March 2023 Art Update: Pencils!

From top to bottom:-Rotring 600-Uni Kuru Toga Roulette-Blick Premier Mechanical Pencil-Muji Low Center Gravity-Zebra Techo TS-3 Mini Mechanical Pencil Like many artists who work in an analog, one-dimensional format, pencils have always been part of my art kit. I sketch things out with them, then ink over it. I haven't really used pencils as a...

The small notebook man

It's paralleled my move from bigger sketchbooks (letter size) to smaller (A5) to even smaller (A6) sketchbooks: Most of my notebooks are now pocket sized. I've had a pocket-sized Rite In The Rain notebook in my back pocket for a decade or so, as this all-weather book is great for quick notes. But up to...

A fountain pen update: A tour of starter pens

Pens from left to right: Platinum Preppy 03, Platinum Plaisir, Teranishi Guitar, Waterman Allure/Graduate, Sailor Hi-Ace Neo, Kaweco Sport (plastic and brass) I've had an obsession with stationery since I was a wee lad, roaming the streets of the Lower Naugatuck Valley back in Connecticut. Any visit to a store like Kmart or Caldor involved...

An Art and Publication Year in Review

My table set-up from the Lords Luggage Holiday Market, 17 Dec 2022 It's a positively frigid night here in Portland (20F/-6C, with a windchill like 5F, and freezing rain coming down), a good type of night to reflect back on how my art life fared in 2022. It was overall "good", but there's room for...

A late September art update, right before Bikeartober

Making postcards during the San Juans Tour in August It's been a few months since I checked in with you fine folks about my continued journey with art. So far this year I've used both watercolors and dip ink pens for the first time in decades. This felt good, and I kept on experimenting with...

A May art update: More dip pen action

Esterbrook 356 nib, once used by Carl Barks (not this nib, but the nib in general) Hello folks. Last month I let you all know that I got back into dip pens. After pretty much avoiding them since high school, it's been fun to work in the true "pen-and-ink" medium. I started off with a...

Shake-ups in my art kit

Another addition to the kit are these Papelote elastic pen holders that go around a sketchbook. So convenient! For many a decade, I've been pretty boring when it comes to art supplies. In the latter part of high school, I discovered disposable felt-tip pigment pens. Micron is the most prominent make of them, but I've...

A sketchbook obsession, and finding the right one

Do I own a sketchbook? Of course, I am an artist, after all. I'm never the best "sketchbook" person, the artists who draw in them obsessively, fill up one to two a month. I'll never be able to trade in a few and get a house in France. Having said that, I've liked sketchbooks, at...