The Perfect Sketchbook

I headed to Michaels today to see if they had any of these Pitt Artist Pens in Sepia.  I was in luck because they had them and I had a 50% off coupon.  Perfect combination in my opinion.  I am going to try using these to draw on my drum.

When I got the mail at home to my delight I got this package from Singapore.  Pretty exciting I think.

I have been waiting to get this in the mail. I had no clue how long it would take mail to get here from Singapore but it was pretty quick. I backed this Kickstarter project for the Perfect Sketchbook,  so it was nice to get the product and see how nice it is.  Its small enough to fit in a purse or pocket.  Its like having a moleskine but the paper is better.  It has 72 sheets of 100% cotton rag watercolor paper 190 gsm. a side pocket, ribbon bookmark, a greyvalue chart on one of the pages and a coptic binding so it opens flat.  The cover is grey and is nice and soft.  A quality product.  I am pleased, now for some time to try out the paper.  I even got some scraps of the paper tp play with.  One of the best things I have backed.

Black and White

I am continuing to play with the pitt artist pens in my moleskine journal. So my subjects are black and white, first a loon from a magazine picture.













This is raven drawn from a photo I took. It was on my computer so I at least had a model to work from.














I took this picture a day ago at the Ox Bow turnout in Teton National Park. Everyone was looking for moose but I saw the raven so I took his picture.























Then that evening I tried drawing the him.






















This was done from a photo I took a year ago. Its from Yellowstone NP but you can't really tell that. I think I am starting to get used to drawing with these brush markers. They are actually fun to use. Now I want some in color.

A touch of grey

I pulled out my moleskine and tried out the Pitt Artist Pens Manga set. I did the scroll watching Pam Carriker's video. I think I got the idea down but just need more practice at it.

Then I tried the face and it was so much harder. I started with the lightest grey for the whites of the eyes and I think next time I will just leave them the color of the paper. I am so used to pencil and being able to blend it with my fingers. I am not really sure how to do that with markers. Practice makes perfect they say. I am sure this is not the first time I will used these.

I am amazed what Pam did with them in the Art Journaling Autumn issue. I know she also used the grey's in Neocolor II water color crayons too so I may try that also.

Learning something new is sometimes scary and you usually don't get it just the way you want the first time, but it is definetly worth the journey.

You never know how a day will go

Here I was innocently reading emails and so forth when a friend suggested that I create a fan page for the Queen on facebook. So I spent the next hour figuring out how to make one. There is a link on my sidebar for facebook and in case you want to be a fan. I added a little discussion board too so check that out if you like.

I am being domestic today. Processed peaches and I may do some jam later today.



















I picked up a set of these yesterday. They have all those grey shades in brush pens. I haven't used brush pens very much so I am looking forward to trying these out. The new Art Journaling magazine I talked about previously has a nice section on using them in your journals. I like trying new things as you probably can tell.

Do you have any art supplies lying in wait to be tested. Maybe today is the day you drag them out and give them a try.

Sharpening a Pitt Artist Pen

This video shows how to sharpen a pitt artist pen. I thought it was a great idea.



Then I saw that Pam Carriker did a video doodling with them, she is using the grey manga set and what she does with them is amazing.

Here are some more stenciled pages from the book I am working on. I have been collecting things to add to the pages. That will be the next step.