Life changes

This month has meant upheaval for me. I am expecting new housemates in December. This will be for our mutual benefit, they need an affordable place to stay and I could use help with housing expenses. This house is twice the space that I need to live, but nature abhors a vacuum. In the last four years the three spare rooms have filled up with books, fabric, sewing machines, and yarn. Now I am reorganizing the entire house to empty those rooms and move materials to my remaining space. That is a good thing, but time consuming.

Painting walls gave me the thought that I would like to paint one wall with a dark blue paint that I bought cheap and paint jellyfishes in pink on top of the blue. Sam and I have practiced sketching jellyfish for that effort. The blue paper that I made some Inktober sketches on makes a good background for pink jellyfish.

Moon Jelly- colored pencils and ink on Blue Cartridge paper

I love this blue paper. It was a gift and has no labels to tell me where it was produced. The only label says "A5  cartridge ex col" over a bar code. A5 is the size, and cartridge is what drawing paper is termed in Britain and Europe. This paper has a enough tooth to use with pencils, but is thick enough so there is no bleed-through with any of the fountain pen inks I've used. I also have seen no feathering with fountain pen inks. Toned and colored papers are great fun! I am trying to figure out where to get more of this blue.

Sam's jellyfish and school pick-up practice
Blue Cartridge Paper and graphite pencil

When picking up my granddaughter at school, I try to practice figure sketching. However, children don't even hold a pose for 5 seconds, let alone 30 seconds! So I am reducing my practice to faces and hairstyles.

On a sad note, we lost Paris hamster last night. Her decline was sudden and unexpected. Sydney continues to be lively, but unfortunately, hamsters (like all small rodents) don't live long. The average lifespan is 2 years, but Sydney and Paris are just over 1 year old. I have no guess as to why Paris died.

Psychedelic Hamsters

I'm a child of the 60s. Not the drugs and free-love 60s, but the back-to-the-land, make your own, simple living 60s. I gravitate toward tie-dye, the more colors the better. So when I read about Koh-I-Noor Tri-Tone pencils, I had to try them. Loved them!! The colors really pop on black paper too.

Fanciful Rooster: Koh-I-Noor Tri-Tone Pencils
Canson Black Sketching paper

But wait! There's more! Why stop with 3 colors when you can have four? Or seven! Enter the seven color pencil made in Japan. I have seen these for sale on Amazon for a price that was out of my budget. Then, while surfing on eBay, I found a set of four for a dollar a piece. They are bright and creamy and have beautiful colors. Thus the psychedelic hamsters.

Sydney hamster in her psychedelic dreams.
Niji-Iro seven in one pencil
Blick Mixed-Media paper

Comparison sketch of three rainbow pencils, three layers on each ball at darkest value.
Left: Koh-I-Noor Tri-Tones; Center: Niji-Iro pencil; Right: Brilliance 4-in-1 pencil.

When I went back to eBay to buy up the rest (how long will 4 pencils last, after all?), the seller and the listing are no longer available. So I tried a couple of other offers. I have received a 4 color pencil made in China that was a big disappointment. Here is a quick comparison sketch:

Description of pencils:
Koh-I-Noor Tri-Tone pencils: Made in Czech Republic. $12.50 for 12 in a metal box (from eBay). One of the pencils is a colorless blender pencil. Each of the remaining pencils is a different combination of three colors that are randomly intermixed in the lead so that a continuous line gradually changes colors even if the pencil is not rotated. Colors are bright and creamy. The colors are banded at the end of the lacquered, natural wood colored pencil and given a poetic name like "Sunset", "Tiger", "Rainforest". Some of the combinations have striking color contrasts and some are more subtle color changes.

Niji-Iro pencils: Made in Japan. I paid $1.50 each (including shipping) from eBay, but the only comparable pencil (not labeled Niji-Iro) I see now are priced at $27.50 for 12 ($2.33 each), and they are three sided pencils. The pencils I have are round, standard sized pencils made of smooth unfinished natural wood. Otherwise the leads are arranged the same as the Amazon offering with seven colors in a pinwheel pattern. To get the best color variation, the pencil should be rotated as you write. The pigments are bright and the colors lay down rich and creamy. They came in two plastic sleeves, two pencils to a sleeve.

Brilliance 4 in 1 pencils: Made in China. $0.75 each, including shipping, from eBay. These are larger diameter than standard pencils, and the four colors are intermixed throughout the lead. The leads are waxy and hard and produce a faint line. I could not get a bright color even when layering. Not recommended. The pencils arrived in a paper envelope.

#Inktober2019 Yixing teapot sketched with
Diamine Inks: Chocolate Brown and Red Dragon.

Here is #Inktober2019 sketch of the day. I could, theoretically, sketch only pieces from my ceramic collection and have one for every day this month. But I need to use my green inks next!

And here is a picture of Sydney hamster doing her dead hamster trick.

Sydney hamster playing dead
 in protest over the heat.

When the temperature gets up above 83 degrees in the house, she presses her mouth and feet against the glass and goes all still. I had already turned on the A/C last week when she went into her drama mode. It's a good thing we have had a week of fall weather. I feel silly to use A/C just for two hamsters!

Fountain pens for sketching

Three fountain pens came in the mail today that I have been wanting to try for sketching. All three of these pens have the capability to draw from thin to thick lines depending on the pressure, or the angle, at which the nib is used.

1. Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen - from eBay ($8.95). The plastic that the pen is made with has a cheap feel to it, but the real brush (as opposed to a felt tip that is used like a brush) lays down a rich, gushy line. I need some practice, but it is exciting to use this brush to get a quick sketch with fewer details.

7/16/19 Sydney hamster, gestural study. Kuretake Brush Pen with Kuretake black ink.

The black ink cartridge that was included was deep black, and appeared to be water resistant as it did not wash well even when fresh.

7/16/19 Hand #13 Kuretake brush pen, Kuretake black ink.

2. Jinhao X750 with a Fude nib installed - from eBay ($3.56) The eBay description is a calligraphy nib because this nib lays down a thick to thin variable line depending on the angle of the nib to paper. It is used in Chinese calligraphy. I need more practice with this nib also, but I was really happy with the results. The ink goes down very smoothly. Noodler's Lexington Gray ink is water resistant, but if I put a water wash down first, it makes acceptable shadows.

7/16/19 Hand # 14 Jinhao X750 -Fude nib; Noodler's Lexington Gray ink; Artist's Loft journal paper

I have several other Jinhao X450/750 pens. They are metal bodied (brass, I think) pens that I find to be pretty, but too heavy and unbalanced. The nibs are medium width, which is very wet and gushy, so I expected that the feed on a Jinhao X750 would be able to keep up with a fude type nib. I took pictures of the medium nib and the fude nib side by side. The tip of the fude is bent (which gives fude nibs the thick to thin line variability) and does not have the "iridium" tipping ball that I see on the medium nib. Otherwise it looks the same to my eye.

Jinhao fude nib on the left, Jinhao medium nib on the right. The style and lettering are the same.

Jinhao fude nib on the bottom, notice the bend upward and the lack of a balled tip when compared to the Jinhao medium nib on top.

3. Jinhao X750 with a Zebra G flex nib installed. eBay ($4.50) Zebra G dip nibs are popular for drawing Japanese Manga comics. They flex very widely and easily by putting light pressure downward on the nib. I have used these nibs as dip nibs with a holder, and found the spidery thin lines and the wide flex to be great for lettering, but I don't like how frequently I have to dip the nib when using fountain pen ink. There are YouTube videos on how to hack the nib to fit in a Jinhao pen, but my attempts to hack pens have not gone well for me. So I ordered this pen, hoping the wet feed would be able to keep up. The result was initially beautiful, but soon had major railroading (the two track lines) even though I went painfully slow. I will NOT be drawing Manga, or any other sketches, with this pen!

Comparison of Jinhao Fude nib pen with Jinhao Zebra G Nib pen. Noodler's Lexington Gray ink in fude, Diamine Oxblood ink in Zebra G. Notice the railroading in the word "Zebra". Rhodia #16 paper.

About those Hamsters

I like having pets. I have lived on a farm, then our homestead, then in a succession of rented houses and apartments. Someday I may write about all the pets, livestock, and dogs over the last 45 years. I distinguish dogs from pets in my life because from the first dog as a senior in high school, I trained my dogs to do a job. I've always had working dogs, especially Australian Shepherds. My last dog, Chynna, was the epitome of my dog experience. She was trained in obedience, agility, assistance work and rudimentary scent work. She died almost three years ago just short of her 15th year. I don't feel like I have the time or energy to properly train a dog at this stage of my life. 

But the house felt too quiet and empty with no other living things. I wanted something that required minimal cage upkeep, relatively quiet, cute and fun to watch. I raised fancy rats for years, they are great and interactive companions, but needed to have the cage cleaned frequently and do not fare well with the heat in my usually unconditioned home. I wanted a desert animal, but gerbils (used to raise those too) are illegal here in southern California. 

Enter the dwarf hamster. From the deserts of Siberia, they can take the heat (up to 85 in my house) that my rats had suffered from. They urinate much less than rats and will use a litter box so their cage does not get very smelly. They are so small and adorable to watch and look at. I started with 4 robo hamsters (adopted through Craigslist), unbearably cute and tiny but not interactive. They really didn't seem to notice my existence. The next adoption was of two sister Campbell dwarf hamsters. Not as tiny, but they react to my presence. 

My first hamster study:

The top three are of Sydney, she loves to climb on the bars of her cage and sometimes wave her arms through the bars to try to get treats.

The bottom two sketches are Paris, only seen from above because she lives in a large plastic tub. I intend to do more hamster study sketches because they are so much fun.

It all starts here:

Oddly enough, this blog starts with an unhappy bullet journal. I came across the concept of the bullet journal about two years ago. I admit that I am attracted to new things that give me an excuse to accumulate lots of shiny objects, so I started a bullet journal in a composition book. It was supposed to be low cost, using already hoarded obtained items, like the composition book, Flair color pens, and my favorite writing instrument, the Pilot G2 0.38 black pen. When it became apparent that keeping a regular bullet journal would continue, the permission was then granted (internally justified) to actually purchase items specifically for journal writing. The search for a good, cheap(ish) hardbound journal began.

The first cheap, lined, paper journals came from Costco (SpiceBox). The paper and bindings were thick and durable, but only available in one size and page format. Since it was fun to add little, quick sketches here and there throughout the journal, the lines on the pages became annoying behind the sketches. Soon the Flair and G2 pens had gone by the wayside in favor of...YES!...Fountain Pens! As well as the necessary inks of all types and colors (accumulating shiny objects, remember?). Then I spotted the Artist's Loft A5 sized, dotted page, journals in Michael's craft store for only $5 each. Score! The paper was also white instead of the beige colored paper in the SpiceBox journal, which better displays the colors of fountain pen ink.

However, the Artist's Loft paper was too thin to handle many fountain pen entries, especially sketches, and I became disenchanted. The 8 inch by 6 inch size format is perfect, the binding secure, and the choice of cover colors is lovely. Also, the beauty of the ink color on white paper and the less intrusive dots behind the sketches appealed to me. Being the frugalist that I am, I have to finish the current Artist's Loft book before I can switch to my next choice, so I've started using up pages by making more full page sketches. I learned to wash the ink with water to create shadows. That definitely messed up the cheap paper in the book! Oh well...

A post by a certain urban sketcher (Fueled by Clouds & Coffee) about sketching One Hundred self portraits as a way to improve in sketching heads inspired me. Heads and hands are supposedly quite difficult to sketch well. I can't yet wrap my psyche around the idea of looking at myself that closely in the mirror and on the page each day (not without cringing), so I decided to sketch 100 hands. My right hand, to be specific, since I am left-handed. Many bloggers and recently written books advocate for publishing our sketches, so here I am! I have toyed with the idea of blogging for some years, but it took a disappointing journal experience to get here.

Hand # 1
Pen and Ink: Platinum Preppie (05 nib), Monteverde Wisdom Purple