Kate's "Frankenpen," Part TWO

My converted Noodler's to a bent nib is FUN...

Here's the pen and  nibs together...

 I used to feed from the original Noodler's Creaper pen...you just gently work it out of the pen.  (While I was at it I deepened the feed groove slightly to make it feed better.)

The nib is from an M-86 Hero pen, a perfect fit.  (The feed did not, though, so voila, Frankenpen!)

A good cleaning with Goulet's pen flush put everything in the mood to work well...

Here, you can see the lines of the feed, and the approximate position...you hold the nib and feed firmly in one hand and push it into the pen.  Don't force it, but seat it well.


You can see the position and the bent nib well below...

And the pen in action!

Hero pens are available online (though the M-86 is hard to find, perhaps on eBay last time I checked); it looks as if an 8-Horses Hero might fit too, but I have yet to try one.  (And ya know, they work just fine in the pen body they come in, they're just a bit heavy for me!)

A review of the M-86 is here--you can see photos here too.  It's a bit awkward to use and the cap doesn't fit well when posted--it unbalances the pen but it has a LOVELY nib, hence my conversion!

I usually pick up my Noodler's Creapers from Gouletpens.com--they've got a huge selection of colors, too!  (No, I don't work for Goulet or get a cut from them--they're just terrific people to work with, so I like to spread the word!)

Alas, I don't know about converting any of the other pens out there--I'm so happy with this one!

Again, these two posts are in answer to correspondent Liz Steel's question about my pen hack in her wonderful series on Fountain Pens for Sketching--don't miss it!

Kate's "Frankenpen!" Part ONE

Our dear friend and book contributor Liz Steel has been doing a wonderfully helpful series on her blog on Fountain Pens for Sketching, on Tuesdays and Thursdays--don't miss it! 

She asked me about my Noodler's Creaper conversion to a bent-nib calligraphy pen, and though I've mentioned it in passing, here, I really didn't say much about it...so here's Part One, how I did it, and why!  I love that pen...lightweight, versatile, handy and fun!

The bent-nib pens are great fun , once you learn how to hold them...this is from my YouTube video that shows a number of ways to use them.

Actually, it's Chinese, in this case, but oh well...

Our community center after a fire, with my Hero pen...

NICE variation for the trees...

And oops, sorry, Blogger's being weird, so I'm having to do this in two parts...

A look at our own Liz Steel's current sketching tools!

Liz has branched out into teaching a range of workshops in her home country of Australia and abroad...and continues to sketch virtually every day, inspiring and delighting hundreds of us!


Check her blog for this post on her current sketching tools...
http://www.lizsteel.com/p/current-sketching-tools.html

Thanks, Liz, for letting us share here, too!

Sketchbook vs Journal

A quick update... I am still markering and using a moleskine cahier... Have just started my second one.



Today I just had a light bulb moment (like all light bulb moment they seem very obvious afterwards...)

As much as I loved working through the first moleskine- drawing only on one side of the page – I never fully bonded with the book. (getting severe water damage didn’t help much either!)
It is because I wasn’t working across the spread that it feels more like a sketchbook (each page a separate image that don’t connect) rather than a journal (a record of my life) Even though I did do a few journal type pages the flow between the pages wasn’t there. What is interesting is that a single page of this sketchbook at A4 size is the same size as what I am used to with my normal A5 sketchbook working across the spread. It is not the size but this ‘book-like quality’ to turning pages that obviously is so important to me.



The second moleskine cahier, that I using now, I am going to work every second spread (little I did with the smaller sketchbook in my last post) and I am immediately excited by the feel. Excited that I am now back to journal style but even more excited but the possibilities of working larger size. So even when I write a heap of text like I regularly do, I can still tie it together with an image on the next page. Also combining various images on a page (even over a few days...yet to do this) makes it feel more like a travel journal (ah! That is always a nice feeling isn’t it?) And just in case you are wondering, I am ALWAYS thinking about my next trip (whenever and wherever it might be and thinking about what I will do next time- very much like Alissa’s project recently)

This concept follows on from a discussion recently on facebook when someone asked why we don’t sketch on single pages... I replied
it is very important for me to work in a sketchbook since my sketching is all about the process of recording a moment and telling the story of my life. Individual sheets of paper is too disjointed for me- sure I could bind them later but I like seeing the narrative evolve through a book. I find that there is a lot more pressure to produce a perfect 'image' when all I really want to do is have fun and record the moment.

but since then I have realised that just being in a sketchbook isn’t enough – there has to be a narrative!


So, I think that by next adventure will be to try a large moleskine watercolour book (A4 landscape) I got one in the mail today. ... a little worried about whether it will fit on small cafe tables but excited by new adventures to come.
(the other sketchbook is the one I am currently using- my moleskine cahier with a cover by Paul Wang from Singapore) Ok... That's even rambling from me for today!!!

You never know what will happen next!

What I love about keeping a regular sketchbook just for yourself is that at times it seems to take you places you never really expect.


After my overseas trip in July I was all inspired and keen to do some different things. I attended the 3rd International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Santo Domingo (always an amazing source of inspiration) and then afterwards spent a week in New York sketching and socializing madly. This single image shows all the sketches I did that week. There is no doubt that I was somewhat out of control with my sketching.


I got home and had the desire to try something different and experiment… so I choose a sketchbook (Canson Universal) which did not have watercolour paper in the hope that this would loosen me up to try new things. The paper turned out better than expected and although the paper buckled, it made a lovely crinkly sound. I also started a 'sketch and walk' in the morning for 30 minutes before work. I walk for 20 minute and then sketch for 10…and find that I get into the office pumping!


And then, one day I thought I would try to use markers (alcholol based markers than graphic designers use/used and I did a workshop at the symposium by Eduardo Bajzek who has been doing amazing things with them)

For a while now, I have thought that markers would be the perfect medium for me to use at work (I am an architect) as they are quick, can be used on bond paper, are dry and scan well. But I just never got the hang of them during office time...so I needed to test them out on the streets for myself.



Well… after one or two days I got hooked and have been using them for the last 5 weeks…even to the point that last week I took my watercolour kit out of my everyday bag (purse) …shock horror- I would never think that would happen!..but I really hadn't touch them in 2 weeks.



I am mainly using Copic markers and they have the really big disadvantage of bleeding through practically every paper…



so I ended up only using every second spread and then use red dots to close the bleed through spread together….which was a nice graphic…though I was going through the sketchbook really fast (here is one weeks sketches)


Trying them out on my signature tea cup sketch… they have limitations with mixing…but so much fun!


And then, on the weekend I was out with Alissa Duke at a very special Chinese tea house and after doing a quick sketch with markers suddenly felt that I just need to record this with my paint… so I did a second sketch. This was a sign to me that the markers are fine for my morning sketch and walk…but deep down watercolour is still the BEST for me!
I am now using a moleskine cahier… but getting ready to go back to a sketchbook with paper that is watercolour friendly!

But who knows where I will end up next …. I like going with the flow in my sketchbooks….

BTW more of my markering here

Some more on windows...

Here are a few random thoughts on drawing windows (it is not how to draw perfect perspective since this page contains a very bad example of perspective...unless I am drawing a very curiously angled window!?! )

I have been meaning to do this for a while- but seeing Kate Johnson's wonderful post on painting windows here has prompted me. On the top left corner is a very quick Australian version (double hung federation green window in a Sydney sandstone wall) and the doodles illustrate some things that I have been thinking about lately.

These are obviously drawn from an architectural point of view... I just couldn't help drawing a plan could I? One of my earliest memories of being a junior architect in the office was being told how to draw a window properly in elevation(front view) - draw the frame and then the sashes etc etc...and that certainly has helped me understand what I am looking at when I am am sketching on location.

To draw windows convincingly, one needs to consider the relationship between the window and the face of the wall - is it set back a long way (deep reveals) or is it flush or proud of the wall. Also where is the glass in relation to the frame? When you look a a wall from an angle do you see more of the window or more of the reveal?
What is the relationship between horizontal and vertical members.

Hope my scribbles make some sense....

Thinking about maps in travel journals and other things

Now that I have finally finished all my scanning from my recent 3 week trip to Eurooe, I was looking through a few of my travel sketchbooks last night...

last years big trip (11 weeks USA UK Italy) was so busy that I rarely drew maps, while during my 5 week trip in 2009 I drew maps every night. This year's trip I made an allowance for maps on my summary page and ended up drawing most of them when I got home.

What STRUCK me last night is... the few maps I drew last year where incorporated into a page with a sketch or two and that these ARE a lot nicer pages. If I hadn't got around to drawing a map on these pages, I could have added some text or some collage or just enjoyed the glorious white space which I generally don't have enough of in my sketchbooks.

Anyway... this has got me thinking of a different approach... it doesn't necessarily mean that it is another trip...but I am always thinking about how to do things different whether for a new trip overseas or just recording my day to day adventures.

Travel 'journal-style' pages, a set on Flickr.

Following on from last nights thoughts... I just created a new flickr set specifically for my favourite kind of journal-style pages.
A collection of some of my favourite pages that are in a journal style...ie. not just a single 'great' sketch on a page. Ones that tell a story, ones that I enjoy looking at and re-living months, years later.A combination of sketches, media, notes, a map, a bit of collage...and maybe even a tea cup sketch or two!