Showing posts with label Inktober. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inktober. Show all posts

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Inktober (Part II) (long overdue!)

Days #10 & 11 - Marvy Uchida for Drawing:



My comments on the pen: disposable plastic nib pen - it's deliciously smooth on this "cheapo" paper. I'm not sure whether this "for drawing" pen is the same as the Marvy LePen (I don't have one so I can't tell) but it's awesome nonetheless. The barrel is a little bit fat for me but the smoothness of the pen sure makes up for one. This one makes my "must try!" list.  

Days #12-13 - Copic Multiliner SP 0.2:



My comments on the pen: refillable plastic nib pen - the "switch-ability" of this pen is attractive. It's refillable and the nibs are apparently replaceable (which is a good thing for me because my pen pressure is murder for plastic nib pens). This was a recent gift and I'm loving it this far. How can you go wrong with a Copic? Because the barrel seems to be made of metal, it has a lovely weight to it (though some might find it a tad heavy). 

Day #14 & 15 - Ohto Graphic Liner 01:



My comments on the pen: disposable metal nib pen - I've never quite fancied metal nib pens but it appears that the lines from metal nib pens are generally more "precise". This one was lovely and smooth on this budget store paper. 

Day #16 - Maxon Sketch Liner 01:



My comments on the pen: disposable metal nib pen - this was a gift from the sister when she traveled to Japan. I can't get it locally and finding an online vendor to link was difficult! However it is worth the try. Deliciously smooth (to a point where you almost forget it's not a plastic nib pen) with crisp and precise lines. I've tried this pen on other papers and had a bit of a "crunchy" start. Visually the pen does not appeal to me as much as others (I don't know why!) but once I started drawing the Joki swirls I just couldn't stop! I suspect this pen takes a while to "warm up" before use (either that or it does will with budget store yet made in Japan paper). 

Day #17 to 19Rotring Rapidograph 0.20


My comments on the pen: refillable metal nib pen - this was another gift from the sister! She had bought a Rapidograph set and apparently it came with a "free" 0.20 Rapidograph which was offered to me. I've tried it on other paper before and loved it but on this "cheapie" sketchbook, it was a little scratchy and fluffed up the paper a little when colouring in the narwal. It's a deliciously smooth pen that leaves crisp fine lines. It looks very fragile but seems to be able to take quite a lot of torture (taking into account my pen pressure!)!
 
BONUS the white on black tile was of course done with a Sakura gelly roll... need I say more!
 
Day 20 & 21 - Pilot Drawing Pen 01

 
My comments on the pen: disposable felt nib pen - this was one of the first pens I bought to try. I loved it and still do. Sadly the barrel isn't very attractive and the ink life doesn't seem to be particularly long. The "01" ness seems finer than the Sakura Micron 01. It is well worth the try for an inexpensive technical pen but it seems to be less readily available (here at least).
 

 
My comments on the pen: disposable felt nib pen - I wanted to try this pen because of how much I loved the Ecco Pigment pen that was featured in the first half of my Inktober feature. Wasn't quite sure how think "S" was but it seemed thicker than the Sakura Micron 01 - sure enough Jetpens says it's 0.3mm (whereas the 01 Microns are 01). I didn't really enjoy the pen as much as I did the Ecco somehow but these guys can be purchased loose. They are more expensive than the average disposable technical pen and I don't think the price difference really shows in the feel or the outcome.
 
Days 25 to 27 -  Shinhan Touch Liner 01 (together with a Faber-Castell Graphite Aquarelle 2B)


My comments on the pen: disposable felt nib pen - This was an interesting pen to try. I think it's the only allegedly Korean pen that I have. It was quite nice but I felt like the ink would "cut out" now and then - though this could be because I have damaged the pen nib with my pen pressure. Whilst I liked the feel of drawing with the pen I quite dislike the "design" of the pen that has like layers near the nib (open the link and see the picture!). Because I tend to hang on to my pens for dear life, it does kinda hurt / cut in after a while. More expensive than the Micron but cheaper than the Pitt. Good to try but hard to find.  Days 28 & 29 - Zig Mangaka 01 
 
My comments on the pen: disposable felt nib pen - while Zig pens are one of the more readily available technical pens available locally I have to say that they aren't one of my favourites. They are easy to use even when you're trying to vary line pressure but there are small niggling things that really turn me off this pen (though I could be jut being difficult): (1) the barrel is much thicker than a normal pen which I find a tad uncomfortable to use (2) the design of the pen and barrel don't appeal to me (3) the nib somehow seems hard and I don't like the "feedback" that this gives my hand - it's not scratchy... just hard.
 
I confess to not having completed Inktober last year but I did want to post whatever I had completed both for my own reference for the tangles and the pens as well as people who may be interested in finding out what pens I tried!
 
Thanks for reading! Till next Inktober!

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Inktober (part 1)

Thankful for Inktober and CZT Stephanie's Zentangle prompts - they are a welcome exercise to re-centre in view of recent events. 

Working on the Inktober Challenges in a small S$2, made in Japan thrift store sketch book. Playing more with "out of the box" tangling because well... I need to think out of the box. 

Doing each "spread" with a different drawing pen, just for kicks - as well as to force me to dip into my collection of pens (which I embarrassingly admit to being relatively extensive).

My comments on the pen: disposable plastic nib pen - until I found the Faber-Castell Ecco Pigment, this was one of my top picks. The ink is not "black black" but seems to be a deep grey (which I do quite like). Readily available locally (albeit slightly pricier than the Sakura Microns) and they come in a multitude of sizes - 0.2 was the one I found to be most comparable to the 01 Micron which I understand to be 0.25mm. Of course, it is notable that they seem to be endorsed by the very talented Johanna Basford of Secret Garden (and more) fame.

My comments on the pen: disposable plastic nib pen - one of my favourites but unfortunately I cannot buy them locally loose - they only come in packs of multiples. I bought mine whilst on vacation. Sizing is a lot more limited and I found 0.1 to be the most comfortable to draw with. Pricier than the Sakura Micons but IMO worth the extra cash. 

Days #7-9 - Tachikawa Linemarker A.T. 0.3 (which also doubles as Diva Challenge #371)
My comments on the pen: cartridge refillable fountain nib type pen - takes a while to get used to because of the directional nature of a fountain nib. It's wonderfully lightweight. Ink's a bit wet so you have to be careful when drawing (I ended up with accidental smudges here and there - hopefully they are not that obvious). I suspect the wet ink, combined with the clearly not artist grade paper makes it tricky to apply graphite as the paper tends to "rub off". I need to experiment more with this pen.    

Also sharing, for what it's worth, my upcycled tile templates - I carrying them around so that I can draw the tiles in my sketch book when I want tiles. Cut from a pen set packaging - I love fish and I thought it'd be such a waste to toss the box. 


Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Kit and colour!

Spent the last weekend dog sitting for my sister at my sister's place. So of course I had to pack a zentangle kit to last me the weekend right? 

I've been eyeing these hard top pencil cases at Smiggle for a while now, thinking they'd be super awesome craft kits. For the longest time I fought the temptation due to (1) price concerns and (2) concerns that a packed kit would be obstructively heavy and I would have wasted my money. 

However I finally caved for my dog sitting weekend!


The amount of stuff I managed to stuff in was amazing! 

Yes it was heavy but it wasn't as heavy as I was afraid it was going to be. Amazing ain't it! 

And what did I do with my kit you might ask: 


Inktober day 21: meer.YAF  

ennies. indyrella 

arukas.aquafleur

Inktober day 22: yincut.ramy.drawings

Clearly I'm still with my HAVE MORE GUTS campaign. Whereas in my last post I only ventured as far as coloured pencils, I have now done some experimentation with my Tombow watercolour brush pens (courtesy of one of the classes previously given by CZT Mabel), coloured Microns (and a grey Zig Kuretake Mangaka pen) and my current favourite Zebra Super Marble Gel Pen.  

Some of it I think looks ok, others not so great. Having seen so many awesome coloured pieces online, I was hesitant to put up my recent works because I was embarrassed that they weren't great... but no! I need to HAVE MORE GUTS right?  But hey... practice makes perfect (hopefully)... and I should be proud of whatever I did right? Right?

But if they do look bad, I blame it on this:


Has anyone else tried to tangle side ways (like the table is on my right) with a dog on your lap? It was a bit of a challenge! But this sweetie was feeling crummy that my sister was away... (In case you're wondering: yes, she's wearing a flower. It's actually a cone of shame in disguise but shhhh don't tell her that!). 

Also sharing my Inktober contributions for day 14 and days 18-20 (days 15 to 17 were previously shared):

flukes.ix.hibred.hollibough  

This week's Diva challenge wasn't really on all four with my  HAVE MORE GUTS campaign... but it kinda was. I've never attended any black tile classes and have never even tried tangling on black before so yes... GUTS required!

romanancy.tipple.'nzeppel.showgirl.ramy

My first attempt at white on black on white. Not quite sure how I feel about it but I had fun doing it! Am now thinking about doing sparkly pens / pastel pens on black and see how they turn out! Am glad that pretty pens are relatively inexpensive here! 

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

My new mantra: Have more guts!

Spent the weekend @ Heartistry!

With a Brush Lettering workshop on Saturday (the results of which I am tooooo embarrassed to share - suffice to say I need a lot of practice) and my first ever Zentangle jam on Sunday.



I quite enjoyed the session which involved making a glueless box from two zendala tiles, taught by CZT Mabel as well as making a small booklet with "pamphlet stitch" from a couple sheets of watercolour paper, taught by one of CZT Mabel's friends at Heartistry. Was my first attempt at book binding which was kinda cool 😎. 

I also collected my nets flash pay card (kinda like a stored value card) with the Heartistry logo that I won on Heartistry's Facebook draw (woohoo!🎉). 

I met tanglers I've never met before and saw what they could do (which in all honesty did make me feel a little bit lacking because some of what I saw was amazing and I was so envious! 😭). 

We had the pleasure of having not 1 not 2 but 3 CZTs at our session. I think a lot of the online Zentangle community may be familiar with CZT Stephanie (who was the originator of the Zentangle Inktober 2017 prompts) - well she was at the jamming session too! 

CZT Stephanie shared with us a simplified way to do diva dance rock & roll and aquafleur. For those interested, the version of aquafleur taught by CZT Stephanie features on her blog in this post, and her simplified version of diva dance rock & roll can be found here. Amazing! 

Having attended the session and having had the opportunity to look at other people's work, I have decided I need more guts! More guts to go out of the box! More guts to use colours! More guts to try and experiment! More guts to be wrong! My new Zentangle mantra is therefore: HAVE MORE GUTS! 

So since I spent all my time at the jamming session working on my palrevo box, when I got home, as step 1 to my "HAVE MORE GUTS" movement, I did some coloured pieces in my sketch book to record what I learnt from CZT Stephanie at the jamming session.


I'm quite pleased with how everything turned out which goes to show that I need to have more guts (but inside I'm trembling and melting like a jelly with too much water content).

So my HAVE MORE GUTS movement also extended into this week's Diva Challenge #337

diva dance rock & roll.dragonair.patience.dyon.sandswirl.printemps.leafleft.striping.shattuck.artoo

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARTOO!

Ok so well I didn't have a lot of guts... just a little bit to give a sprinkling of colour here and there and to bring out artoo even more. I was quite pleased with the result until a bystander told me it looks incomplete... 😕 sigh... baby steps?

Also sharing:

(1) My IAST #215 tile (I was clearly still in the striping mood from last week's Diva Challenge!)


(2) My Inktober bijous for days 10 to 13 (my Diva tile also snuck in Inktober day 17!)


Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Inky Stripes

I was kinda mind-blown when I read this week's Diva Challenge and browsed the links to striping. I loved what Margaret Brenner did here! I clearly underestimated the tangle! I never knew you could do so much with striping!

So with my new Sakura Pigma PN (MWAHAHAHAHA the local stores didn't have it yet but my sister ordered some for me online - my sister and online shopping FTW🎉!)... 


I need to work on my light and shadows but I don't think it's half bad. I will never think of striping the same way again! 

[Mini review: the PN is very very smooth which is awesome and doesn't really leave indentations in the paper. When I have a new micron somethings the corners of the "tuft" make lines a little irregular and have a slightly jarring tactile response but not with the PN. The downside is that the line weight is clearly thicker than that of the Micron so fine line work involves playing with pen pressure. All in all, I love the PNs 😀 and will treasure and enjoy the few PNs that my sister bought (while hoping that they hit local stores soon!)😍]

Also sharing my Inktober days 6 to 9! 

ponio.rixty.twizted.hurry

As well as my last IAST submission!

paradox.etcher.betweed.beeline.hurry.cubine

[Mini review: I did this one with the Sakura Pigma Pen (aka the apprentice pen). The ink is very similar to that of the Micron. Tip width wise it's definitely thicker than a Micron 01 and I suspect,  also thicker than the PN (but I could be wrong). It seems to tend to "fluff" a little (like pick up micro-fibres from the paper after prolonged drawing) but thankfully not to an extent that it leaves a blot on the paper. Whilst it's supposed to be a cheaper option to the Micron, in my case cost-wise it was more or less the same, since I ordered them online and they had to be shipped to me. To be honest / fair, Microns are not particularly expensive where I'm from. In case you are in my neck of the woods and want to order some, I got them here.] 

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Inktober!

Ok. Considering I started Zentangle this year, I've never heard of Inktober! However my sister (who is far more creative than I am) has been dabbling in inks for much longer (she's more into fountain pens and fountain pen inks) and shared the concept. 

So in case I have it wrong, I understand Inktober to be a month long challenge to draw one ink drawing per day... and the people at Inktober have even given a list of prompts in case you need an added challenge / inspiration! And then on day 3 I discovered Zentangle prompts by CZT Stephanie Jennifer

So why not? Since I work full-time I don't think I can afford the time to do a full tile every day (without severely sacrificing sleep anyway), so my "modified" Inktober - (at least) one bijou per day! 

Ready. Steady. GO! 

Inktober days 1 to 4!


Day 1: "Swift" using Indy-rella, before I discovered the Zentangle prompts 
Day 2: "Divide" using paradox, before I discovered the Zentangle prompts 
Day 3: Simply Knotty (and paradox) 
Day 4: Diva Dance (with a little bit of printemps)

Inktober day 5!

Inktober day 5 was a pure fluke I must admit. Was working on the Diva Challenge #335, Tint, and used Marasu before I checked to see what was day 5's challenge - it must have been a premonition! So I'm taking my Diva Challenge tile as my Inktober Day 5 (is that cheating?).  

For the Diva Challenge I tried 3 different forms of Tint. Two that I saw on the step out suggestions and one that I kinda just winged it... quite literally, in an attempt to make something that kinda looks like a peacock feather. Not quite sure if I liked how it turned out. 

This tile for me, was one of those "oh no it looks terrible" tiles when I was working on it, but after I finished shading, I thought it didn't look thaaat bad. Lesson learnt - don't give up on "oh no" tiles! 

tint.yincut.'nzeppel.featherfall.marasu.printemps

Also sharing some more of my recent zentangling activities: 

fassett.fassettoo.phroze

And the next in my bookmark (and laminator) adventures, a pair of paradoxes!