I was asked recently about the tools I use to sketch ‘n doodle. Well I tend to stick to the bare necessities: an HB2 pencil, a Conté pen, an eraser.
– The HB2 pencil: right in the middle between overly soft and annoyingly hard. Who uses the H-range pencils except for architects and interior decorators anyway? Good for setting up the general scene of an elaborate illustration.
– The Conté pen: it’s cheap, it’s light, it has a nice direct grip and feel on grainy paper. Versatile in that it lets you doodle in super-fine-line crosshatching modus as well as thick-line frenzy. Plus you can replace the pen tip at any time. Downside: you need to carry along a flask of indian ink to wherever it is you want to draw. Doing so tends to be rather conspicuous. People will notice your ink dipping and their facial expression will radiate “what does he think he’s the next Leonardo Da Vinci?”, combined with “well I better look my best then”.
– The Artline “Drawing System” 0.2 pen. Perfect for quick sketching. For one thing, you don’t have to have the ink dipping thing going. Using it while sketching tends to make your subjects believe that you are in some way or another, engaged in work-related business. Little do they know!
– The Pelikan Eraser: it’s an eraser, what can I say. It, like, erases things; and it’s pretty good at it too.
Me, an art supplies fetishist though? Naah.
I know exactly how it feels. I have a thing for stationery too. I love nice pens. I had a decent collection of rotring pens and many B and H pencils (which I sort of used) but all that was left behind in Argentina and now is gone.
Now I can’t buy myself nice ones because my wife takes them and bites the caps and I never find them again. Grrrr!
It’s always nice to see what others are using. Thanks for taking the time to post this.
Roberto: just buy her a separate set and hide yours in the sock drawer or something! :)
Kevin: of course now you got me wondering what you are using…
I’d say you have a very healthy art supply fetish going there… ;)
Wow, I have never heard of any of these makers though. (Other than Pelikan anyhow, but I only know them for their paints.) The dip pen in particular intrigues me since I’ve had such horrible experiences with the American ones that we get here. And I wonder if the Artline pen is like the Staedtler Pigment Liners. I should give mine another try…
Thank you for sharing!
Right now, COPIC refillable Multiliner’s are my religion. I recently purchased a set of 10 and inking has never been the same. Just when I thought brushes were all-dhat!
(http://blog.umamidesign.com/?p=40)