Pastel Box ... New Toy!

This lovely pastel box arrived yesterday. Pastels can be stored in the bottom and the lid, and the box opens flat so the pastels in both areas are available. My collection of the softest pastels needs only one section for now.

These are my softest pastels: Great American (nice but lots of hard spots), Schmincke (love 'em!), Sennelier (darn things crumble easily), and Unison (very nice!). I broke all of my sticks in half, and the others halves, most with wrappers, are stored elsewhere. If you think they look unused, it's true. I've just started learning to use pastels.

There is a smaller box of Rembrandts and Grumbachers (both medium-soft). They could be added to this set, but I haven't used pastels enough to tell them apart by feel. Those, too, are 99.9% pristine.

There is a cigar box for the NuPastels (hard).

The colors in all of the boxes are arranged more or less by value and color.

Yeah, there's a tin of 48 pastel pencils too.

Simply arranging and rearranging the colors has taught me a lot about colors and values. The nice thing about pastels is one can see the colors and values without having to mix them as with oils and watercolors, though mixing and blending can also be done with the pastels.

It's time to stop playing and to start using my pastels, and I shouldn't buy more until I learn to use what I have. Hmmm ... it would be nice to have more purples ... maybe more blues ....

New Toys

Three new toys!

1. New high-powered, massive-harddrive-space computer. This one runs XP Pro with the option to switch to Vista when I wish. I'm happy with XP on which all of my programs work.

2. DSL. It's time to give up on dial-up and switch to DSL.

3. A beautiful EasyL Lite pochade box and tripod from Artwork Essentials. I am very impressed with the quality and ease-of-use of the box, and the tripod is much nicer than expected. The box and tripod are around 3.5 pounds each, so it's a light setup compared to others. I added a pane of glass, painted grey on the back, to the palette and sealed it with silicone. I like the way a panel can be raised above the palette when painting, and only two, very thin, metal rods hold the panel at the top.

Since I am focusing on setting up my computer and clearing my workroom of old computer stuff (yeah, I still have floppies sitting around, though they were copied to CD's ages ago), drawing and painting have come to a halt. When I finish with my computer and housekeeping chores, I will be free to play with my pencils and colors again.

EDM #130 - Draw School Supplies

Although I am attracted to school supplies, I haven't needed any in decades. This is a recent stapler purchase that should be considered an art supply.

My regular staplers weren't strong enough to control on gatorboard, and I didn't want to use my heavy-duty stapler, so I tried this PaperPro stapler. It's supposed to work with a light finger touch and easily staple 20 sheets at a time.

It's perfect for stretching watercolor paper on gatorboard! It has so much more power than a regular stapler, and it's a delight to use. It uses the same staples as a regular stapler. I already have three or four boxes of 1,000 staples each stashed away.

It can be stored horizontally like a regular stapler or vertically as shown. The vertical position is nice because it takes up less space.

The only minor problem is that when I open it wide to use the stapler on the gatorboard, it thinks I'm opening it to refill the staples, so I must open it with care and close the staples holder section. No big deal.

EDM #102 - Power Plug

Night lights a great for rooms where I have to walk in the dark to get to a lamp or light switch. They're actually bright enough to sometimes not bother with turning on a regular light if I'm only there for a moment. I'm sure I purchased more than one shell night light many years ago, but the others disappeared during a couple of moves.

Lexington Gray ink by Noodler's was used with this drawing. Even though the gray ink spreads more than the black ink, it dries quickly, does not smear, and was not affected by the watercolor. Now what do I do? If I use their black ink, it takes forever to dry enough for the watercolor, but it maintains a fine line. The Lexington Gray gives a broader line, but it can be used almost immediately with watercolor. I'll unhappily choose the Lexington Gray when I don't want to wait for hours until it's safe to use watercolor over the black

EDM #97 - Draw a Present You Have Received

A travel set of Schmincke watercolors now belongs to me! Twelve half-pan colors came with the set, and it will hold six more, though nine more will fit. I am considering adding some full pans.

These are beautiful colors! This is the first time I've used them, so they haven't had a full test drive.

My problem is having more travel sets and brands than I need. I'll have to get busy using them all. *heh-heh*

Edit: Someone asked for photos of this paint box. These were quickly taken on the drawing table under the lamp, but they're enough for reference.



I've placed empty pans in the third row and two small travel brushes to the right of the third row.

The closed dimensions are about 5" wide x 4" deep x 3/4" tall. About 13cm x 10cm x 2cm. I don't use the metric system, so I hope I gave these are cm's and not mm's.

The weight is 10 oz., over half a pound. 0.2835 kg? To me, that's heavy compared to my smaller travel palettes. This palette must be made of a quality or heavy-weight metal.

Lexington Gray Is Mushy

My two, new Pilot 78G fountain pens, fine nibs, along with a bottle of Private Reserve Chocolat arrived today! New toys!

When I tried the one I filled with Noodler's Lexington Gray, I noticed the line is soft or mushy and wider compared to Noodler's Black. This is the reason why the ink in my Lamy Safari looks like it is from a pen with a medium nib instead of an extra fine nib.

You can see by my samples that the Pilot fine nib is finer than the Lamy Safari extra fine nib no matter the ink, and the Lexington Gray has a wider line than the black no matter the pen. The scan with web resolution does not show the differences well, but it's enough to show there is some.

The Private Reserve Chocolat ink is a beautiful dark brown. It's not waterproof like the Noodler's inks, so it can be used for washes by picking up the ink from the line.

The Pilot pens and the Private Reserve ink were purchased from His Nibs. He doesn't carry the Noodler's inks.

EDM #82 - Draw Your Art Area

My watercolor stuff is on a large plastic serving tray. Two knife rests are used to keep my wet brushes in a horizontal position, and clean, dry brushes are upright in a cup. Clean water to add to the palette is kept in an individual creamer with an eye dropper. China plates are used for mixing, and the one being used is moved to areas convenient to a painting. There is a plastic, skid-proof mat on the bottom which keeps the materials in place.

My most useful tool is a pair of tweezers with a curved, sharp point. Perfect for deleting the dog hair which floats into my paints.

Enough with Roses

Just couldn't get into one more rose. I'm sure the practice is good for me, but I don't like the results of my efforts. One day I will be more comfortable with ink and shading, but not today. At least my new Pilot pen from the previous post is more comfortable in my hand than my previous pens.

If anyone is interested, here are the links where I purchased my pens.
His Nibs
Pilot 78G, Fine Nib, $25
Hero Account, XXF Nib, $10

New Fountain Pens

My only interest in roses is that they confuse me so drawing them is good practice. The first was drawn with Micron pens. Since I learned to write with a fountain pen, I find the angle needed to use technical, roller, ballpoint, and disposable pens difficult.

I have a Lamy Safari, EF nib, but its shape near the nib does not suit me, and the Noodler's ink in the pen took hours and care to dry. Even then it would sometimes smudge.

Today's mail brought me two inexpensive pens: a Pilot 78G, F nib, and a Hero Accountant, XXF nib.

The second rose was done with the Pilot 78G with a fine nib. Do not blame the skill of the drawing on the pen. It was a pleasure to hold. It's a Japanese pen, and the F nib equates to our XF nib. The Noodler's ink from this pen dried within minutes, so less ink must be coming through the nib. The nib is much smoother than that of my Lamy Safari. This may be the pen for me!

The Hero Accountant pen is also nice, but I've only used it to write a few words. The ink line seems close that of the Pilot F nib. It's also a smooth writer.

Another Tiny Tin Paint Box

Look at what I found on eBay! It's the center box with 18 sections to hold paint, and it's only $14.99 plus $1.50 shipping! Empty, of course. Each section holds a lot of watercolor paint.

The photo shows this Tiny Paint Box (center) next to my W&N Bijou Box (left) and an Altoid's tin (right) with 14 half pans. The Tiny Paint Box and the Altoid's tin are the same height, but the wells are full depth in the Tiny Paint Box. The half pans in the Altoid's tin only come up half way.

I'm considering using Krylon white spray primer on the inside of the lid followed by either a coat of spray enamel or Futura floor wax.

Since MaimeriBlu watercolors are already in my Bijou Box, my Tiny Paint Box is now filled with Winsor & Newton watercolors.

The seller is C. Camp if you are interested. She currently has ten available in one listing.

New Toys!

Certainly not needed now, but I knew I eventually might want a palette similar to this one. When it first came up for auction on eBay, I didn't note it because I assumed it would go for more than its worth to me. Luckily, I looked at the items ending soon when the auction was almost over and noticed the bidding was in the $20's, well under the value of an empty palette. Also included were two, retractable brushes.

After tossing in my bid with little time left, I won the auction for $37.00, including shipping. It was then that I looked at the brushes in the photo and thought I saw the name Winsor & Newton.

The package arrived today! The brushes are Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Retractable Brushes, sizes 3 and 5! I've already snapped out the paints from the pans and will fill them with Maimeriblu paints. My Winsor and Newton pans will also fit in the palette if I decide later to switch out the paints. The Lukas paints will be wrapped and stored. Three of the Lukas paints are metallic silver, gold, and copper ... fun!

It's nice to find a bargain, but I always think of bargains as a treat to make up for all the times I don't get a bargain ... or a decent parking space. *lol*

My Tiny Bijou Box

My new Bijou Box is definitely cute! It's about 3" x 2.25" x .75". Eight Winsor & Newton Artist's half-pans and a travel brush come with the set, and there's room for four more half-pans while still leaving room for the brush.

It was a bargain at $35, including shipping. The half-pans alone would cost over $50 through an online discount shop. Though I have more than enough small travel palettes, I just had to have this one! I knew it would be small, but I didn't realize how tiny it actually is. Cute-cute-cute!

Since I already have a small palette with W&N Artist's Colors, I've filled this one with MaimeriBlu primary and secondary, pure-pigment colors along with Raw Sienna. With room for four additional half-pans, more colors can be added later.

It's fun to play with tools, but they are more effective when used rather than admired. Time to return to practicing. Oh, did I mention that my tiny Bijou Box is really cute?

Purse Paint Boxes

These two paint boxes are tiny, light, and cute. The dimensions are 4-3/4" x 2-1/2". The lids are metal and the bases are plastic. I could fit in some half pans if I took out the brush holder, but these hold emergency paints, and I have half-pan palettes with better paints if I'm planning to paint away from home. One paint box contains watercolors, and the other contains gouache. There's also a Niji waterbrush and a Moleskine Cahier in my purse.

When these boxes were purchased, I though it would be an easy matter to take out the original watercolors. Ha! The original brushes had thick, plastic bristles, and that should have been a clue. It took hours to get rid of the original paints ... they were water-resistant! The top paint box is now filled with Yarka paints, and the bottom one is filled with cheap tube gouache.

Since the boxes are so small, they can be placed flat at the bottom of my purse, and I don't have to worry about wet colors shifting out of their containers.

At the bottom of this picture is an Altoids box which holds a pencil sharpener, kneaded rubber, and white eraser.

Of course, I've never used these supplies since I only have time to paint when at home, but I'm prepared in case of emergency.

EDM #4

I only use mugs for storing pens, pencils, brushes, etc.

This is a little one I bought as a souvenir in Portugal.

I used my Lamy Safari with Noodler's ink on the three previous EDM's, but I have to wait for the ink to dry and make sure it's not too thick before making erasures or adding watercolor. This time I tried the Micron 01, and the strokes are too broad for me. At least the ink does not smear when the pencil guides are erased, and it's waterproof.

Testing Art Supplies in Moleskine

Left: Gouache
I've never used gouache, so I purchased a cheap set for use in my Moleskine. It was easier to use in the sketchbook than watercolor. I had a problem with too much water coming from my Niji Waterbrush, but I learned this can happen after pushing on the sides of the barrel to flush the pen. Now I unscrew the nib from the barrel to adjust the pressure. I put the gouache paints into a tiny, toy, metal paint palette, and it and a matching palettte with Yarka watercolor paints fit nicely on the bottom of my pocketbook. It took ages to get the original watercolors out of the toy palettes. Those paints were hard and water-resistant!

Right: Noodler's Ink and Lamy Pen
Noodler's Ink does not like the water-resistant surface of the Moleskine sketchbook pages, so it's not waterproof on the pages, plus it takes a long time to dry. It needs to reach paper to be waterproof. I also showed the Pigma Micron and Staedtler Pigment Liner pens, and they are both waterproof on the pages. Big disappointment because I wanted to use my Lamy pen in the sketchbook. Not to worry. There's more paper around here.