Lane’s Blog

Although I’m new to watercolor painting, I’m learning quickly, and it’s been recommended to me that I purchase some sable brushes to give myself the opportunity to experience the difference that a quality brush can make in one’s painting.

SO I began a quest for sable brushes and have come up with two sources that I would like to pass along:

http://www.dakotabrushes.com — I only checked out their sables, but their prices are very competitive and–best of all–they only charge $5.00 SHH for your total brush order. I did a comparison, and for the same order, Dick Blick’s prices were 20% higher and the SHH was 15.95 compared to $5.00.

http://www.rosemaryandco.com — I found out about Rosemary & Co. on the Handprint.com website (Bruce McEvoy). She’s located in England and has been handmaking brushes for about 25 years. I’m fascinated with the idea of owning handmade sable brushes–and from Britain to boot!–so I’ve just placed an order.

The international purchase process isn’t entirely clear (there’s a printable mail-in form, but no online form). But I emailed my order and got a reply the next day, saying that my brushes should take around 5 days to arrive here in Charlotte, NC. The cost was very reasonable: for four sable brushes (not Kolinsky), 38.21 pounds sterling.

I went to the Rosemary.com website, clicked on the PayPal link; logged in; copied the email address; entered 38.21; selected British pounds; completed the form; clicked submit; and I’m done! I think this is an amazing thing–to be able to buy something from a foreign country and effect payment this easily and securely. Plus Rosemary & Co. can’t be charging much for shipping. So I anxiously await the arrival of my brushes and will post my comments at that time.

Lane

One can never have enough art supplies (do I hear applause?) and my latest art “problem” to solve is finding the perfect (for me) fountain pen for sketching. I am looking for a “working” pen, not a collector’s pen, i.e., low-price, but good quality. I also want a pen/nib that produces a variable-width line rather than a consistent-width line. My research indicates that this quality primarily results from a flexible nib (another link), which is normally associated with dip pens. My conclusion is that I have about four decent options and I’ll share these with you: (all prices are from Pendemonium.com except Ackerman and do not include SHH)

Lamy Safari with ink converter ($30 + $5)- Nina Johannsen’s site influenced me the most; and possibly the Lamy Studio which is $56 with converter at Swisher.com

Pelikan Traditional 150 piston fill ($50) – I love the separate screw-in nib units ($15 each)

Ackerman pump pen ($30) – Here’s a persuasive forum post ; supposedly you can fill this pen with ANYTHING it will suck up, including diluted watercolor paint, India ink, whatever.

Sailor Profit Super Script with ink converter – This 4-in-1 nib sounds very cool ; this is a wonderful artist’s sketchbook site and she uses a Sailor pen (but a fairly expensive one); another interesting option is the Zoom nib, but this doesn’t seem to have the charming line quality that I’m looking for.

Here’s a website that compares the nib widths of various pen brands, which is very useful.

While I’m on this topic I might as well add what I’ve found on inks:

if you are sketching the biggest question is whether you want the ink to not smear if and when you lay on a watercolor wash. The Noodler’s Bulletproof ink is said to be waterproof and noncorrosive for fountain pens. For my purposes I believe that I want to try (in this order; all $12.50 each from pendemonium.com w/o SHH):

Noodler’s American Eel black ink (supposed to be kind of lubricated; good for pump mechanisms)
Noodler’s Bulletproof black ink (may be redundant if I get the above)
Noodler’s Eternal Brown ink
Noodler’s gray ink

So you see, it’s been fun, but confusing! I want all of these pens (and more!), but I must choose. I’m REALLY thinking hard about trying an Ackerman pump pen with a Crowquill nib. If I do, I’ll post a sample of the lines I’m able to draw with it.

Cheers,

Lane