Materials I used during inktober 2017

1. Kuru toga mechanical pencil 0.5 in green. Hands down the best gift with purchase I’ve ever had. Until the lead ran out. So I’ve ordered more lead, because its a special lead, that doesn’t instantly snap.
2. Shaws ballot pencil.
3. Lamy Safari fountain pen, fine nib. I wish I’d gotten the extra fine nib now. Oh well. Not seen here because it is is still misplaced.
4. Heat gun – the only way to finish water media drawings in an hour.
5. Bristol vellum paper daler Rowney, air brush. I didn’t enjoy using this paper, which I think helped with my inktober efforts as I wasn’t being precious. It’s some I bought in the old days, back before Cass Art had an online store that would post things to you so you had to take an empty suitcase down to London. What I didn’t like about it was how when i drew over an already wet mark the paper started to disintegrate. With a fountain pen. Not even a wet wash. Too delicate for me!
6. Hannuke mixed medium paper – using a heat gun over a block causes it to buckle. Using masking fluid in anyuthi8hng more than a nice elegant line caused the paper to tear.
7. Lyndhurst Cartridge paper pad – such a old one I think my mum bought it for me when I was a student.
8. Pental pocket brush pen – lovely lines, refillable, unfortunately no converter available.
9. Dip pen and nibs. I can remember not liking a dip pen when I was a student. I can now put that own to lack of line quality and pen control. The firmer the nib, the easier it is to control. My favorites that I used this October were sergent major no2500 and the two mapping nibs which give that fine liner effect, but with added mess. Just not on the Bristol paper and not when I’m in a rush
10. Inks: acrylic black ink, FW (Daler Rowney) so old i didn’t care if I used it all, or had excess lying around in pots of premixed washes. Very thick and goopy, have no idea if this is down to age or not. Watered it down for convenient inks washes anyway.
11. Inks: noodlers bullet proof black ink. After some research I’ve found that this one isn’t the blackest the company produces (and it isn’t the blackest compared to carbon black by platinum) so when it’s all used up I might look into different inks that the company does as it says it has good ethical and ecological claims, and says it’s made to last!
12. Inks: carbon black ink by platinum. My favorite for a black wash! I shall be refilling my pocket brush pen with this.
13. Sundries Eraser, pencil sharpeners and incredible white mask. The dipstick is hanging out with the pens.
14. Sailor fude fountain pen. Once you get the hang of twisting the line, lovely to use. Easy to overdo it though.
15. Water pens. Filled some with ink washes and some with ink. I also have an art-Kure Watercolour system brush. I haven’t been able to find it online, so it must be old…
16. Brushes. My Watercolour brushes don’t get a lot of love, but they’ve done stellar service this month!

And I have officially spent too long arranging things on the floor to photograph them. Time to do some sketching. In colour!