Roz Wound Up

Lightfastness Tests for Different Media

Since starting this blog in the fall of 2008 I have written posts about different art media. In fact my first post was about Graphitints from Derwent, which turned out not to be a lightfast medium!

I've written many other posts about products and their lightfastness in the intervening time.

I thought it would be useful to put them all together in one post or on a page. That's what I've done now. 

I think I got them all, but if you see something missing and can point me in the direction I'll be happy to go in and add it.

In the meantime, as best as I can gather them together, you'll find my posts rating lightfastness on a page called simply "Lightfastness Tests." (The Pages List is located in the left-hand column of this blog.)

I hope these are helpful posts for you and I hope that you find the round up of posts a useful way to access them.

May your favorite art medium always be not only gloriously fun to use, but lightfast as well. (Or may you not care!)

Adventures at the Hospital, and a New App

Left: A photo of me that my friend Linda took with her iPhone and altered using the app ToonPaint. Click on the image and view an enlargement. (Check out the fun plant in the background and look at that braid!)

Last weekend was exciting. My friend Linda had to go to the hospital because an infection in her finger turned nasty. Since she was on her own recognizance between the intravenous antibiotic infusions (8 hours apart) and they weren't making her wear hospital garb, we left her room and went adventuring in the hospital complex. I reasoned that if she got weak or tired I could find a wheelchair and get her back to her room.

We searched the hospital high and low for artworks. Abbott Northwestern Hospital is full of them. Linda started at the information desk by asking, "Excuse me I'm staying here and…"

Staying here?! You're a patient! You have an infection!

We laughed and laughed, as did the young woman behind the information desk.

"Do you have a brochure about the art in the hospital?" Linda asked after we had laughed ourselves out.

It turns out they didn't. We went off to discover them on our own. There are some wonderful pieces: prints, originals, and some constructions and sculptures. They all add to the feng shui and ambiance of this hospital. They even have a baby grand player piano in the large main entrance sitting area. It is very hotel like.

The views from the new wing where Linda's room was located are also fantastic. She was up seven flights. You could see across the city, way out to the suburbs. While we checked out the various patios and sunlit sitting rooms we saw the weather of the day change from sunny to stormy, to a dazzling post rainstorm brilliance. 

Along the way Linda took my photo in front of one of the many plants that decorate the hospital. She then applied ToonPaint, an app on her iPhone. I love it. I love all the other ones she had made previously.

When I finally get an iPhone this will be the first app I get!

Linda is home again and doing well. I'm less worried. But as I told her Thursday, "You're all trained in as friendship material. I can't afford to lose you."

I don't know that Linda will have time or inclination to write a brochure about the artwork in Abbott, but there's a lot of it there and if you find yourself in the hospital (which I hope you don't) you really should take advantage of it and check it out.

Note: Linda was not staying in the abandoned Abbott buildings you can find at this flickr site. It's fun to look at those.

The Whiskey Painters Standard Palette—A Product Review

If the above video doesn't play see The Whiskey Painters Standard Palette on YouTube.

The other day I was in Wet Paint (my local independent art supply store) and they showed me these new travel palette boxes that replace the former ones I've been using in this size: 3-3/16 x 2-3/8 inches approximately when closed. 

I LOVE it. As you can see from the video, it is still very compact, but it now has half pans that are easily switched out. It's very ingenious and well-made. I'm totally in love with it and had to show you as soon as I could so I didn't even set up lights and a tripod (apologies for the shaky video, but you get to see what is important).

Currently my palette is filled with a selection of M. Graham and Daniel Smith watercolors. But because the little pressure plates are simple to remove I can change my mind in a moment. I can simply take out the pressure plates that lock in the pans, switch out the pans I don't want to use, put in ones I want to use, lock it up and go. 

Note: If you're a fan of Schmincke's Pan Watercolors I tried inserting them in this box. They also fit. (That's the only brand of factory-made pans I use so I can't help you with info about other brands.)

With the old box this size made in China, that wasn't an option. While I have this flexibility with my larger travel palettes sometimes you just don't want to take a full box. This makes it very simple to have just a few pans of color that you really want.

So if you like to travel light you might want to check this palette box out. I am not commercially connected to the makers or sellers of this palette. I'm just a happy customer. I paid $30 for mine.

If you would like to know the gouache colors I have in my old palette, shown in the video, you can see the palette and a diagram of colors in "Project 640 Tubes: Selecting A Gouache Palette."

If you would like to see a selection of my watercolor and gouache travel palettes (including the old Chinese box when it was empty) you can go to Travel Palettes for Watercolor and Gouache. The small kids palettes that you see in that image are palettes that I carry with me every day, regardless of where I'm going or for how long. The larger travel palettes are for when I'm going to a specific destination or on a road trip. The old Chinese palette was something I carried for special trips to the zoo, or day destinations, when I wanted more color. Now I have an even better option.  

Project Friday: Getting Used to the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen—Part 3 of a 5 (at least) Part Series

Left: Pentel Pocket Brush Pen sketch on a page in a 9 x 12 inch Fabriano Venezia journal. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

By now you've worked on the other two Project Friday posts relating to the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. You've carried the pen about with you for a weekend or week, sketching all your favorite stuff, experimenting with the lines and marks it can make, and worked on your control. You've also spent a week or weekend squinting at everything and trying to capture shadow shapes.

This weekend (or week) I'd like to suggest that you use the pen to develop your "editing" eye further by working on stylizing how you protray your subject. Use as few lines as possible and when you make a line go in and do so boldly, with conviction. Really carve the line out and enjoy the possibilities of moving the brush beneath your hand to vary the line.

At the top of this post you'll see a quick sketch I did of the owner of the "Obscura" the store featured on "Oddities."

I was just trying to capture the main features and really edit down my lines. (I'm working as I always do, directly with ink.)

For comparison you can look at another sketch I did of this man in which I was trying to be more "accurate." (Don't add paint to your sketches yet, that's for another day; right now we are focusing on your lines.)

Pick a subject that will either stay still (plants, sleeping animals, life drawing models) or use a photograph for these experiments. Focus on what are the essential lines of your subject. Which lines describe the shape, silhouette, or main features? Which lines can you leave out? Which lines define a form and give dimension? Look for areas of strongest contrast where light and dark areas meet—how essential is a line there? Or would a line there mess things up? Keep asking yourself these types of questions. In general you want to leave out any shading of the shadow areas. We're going for a stylized impression of something.

Something to think about as you do this week's assignment:

Left: Sketch of a garden gargoyle I've posted in a previous post. Read below for comments. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

While I'm suggesting that you leave off using watercolor, gouache, or acrylics this week and still focus on your lines, I'm including this sketch to give you a preview of how you'll aim to edit your lines later when you are adding watercolor.

There are times when you'll need the hard black line of the PPBP and other times when it is better to describe those areas with your wash of color (see inside the mass of the gargoyle). Note that not all of these lines are necessary (or even wanted) in this example, but it was the first one I could think of to illustrate this point. Some lines are added here because I have to "remember" where the shape of the subject is and where I'm going to add the wash. If I were to refine this sketch into another version I would paint the background behind the wings and thus eliminate the need for any black ink on the wings. Inside the body as well there are areas where I could remove the lines.

Think about all that as you work this week focusing on editing out lines—while still making something recognizable. At least part of your work this week should be fast—very fast, so fast you hardly get to think, you just get to respond.

The reason for this is that if you work fast you can always slow down for accuracy, but you can't speed up easily when under pressure if you haven't been practicing that way (and here I'm assuming that you're going to go sketch in public and feel just a little pressure to get something down on paper so that your group of friends can move along). If you always run a slow couple miles for your workout you are never going to be able to race.

If one fast sketch doesn't work the remedy is simple. Take the information on what did and didn't work and immediately do another one using that information.

Sketch directly with your pen—I felt I had to say that because some of you might still be holding on to your pencil. Let it go. (If you were in class with me I would throw it on the ground and break the lead—I'm that serious about this.)

Project Friday: Getting Used to the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen—Part 2

Above: Page spread of quick sketches in a 9 x 12 inch Fabriano Venezia journal using the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. Click on the image to view an enlargement. Read below for more information.

This post is part 2 in a multi-part special Project Friday—a mini class for getting used to the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. Please view last week's Project Friday for part one.

By now you've been working constantly with your Pentel Pocket Brush Pen (PPBP), at least over last weekend, perhaps for the entire week (I hope so). You have experimented with the different types of marks you can make with the pen by doodling and trying pressure and a variety of strokes. You also were tasked with sketching everything you came across only with this pen.

There may have been some frustrating moments. It may have been love at first stroke. Whichever it was for you the main goal now is to keep working with the pen, for another week (at least for this weekend). Take it everywhere with you, along with your journal. (A 9 x 12 inch Fabriano Venezia was recommended for reasons of consistency explained in last week's post, but use whatever journal you have available if it means you're going to be sketching!)

Your assignment this week is to SQUINT your eyes until all you see of your subject are darks and lights—no midtone values. That's what you are going to draw this weekend (or week).

In the samples above you'll see what I'm talking about. I'm not worrying about getting details with the lines, I'm simply trying to block in the shadow areas allowing their edges to describe the form. It's not always going to work smoothly, but it is always going to be fun to give it a go. So SQUINT your eyes and start moving your pen, drawing those shadow areas. You might want to create some hatch lines in areas of midtone gray as I have done on the necks of some faces, but that's up to you. If you decide to do any hatching think of it as an experiment in mark making and focus mostly on the dark shadow areas.

I've done these quick examples (each 30 to 60 seconds) while watching a TV show. You can squint and draw as the show speeds by you or if you have recorded the show or have the capability of pausing the show's transmission you can choose to stop the action instead.

After you have done a couple pages of quick sketches by using the TV that way, venture out into the world and practice on moving models. (They don't have to be actually moving—you could find some people sipping coffee at a cafe for instance.) Look for harsh lighting conditions, like bright sunlight. And be sure to squint.

Why do this? Because this will help you work on control of the PPBP at the same time it will expose you to another way to use it—solidly, not just making fine or fat lines. And that will give you more options.

It will also help you make quick assessments about the shadow shapes. You will improve your ability to capture the shape of something (which ultimately defines the character of what you're drawing).

You want to work quickly and make bold decisions, but you also want to work deliberately. If you are finding your shapes aren't turning out as accurately as you would like, slow down your mind and hand and feel the pressure of the pen tip as you move it across the page—light and heavy pressure as you need it. The goal is to make a shadow shape with a minimum of fussing. You want to describe the shape by using the tip and body of the brush in a fluid movement, getting in and out, and not restating.

Your internal critic should be turned completely off. You want to judge how accurate you have been so that you can improve, but if you've not been accurate there's no more discussion—you just make another sketch and try to improve based on what you feel went wrong before. Tell your internal critic to shut up.

Concentrate more on whether or not the shadow shapes you've created are pleasing, placed in the general area they need to be, and somewhat indicative of what they need to represent. Don't fixate on whether or not you have an accurate "portrait" of your subject. Get a feel for the face and action of the person, rather than a portrait you could use in a dragnet!

Remember you are still getting used to working with the PPBP.

Left: Sketches using the Pentel Aquash Brush Pigment Ink Filled Brush Pen. Read more about this below. (Apologies to Sarah Shahi who is one of the most beautiful women on TV, with a nose that is pure delight to draw and I have been fascinated with her face since I first saw her in "Life.") Click on the image to view an enlargement.

If the dense black ink of the PPBP is frustrating you and you feel you need a little bit more leeway to deal with your values, pick up a Pentel Aquash Brush Pigment Ink Filled Brush Pen.

It's filled with light black pigment ink that might not seem as stark to you. You can also layer on additional strokes to make the values darker. It might be a good transitional tool for you. See the examples in the second image in today's post.

The ink in the Aquash is also waterproof which may become important to you at a later date (remember I have more of these posts planned).

If you do switch to the Aquash be sure to switch back to the PPBP after a couple days to experiment again with the sold black ink it lays down.

Then you'll be all set for next week! 

Either way, keep squinting and drawing those shadow shapes.

Even More Fun in Gesture Drawing

Left: Final drawing one evening in gesture figure study class. All images in this post are on 12 x 16 inch sheets. Click on the image to view an enlargement and read below for details and to see other images from that evening.

Readers know that I've been taking a "Gestural Figure Study Class" at The Atelier with Christine Mitzuk.

I love this class. Each week Christine has an "experiment" for us to work on after we have completed a series of 1-, 3-, and sometimes 5-minute poses—but typically a whole lot of 1- and 3-minute poses.

During the early warm-up phase of the class where we do quick gestures of the body I made this next sketch.

Left: A 5-minutes gesture sketch of the model, focusing on the line of the back. I spent too much time fussing to get some of the angles "exact" before I had the entire sense of the gesture, so I did not complete the entire pose. But I did get to focus on that line of his back and the way a small portioin of the leg (his left) he was sitting on was visible from my angle.

It's interesting how long a minute actually is. I find that in doing my quick gestures I always finish with time left over, which means I really should be managing my time better! But when you get to five minute poses the time really does bend in your mind. You want to work quickly but you also want more development than you had in the shorter poses. I find this type of practice is great for when I go out into the world and sketch people sitting in waiting rooms, or sketch animals at the zoo—neither group has any concept that they should hold a pose for you at all!

Also on April 3 we were looking at "the whole" in a variety of ways. We drew the contour line only as you can see in my next image.

Left: Drawing only the contour of the figure. The model was resting his left hand on a staff, suggested by the straight line, but not completed. The number "16" on the sheet indicates the sixteenth sheet for this work session. I typically use 18 to 22 sheets of paper. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I was working pretty slowly and deliberately during the 5 minutes I worked on the contour. (The model was holding a wooden staff to support one of his hands in the pose.)

While things can go wonky fast when looking at the contour there are some fun things to observe with the negative space. In fact I think I paid more attention to the negative space because I wasn't "allowed" to draw what was in the postive space.

We followed with a five-minute pose working only on the silhouette of the figure, working from the center out with a piece of buttery soft Alphacolor Char-Kole that Christine brought to class. (She got hers at Utrecht so I've given you a link for it there.)

I don't have a photo of that sketch for some reason, but it was fun to turn the mind onto each of these different approaches.

Our last 40 minutes were spent on two 20-minute poses that were actually the same pose, just with a break in the middle (the model came back and resumed the same pose). You had the option of working on your first 20-minute sketch for another 20 minutes or you could move to an empty easel and take a new view point.

I did neither. And this is really the point of today's post. Of course I've buried my lead!

I had difficulty with the 20-minute pose. There were some lovely areas that I simply wasn't capturing. I knew another 20 minutes wasn't going to salvage what I had. I could start over either in the same place or move. I like where I stand because of the lighting so I didn't really want to move. And I didn't want to start over. So, knowing that I wasn't going to get the lovely lines I wanted where the legs met the torso and the arms extended, I did what I do when I'm out sketching and things aren't going well—I picked one small area on which to focus.

The model had just had a haircut during spring break (in fact everyone except me seemed to have had a haircut during spring break). I decided to focus just on his head because hair, noses, and ears are always so interesting to me.

My default when things aren't going well is to give it a really good try (which I'd already done) and then maximize the remaining time by focusing on something that I love to draw. Since there weren't any birds in the room I went for the portrait.

While this isn't strictly gesture (though I could make a case for the gesture of the muscles in the model's neck and shoulder), Christine is very kind when students make a departure. She weighed in with helpful commentary about developing my shadow shapes in the cheek. (She's going to push you even if you leave the suggested path—that's her job.)

I'm pleased with the end result. But I'm most pleased that even though my energy and attention both were lagging I kept pushing and focusing. I left class eager to get home and get back to work. The productivity push kept moving me forward. And I'm excited to go back and try more experiments next week.

Project Friday: Getting Used to the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen—Part 1 of a 5 (at least) Part Series

Above: A Pentel Pocket Brush Pen sketch in my 9 x 12 inch Fabriano Venezia journal with light washes of Schmincke and M. Graham gouache added. This woman was on a TV show I was watching and her wrinkled face, Kabuki pale, but painted, gave the impression of an angry, bitter soul, and I couldn't take my eyes off her. My likeness is probably one she wouldn't recognize, but it was fun to carve it out with the PPBP. Notice the dark strokes near the ear and chin. And see the lids of the eyes. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Way back in 2009 I received a note from a reader who wanted tips on getting used to the brush pen. I wrote a note back and thought to myself that I should write a post just about using the brush pen.

Over the intervening time and over 1,200 posts I have written MANY times about using the Pentel Pocket Brush pen and other brush pens, or about simply working with a brush and paint. But I thought it was time to take some of my thoughts about the brush pen and encourage people to use it—as a Project Friday exercise, all weekend long.

Why use it exclusively for 60 some hours? Because if you have to focus all your attention for line making into one tool you are going to try and try again, and you are going to receive IMMEDIATE feedback about what does or doesn't work for you with that tool. 

If you look for instance at the sketch I made of Adam Goldberg (posted on June 25, 2009) you'll see that I'm experimenting with the PPBP to try out blotches for Goldberg's 5 o'clock shadow. When I make marks like this I'm just trying to see what I can do with the pen. I'll decide later if something works and I can use a particular technique again. This is how you build a vocabulary of approaches with any tool that you decide to use.

I use the PPBP (and any brush pen for that matter) because I enjoy the flexibility of the tip. With the PPBP in particular I enjoy the ability to bounce up and down on that tip—using it lightly as I make a very thin line, and then pressing down to make a bolder stroke. The action of moving my hand up and down against some invisible force "caused" by the "actual" line I'm trying to create, is delightful for me. It doesn't matter if I get it right because I can have another go at it. 

Many people I know who start using a brush pen are uncomfortable with this very aspect of the brush tip. So I encourage them to do a lot of little tests that "mean nothing" to them before they embark on an actual drawing. You can do a series of lines and blots and hatching. You can fill up a page with marks. This may look random, but it isn't. What you are doing as you make these different marks is registering in your hand and your mind how it feels to make that particular mark. How much pressure did you use, how did you drag or float the tip on the paper. You are constantly having a dialog with your dominant hand—so that you can dance with the pen, but be the one leading. (And I want to make very clear that I do not for a moment believe I have attained this yet. Sometimes I'm merely able to hum and stutter, and not totally fall over myself. But I do enjoy getting up and trying again.)

One thing I found out immediately when I started working with the PPBP was that I actually had to slow myself down a bit. Since I draw in ink without drawing in pencil first, any line I put down is going to stay there and be seen. Lines from the PPBP are more "determined" than anything I might do with a Staedtler Pigment Liner or a dip pen, so slowing down a bit in how I work was useful.

I think my comfort level with the PPBP was vastly improved by focusing on drawing things I really loved and am comfortable drawing: birds, and of course Gert. (That link will take you to series of drawings I did with the PPBP but the lines aren't visible much because of the use of gouache—another reason I love the PPBP: you can paint over it.)

When I was getting used to using a brush pen in my regular journal work (as opposed to one of my Staedtler Pigment Liners or a dip pen) I started using the Pentel Color Brush. It's watersoluble (and sadly not archival) and I could wash away the lines for gradations of tone. 

You can read my review of both the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and the Pentel Color Brush, with details of what each is great at doing, here.

In this image you can see how I how I am washing the lines away with the color I added.

To see how I used the color brush when I was speed drawing with friends follow this link. Again, I was just pushing through, using it because it forces you to make decisions you can't take back and you have to deal with the consequences of those decisions.

When I got the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen I was first annoyed that the ink didn't dissolve with water, but now I never use the Pentel Color Brush except if I am at life drawing warming up! (Remember even the black Pentel Color Brush isn't lightfast; another reason not to use it!)

So I think getting comfortable with a brush pen is in large part just a matter of using it a lot.

Take the brush pen out with you this weekend, everywhere you go, even when you are at home sketching. Make a plan to go some place you routinely go and sketch successfully. For me that would be the Bell Museum or the Como Zoo.

Leave all your art materials at home, except your Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. Take it out of your pocket and have at it without judgment as you go along, except for the judgment of "oops, I need to put the line differently here" or "next time I will try thinner lines in my shading and no crosshatching." By the end of the day you'll start to have a bit of facility with it and a sense of what it can do for your drawing style.

You will also find that there are matters of adjustment of scale that you will deal with. If I want to really fill up a large page spread I'll get out the PPBP and use its great bold line to full effect and quickly complete a full page spread. If I only have a small area of the page, or a small page to work on, I'm going to have to adjust my working method with the pen. I'll probably be dancing on the tip more when working on a small page.

If scale issues are really tripping you up I recommend that you get a large-paged journal or sketchbook to use for your weekend of PPBP experiments. You can still work small and fill a spread with dozens of small sketches, but if you have to go large you have the acreage to do so.

NOTE: Preview of things to come—I'm going to do two other Project Fridays in April that are devoted to this topic of working with the brush pen. (And there will be two other brush pen Project Fridays in May for a total of 5—or more if I get excited.) So while you are selecting a journal or sketchbook to work in this weekend for your first foray, why don't you keep that in mind. Maybe you want to get a special journal so that work from all five Project Friday experiments are in the same journal? If you do, I recommend that you purchase a 9 x 12 inch Fabriano Venezia journal, because man-o-man using the PPBP on those pages is fantastic. And you can do all the things I'm going to suggest you do on that paper. (Of course you can do them on other papers too, but I know you can have fun on that paper. [I'm not financially connected to them in any way.])

Something else to keep in mind—for me I think working with the brush pen is more about EDITING OUT than working with the dip pen is. When I work with the dip pen or the Staedtler Pigment Liner I'm making light lines and multiple lines and there's a level of texture to the final image that seems different mentally to me from when I work with the PPBP. The brush pen makes me think about editing out things and trying to be more minimalistic.

For someone who has a tendency to go fussy the built in necessity for editing out is a useful change of mental mode!  

So here is the assignment for Project Friday: Get a large journal or sketchbook and a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. Fill the first two or four pages with marks of every sort you can make—see paragraph 6 above which talks about making every mark imaginable to get familiar with the pen.

Next take the pen and large journal with you everywhere you go from the end of your workday on Friday until you go to work again on Monday. (And if you work at home like I do you know what adaptations you're going to make—more hours for you.)

Sketch everything with it. Make sample marks with it. Write with it—small and large letters. Doodle with it. There are only a couple times during this Brush Pen Intensive that you should even let the pen out of your hand; driving for instance. Otherwise you should be sketching—with that pen.

Sketch your favorite items—pets, kids, partner, peppers, trees, birds, toys, buildings—you get the idea. EVERYTHING.

After each experience take a moment to ask yourself how things went. How did the line quality vary in the way you expected? What do you need to change it? What didn't work and how can you change it in the next drawing?

Why the PPBP? Because the ink is so richly black you'll love it. The ink dries quickly and won't smear at all (or as much—I really can't control how messy you are).  The ink will allow you to do what I'm going to suggest you do at a later date. But most important, the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen has a brush tip with individual synthetic hair bristles so you will be able to get solid lines and broken lines. (I just thought of another Project Friday as I was writing that.)

Why a large format journal? See above where I recommend the Fabriano Venezia. Using a large format journal with paper conducive to this pen's specs will allow an easier breaking in time. We'll worry about how this pen responds to different papers (some papers which you might even prefer) later. The point of this weekend project is to immerse yourself in the feel of the pen on the paper so that you can begin to get a sense of what the pen can do in your hand. If you start off by scribbling on every paper in your flat file you're not going to build the base of intuitive understanding that you need to start to control this pen. There is a good reason 99.9 percent of U.S. Teenagers get some of their first driving training in large supermall parking lots—the surfaces are flat, even, and unimpeded in off-business hours. (That said, I learned to drive a stick shift on the hilly streets of Jefferson City, Missouri, but I think that was just a way for my boyfriend and my roommate to both have a laugh at my expense.)

Visual Inspiration for You

Craig Thompson is a graphic novelist who uses the Pentel Pocket Brush pen in his work and you can see fabulous images from one of his books, Carnet de Voyage, at this link. I recommend everyone buy this book because it is so wonderful. You will see in this book someone TOTALLY comfortable with the brush pen.

Lucy Knisley's French Milk, is another great graphic travel memoir. She too uses a brush pen to capture the events of a trip—her sojourn in Paris.

For All the Overachievers Out There Reading This

If you have a particularly grand time this weekend with your PPBP keep working with it all week long.

If you have a particularly grim time of it this weekend using your PPBP keep working with it all week long.

Next Friday I'll have another Project Friday devoted to getting comfortable with the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen.

If you do decide to go ahead and use the PPBP all week long sometime during the week, maybe on Wednesday, take a couple hours and sketch with your previous favorite FINE-tipped pen and remind yourself what you liked about using that pen. I don't want you to go through withdrawal from your favorite pens. Just think of this as an art materials vacation.

Letraset Aqua Markers—Lightfastness Test

Left: Color test chart for the Letraset Aqua Markers. Click on the image to view an enlargement, and read below for more details. Note: Left side was exposed to light, right side is the control—but that's really obvious.

A while back I purchased some Letraset Aqua Markers because I saw them in a catalog and if you really could use them as described they would be an interesting tool.

These pens have a broad tip on one end. The other tip is a fine point.

VERY IMPORTANT: Letraset sells two products that look similar in shape and packaging. This product is called Aqua Markers. Their other product is called Aqua ProMarkers.

I was sold the inferior Aqua Marker, as if it was the Aqua ProMarker. The advertising copy talked about all the qualities the Promarker had. (I don't blame the catalog company, I think they were actually confused. I know I would have been.)

Be VERY CAREFUL which markers you purchase from Letraset.

They push the Aqua Marker to "Scrap bookers and Rubber Stampers and also to Water-colour illustrators as an alternative to paint-based media."

That claim is nonsense. Supposedly you can wet the lines made with these pens and wash them out like watercolors by touching the lines with a waterbrush. However, I found that the pen lines do not dissolve equally well depending on time lapse (when you get at them with water). The type of paper use use them on greatly effects their action as well, and that makes sense given differences in paper sizing and texture, but I would have expected a bit more control in the product over different paper types.

For best results you'll want to use them on relatively smooth paper. Plate Bristol and other such papers, that aren't typically used for watercolor. You can see how one dissolved in my video review of the Stillman & Birn Epsilon Series Sketchbook. I rated that sketchbook highly for marker use, and these would be a great marker to use in that book if you don't care about the other product issues.

From the lightfastness test results I got I wouldn't recommend these for use to scrapbookers or rubber stamp artists at all. I certainly would caution any illustrator against using them.

What about the Aqua ProMarker? Well since I was was tricked into buying a different line by advertising copy that promised pigmented, non-fading inks (which clearly the Aqua Markers aren't) I am not going to spend more money buying the next product line to test them. You can follow my link to ProMarkers and read about the product and make your own decision. Perhaps if you do a lot of Manga art these pens would be useful to you.

Beyond use as a slightly soluble marker I don't recommend the use of Letraset Aqua Markers at all. Even for greeting cards and rubber stamp work.

As you can see from the lightfastness test of these colors most of the Aqua Marker colors fade considerably. You will have the best results using their black, rose carmine, royal purple, twilight blue, and sepia. But even in those colors only the first two were without any noticable fading. The yellow used in any of the pens faded out the most drastically. While the scan of the cards may show little difference before and after for Gold Ochre for instance, upon in-person viewing you can easily see the color shift as the yellow fades out to leave a less interesting hue.

So use at your own risk. I found the pesky to use, difficult to graduate and blend, and because they fade so badly, I'm not interested in using them for anything, except perhaps an occasional heading in a journal.

NOTE: I didn't write down the name of the pen I was using to write the color names. That black ink faded drastically. I know it was a fine point pen based on the small size of the lettering, but only my cramped writing indicates to me that it might have been one of the several "fountain pen" type pens I was trying around that time. It was not one of my regularly recommended pens. The darker, large writing on the card was made with the incomparable Faber-Castell Pitt Artist's Calligraphy Pen, black of course. That ink is not going anywhere. You can use that pen with confidence.

Another in a Long String of Desperate Pleas for a Life Model

Left: A sketch with a Faber-Castell Pitt Artist's Calligraphy Pen and diluted washes of Schmincke gouache on a 9 x 12 inch page in a Fabriano Venezia journal. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Since I've been unable to find a local French Bulldog and have exhausted my photos of those I've bumped into, but don't have contact information for, I'm reduced to drawing them from memory—not something that's satisfying to me.

So if you're local and have a French Bulldog please contact me. I need a life-model.

As for the one-eyed thing, it's a theme, you've probably noticed.

I Don't Want an iPad…but Wait…

Stefan Marjoram sketching in Bristol with iPad from Urban Sketchers on Vimeo.

There are hundreds of reasons why I don't want an iPad, but the other day I saw this video and thought there's a lot of fun to be had with an iPad too! Of course Stefan Marjoram's obvious skill doesn't come with the iPad!

Marjoram talks about his design and brush decisions as he moves along. I think this is a gem of a short video for people interested in what can be done with the iPad as a sketching tool. Apple should pay him to do demos!

Also if you follow the link you'll find more videos from Urban Sketchers. While there are other fun videos there, you may also find several that seem to spend more time focusing on the surroundings than showing the artist at work, or even the finished art. Maybe those video artists feel in that way they will convey to us the sense of the surroundings in which the artist worked. I find those types of videos unsatisfying: I want the focus on the artist working, and a nice view of the final piece. Marjoram's short video is a perfect blend of surroundings and showing the art develop.

Marjoram's video is also the best argument for getting an iPad that I've seen. I'll always be a paper girl, but…

Tips While You're at the Urban Sketcher's Video Site: Look also for videos by Tommy Kane who gets the mix right in this short video in Brooklyn. Surroundings for him include the artist's set up. You've probably seen Danny Gregory's film about Tommy Kane sketching in Red Hook, but go watch it again. The 51 seconds you'll spend watching Gérard Michel sketching in Portland are very well spent. And the 41 seconds you spend watching Marc Holmes' time lapse video of him painting St. Joseph's will make you want to pick up your paints and run out the door—again, his skill doesn't come with viewing.)