit1 against the Platinum Preppy, another cheap but surprisingly good fountain pen.

Updated 6/21/14: Four months after my Platinum Carbon test, I’m declaring the Petit1 to be my all-time idle pen champ!

Still Life Value Studies

1/11/14 Bic ballpoint pen, Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook

(Lightning! Thunder! Hail! High winds! Torrential rain! A good day for still life studies at home.)

1/11/14 Cretacolor Nero soft pencil, Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook

It’s hard to do still life sketches of fruit without color. But every book and instructor of drawing advises using monochrome to study values to avoid being confused by hues. So today, on this incredibly stormy, colorless (but noisy!) day, monochrome it is.

My friend Janine has been practicing value studies with a ballpoint pen. I know some artists swear by ballpoint pen as an art medium because of its unexpected capacity to build value gradually when applied in layers, similar to the way graphite and colored pencils are used. I tend to think ballpoint pens are good for

1/11/14 Platinum Carbon ink, Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook

nothing but hastily jotting a phone number onto a pad in a hotel room, so you can imagine how excited I was to give this medium a try. Still, I know it’s done (try Googling “art made with ballpoint pen” for some stunning examples), so I tried to remain open-minded.

1/11/14 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook

While I was at it, I did three more studies of the same still life: One with Cretacolor Nero soft pencil, one with waterproof Platinum Carbon ink (in a Lamy Safari pen), and one with water-soluble Private Reserve Velvet Black ink (in a Lamy Nexx) and a waterbrush wash.

Naturally, the pencil was the easiest to create soft tones with because it was soft enough to rub with my finger, like charcoal (but much less messy), and it was relatively fast because I could use the broad side of the lead. I’ve never been a big fan of crosshatching, and doing so with a fountain pen and Platinum Carbon was tedious and time-consuming. The Bic ballpoint pen (taken from a hotel room, of course) – though it did build up value slowly like pencil – smelled sour, and since I didn’t like smelling it, I wanted it to be done faster, so I tried applying more pressure, which wasn’t as effective as multiple layers applied with a light pressure (as is recommended with colored pencil). Even more tedious and time-consuming. My hand cramped up before I was done.

Of course, my favorite medium, both esthetically and for speed and efficiency, was the washed water-soluble fountain pen ink. I admit, though, that I wasn’t as successful at getting subtle variations in value by washing ink as I was with pencil.

(In some of these studies, you may see a slight ghost. That’s the sketch behind it showing through the Stillman & Birn Epsilon paper, which is surprisingly less opaque than the Gamma and Alpha of the same weight that I used exclusively before I started binding my own books. Its see-throughness is one reason I stopped using the Epsilon except for things like these studies.)

Enough homework. Can I go outside now? Not likely.

Paper Revelation at Pike Brewing Company

1/10/14 Diamine Black Onyx ink, Strathmore 400 cold press 140 lb. paper

After sketching at the library, Kate, Lynne, Natalie and I walked over to the Pike Brewing Company for lunch and more sketching. I had just finished up a signature of Fabriano Studio hot press paper at the library, so I started a new signature – one that I had made into a 6-inch square format (6-by-12 spread), which I thought would be a fun change from my usual 9-by-12-inch rectangular spread.

I made this signature from Strathmore 400 cold press paper, which was the first 140-pound paper I tested back in August. At that time, I had determined that its cold press texture was too rough for a fountain pen nib, so I kept searching for smoother papers (which eventually led me to explore even hot press papers, which I had previously avoided). But here’s the revelation: Today I used my Pilot Metropolitan to sketch Natalie and Lynne in front of the brewery’s fascinating tanks and ductwork, and its nib floated nearly effortlessly on the Strathmore’s rough finish. A-ha! So maybe it’s not that the Strathmore kept snagging any fountain pen nib. . . it was only snagging the nib of my Lamy!

Other than my beloved Sailors, I’ve used practically nothing but Lamys since I began sketching. . . maybe I’ve been in love with the wrong pen all this time.

Seattle Central Library

1/10/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Fabriano Studio hot press 140 lb. paper

Nearly two years ago, the Seattle Urban Sketchers met at the Seattle Public Library’s Central downtown location to sketch and later attend Gabi’s presentation there. I had not yet worked up the courage to sketch with the group, especially not in a building as intimidating as the Central library. But I went to Gabi’s talk (he was promoting his then-new book, The Art of Urban Sketching), learned more about the urban sketching movement, and met a few sketchers who encouraged me to join them. I finally did get up the courage to sketch with them the following month – and of course, as they say, the rest is history.

1/10/14 Diamine Onyx Black and Grey inks, watercolor, Fabriano Studio hot press 

It felt like a personal completion of some sort to have finally sketched at the downtown library today with the Friday sketchers. I was no less intimidated today by the amazing architecture, vast windows and unusual interior features than I was two years ago. But the big difference between then and now is that now I accept that I’ll probably always be intimidated by such formidable sketching challenges – and I just sketch anyway.

With this what-the-heck attitude, I first went up to Level 10, the highest public level, and sketched the reading room and that incredible glass ceiling. Later I went down to the Level 3 “Living Room” to sketch more patrons seated in the ridiculously uncomfortable chairs. (They are sort of like modernized Adirondack chairs, and you know how comfortable they are. I guess the library wants to invite people to read – but not for too long.) My single favorite feature of the Central library is the chartreuse escalators, which you can see in both sketches.

1/10/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Fabriano Studio

This third sketch is of the outside of the library, which I sketched from Vovito Espresso across the street facing Spring Street’s steep incline between Fourth and Fifth avenues, waiting for the library to open. It was a good intro sketch to those basket-woven windows.

Downton Abbey Trunk Show

1/8/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Fabriano Studio 140 lb. hot press paper

Kate, Nilda and I are all Downton Abbey fans (who isn’t?). Pacific Fabrics hosted a trunk show for Andover Fabrics, the official manufacturer of a collection of fabrics based on authentic period patterns seen on the show. We knew the trunk show would be a fun sketching opportunity as well as a way to get a Downton Abbey fix.

Several attendees dressed in Downton Abbey period costumes, including Kate. Since the current season is about the ‘20s, the fashion emphasis was of that period. A young woman (seated at right in my sketch at right) was wearing a lovely ‘20s dress that her grandmother had made.

1/8/14 Diamine Chocolate ink, Sailor
pen, Canson Montval 140 lb. paper

Although I liked the period outfits, I have to say that the most distinguished sight was the rep from Andover who gave the presentation. Himself a quilt maker, this very tall man had the biggest beard I’ve seen in a long time and was impeccably dressed.

Check out Kate’s SmugMug photostream for great photos from the event. (If you look closely at photo 8 of the security mirror, you can see me sketching and Kate next to me taking the picture.) 

An Americano to Mull Over Fabriano Studio Hot Press

1/8/14 Diamine Onyx Black and Grey inks, Canson Montval cold press 140 lb. paper

A rainy afternoon at Zoka Coffee was as good an opportunity as any to continue comparing Canson Montval cold press (the last remaining sheets in the pad I got back in September) and Fabriano Studio hot press. The media used in both sketches were Diamine Onyx Black for the line work and detail shading, and Diamine Grey applied with a waterbrush for large areas of shading.

As I mentioned in my initial observations about Fabriano hot press, it’s hard to resist that lovely, smooth surface when using any kind of fountain pen. But even as my nib glided on the paper like skates on ice, I kept missing the subtle texture that makes simple washes of ink take on a warm richness. The same kind of ink wash on the hot press paper has a cooler, slightly more mechanical look. It’s probably not very apparent even in my enlarged scans (below), as the difference is subtle, but it does make a difference nonetheless.

1/8/14 Diamine Onyx Black and Grey inks, Fabriano Studio hot
press 140 lb. paper

Next time I’ll put Fabriano Studio hot press head-to-head with Canson XL, which, although it’s cold press, has an even smoother texture than Canson Montval. 

Fabriano Studio hot press

Canson Montval cold press