#nice pens like fine point sharpies or nice markers or whatever

[impulsivelycontentious]

My spouse and I seldom have massive disagreements but pur fundemnetally oppositional approach with our kid lately has been a huge problem.

You see, I let my kid draw on their arms using whatever marker they happen to have without comment or objection,

And he gets really upset about it and tells them off because the ink isn't rated for that kind of thing and is actually toxic and what will happen if they go to school covered in ink.

Anyway I have no tattoos and he has three of 'em.

I solved (most of) it by buying non toxic pens for skin.

And by my stating the school doesn't have a policy about kid's skin so if they object that's their problem and I will Have Words.

Anyway all this is problem solving in my household. Sometimes someone has concerns which while we disagree about the severity of they are valid (sharpies are in fact toxic), and sometimes those concerns aren't really enough to justify action (the child's right to bodily autonomy includes their right to use themselves as a canvas).

So we found our middle ground. Which is nice.

And now we have a new problem because the small said they have trouble drawing on their arm, so I offered to let them practice on mine if they want and also showed them how to hold the pens so they can draw more effectively on their own arm (they wanted flowers so I doodled some flowers on my left arm and explained i would have more issues with my right because i am right handed and have not practiced this skill either right or left handed and it will take time).

Only now kiddo does not want to practice on me because they're "not very good at it".

Like. Child. I literally offered my arm up BECAUSE you are not good at it and it might be helpful to see a design before attempting to do it being unable to see it properly.

The POINT is it's gonna be bad and that's fine.

It's art.

It doesn't HAVE TO BE GOOD to be art.

It doesn't have to be much to be art.

It is fine.

Which I said, of course.

And then they're like "well I suppose because it's only a temporary tattoo..."

And that's wrong too.

So ok yes I would not want them putting a perminent tattoo on me without practicing first but i would let them use me as their first human model once they'd finished practicing on the fake flesh. Because I don't mind wearing art my kid made. I like having art my kid made. Sure if it was permanent maybe i'd want a little more practice first but that's not actually the point here. I want to help and i;m happy to wear qhat they make.

And that brings us to the purpose of this post, which is to note that you don't need to be GOOD at your art for someone to love it. Or for it to be worth making. The point of art is art. Communication. Feeling. Art is fundemental to us as a species and exists in many, many forms. Worrying about how good it is is besides the point of the art. One should enjoy it.

#parenting #i don't know I really have much of a point #rambling #relationships

[m-ziliak]

Do you have certain materials you prefer? Like a certain type of paper, pens, etc.?

If you’re practicing, use the cheap crap! Use printer paper and ballpoint pens and RoseArt and Reeves! Always practice with the cheap stuff and save the good quality materials for when you know what you’re doing. For stuff I prefer for myself now... Paper. When working in sketchbooks I really like Canson Mix Media. It has some tooth to it and I really like that. I also work a lot with markers and it holds up to them really well. I have Strathmore Mixed Media books, too, but they’re really smooth and I’m not very fond of that. Seems like it would be better for blending, but I always feel like the pencil or ink is going to smear or feather. For comic book paper I really like Canson as well. Doesn’t bleed, doesn’t feather, I just wish it had some more layout markers. (Though I can just do that with a ruler.) Pencils! Been using Prismacolor Col-Erase for a long while now, usually in Light Blue and Carmine Red. Please note that Carmine Red doesn’t erase well and is kinda a pain in the butt. I used to draw in Non-Photo Blue, but it was too light when I was inking and I’d have a hard time seeing my sketch and scanners would still pick it up. If I’m doing warm-ups, thumbnails, or just sketches I’ll use anything. Normal pencils, ball-point pens. Anything. Pens. For inking I usually go for Sakura Micron. Comes in a bunch of sizes and I go through them like candy. They can handle a decent amount of work, have pretty durable nibs as long as you’re not stabbing the paper. I also like their brush pens for filling in. I used to use Copics as well for inking, but they were too expensive to upkeep and I  didn’t really like how they felt. (I had the metal ones that you could refill. Heavy pens.) I also used to use Stabilo and I kinda hated them. Did my first comic with them and it looks like shit. Feels like holding a pencil, though. I might try them again now that I know how to use pens better, but for now I’ll stick with Sakura. Oh! I also use Sakura Gelly Roll for white ink, but I’m not super fond of it. I just need it for fixing mistakes. I’ll look for a better white ink pen later. Markers! If you wanna get into markers, use Ohuhu. They’re cheap, they dry out in a year, and they come in a ton of colors. Good to practice with. Right now I use Copic Sketch and I like them a lot. I have some that have dried out too soon, so I might try to revive them again, but overall I like them. They blend nicely, they don’t usually feather or bleed too bad, they come in a verity of colors. I like them. I’ve also used Faber-Castell, they’re okay. I’m not really fond of them. They never seem to dry out which is nice. Don’t blend very well, but that may just be me. Sharpie I hate. Never got the hang of them. Hate the smell, hate the colors, I don’t like Sharpie. I know other people that can make them work, though, so that’s definitely me. Other art stuff! I use Mod Podge to glue things, usually paper to whatever I messed up on so I can re-draw it. Bad idea. don’t use Mod Podge to glue things. Coloring over it will also make it look weird. Get a quark-back metal ruler. Keeps the ruler from slipping around. I have a cheap glove-thing I got for free when I bought a tablet to cover my hand and keep me from smearing stuff. I used to have a SmudgeGuard brand one, but the elastic gave out on it and for some reason the woman who ran the store didn’t believe I had small hands so she sent me the wrong size with a letter that an adult can’t have hands that size. I may try to sew my own one day. But it does keep the pencil and whatnot from getting messy.  Computer stuff?? For taking photos and posting them to Insta, I use SnapSeed for fixing contrast and white-balance issues and LINE Camera for editing out stuff like eraser dust or little things like that. For digital art I use Photoshop CS6 and a really out-of-date version of GIMP. Like, so old. Super old. I don’t actually have a scanner and haven’t for a long time now, so I can’t really do any digital art. I’d like to get back into it, but I’m also VERY rusty. I never draw digitally and I should really try to get better at that. I want to try out Clip Studio Paint, but that’s a bit expensive for something I don’t know if I’ll like so maybe I’ll use their free trial. Drawing tablets I’ve used have been a Wacom Graphire3. From 2004. It was a good little tablet until it died. I have a little Wacom Intuos. It has a giant scratch on the surface, but it works fine. If I do any digital art, I usually do it with that. I also have a Huion Kamvas GT156HD. I hate it. It worked properly once and never again. The wires are a pain in the ass, setting it up is even MORE of a pain in the ass. It’s constantly running in the background for no reason, the pens can’t hold a charge, and it freaks out if you have drivers for other tablets installed. No matter how many times I uninstall and reinstall drivers it never works right. It’s a pain to change pen settings, I just hate it. Haven’t used it for two years or so, it was a huge waste of money.

#Anonymous

[emritcheson]

My Top 5 Favorite Pens for Writing

Who’s ready to get nerdy about pens?!

In these days of so many different apps and programs specifically made for certain types of writing, I don’t know how many of you out there still like to get things done with a good ol’ pen & paper.  For me personally, hand writing is a really good way to first draft and brainstorm.  

When I’m on a computer, I don’t know if it’s the crisp look of the font against the white page or the hard clacking of the keyboard, but everything feels so permanent.  Even if I know I’m going to go back and fix things later, it’s harder for me on a computer to just barf out whatever comes to mind, and therefore less actually gets written.

In a notebook, however, and using my personal notebook system, it’s much easier to get into an actual flow of writing and just letting ideas happen on the page.  And because of this, I take my writing instruments very seriously.  So here’s a few I’ve found, over the years, to be my favorites to use.

1. PaperMate InkJoy Gel

There used to be a period where I pretty much exclusively worked in InkJoy ballpoint pens, thinking they were superior in every way.  Then I found these and I’ve spat in the general direction of every ballpoint pen I’ve seen since.  These pens are just delightful, and my current favorite of all time.  I specifically get the retractable kind because it’s just easier for me to use.  The ink is so juicy and they come in so many lovely colors.  The barrel is super comfortable on my tight little goblin grip.  They’re not completely without smearing, but they certainly dry faster than most similar pens.  I love them so much.  And look at all the pretty colors they come in!

2. Sharpie Pen Stylo Fine

I’ve been using these pens since high school, and the reason for that is because they just work.  There’s often a little bit of ghosting depending on what paper you’re writing on, but (as is heavily advertised with these) there is no bleeding.  And they dry super quick!  I will say this, though: the “pastel” colors aren’t really top notch for writing because the ink is so light.

3. PaperMate Flair Medium

I first found a Flair just laying around one of my college classrooms, and I’ve been obsessed ever since.  Mostly, though, I’m obsessed with how these pens look.  It has a nice tapered shape from matte plastic that just feels so good to hold.  And they also come in so many pretty colors, it’s a feast for the eyes down the stationary aisle.  Functionally speaking...I mean, it’s a felt tip pen.  Not the best I’ve ever seen, but far from the worst.  The nib can get a bit of that squeaky feeling if you use it for too long, if you know what I mean?  But they’re so pretty.

4. Sharpie Extra Fine Point Marker

Sometimes I just have what I call “Red Sharpie Days,” where I want nothing more to write in a Sharpie marker, specifically in red.  Which seems mad, because these pens definitely weren’t designed with lengthy writing sessions in mind.  I have to take a break now and then because the Sharpie Fumes™ get to me, and it ghosts like a mother, but there’s just something about the way the nib looks and the barrel holds, and how it feels against the page...it’s like a junk food craving.  I usually reserve this one for personal journaling when I just need to be with my own thoughts for a little while.

5. PaperMate SharpWriter #2 Mechanical Pencil

So...this obviously isn’t a pen, but I had to include it in this list.  There was a long time where I had fully converted to the Church of Pens, and using a pencil to write anything just felt juvenile to me.  More recently, however, I’ve been using these mechanical pencils specifically when I need short brainstorming sessions, usually in the middle of writing something else with a pen.  It’s my way of letting myself know that entry is basically a really big footnote.  Technically speaking, the lead is decent, not too light.  The eraser is amazing.  The only thing that takes a bit of getting used to is you twist the top to get more lead rather than click the eraser.

So that’s what’s usually in my pen case at any given moment.  As said, this list has been cultivated purely from my own experience, so I’d love to know what writing instruments you nerd out about!

#stationary #pens #top 5 #listicle #handwriting #original article

[skeletonwitchhh]

My favorite memory of my ex was around the last time we had gotten back together.

He had broken up with me the day before , so the next day at work I was really sad, but at that point in the relationship I kinda just accepted that he left and that was that . On my lunch break I had gone to five below just to waste time and for whatever reason I decided to buy myself a sketchbook . I thought maybe I could distracting myself with drawing or something along those lines. When I got home, he had texted me if he could come over and talk to me and I agreed. He then asked if I needed anything from Walgreens and I had told him if he could bring me any painkillers because I had a headache. When he got to my house, he stated that he had gotten me something from Walgreens and it wasn't my painkillers.

He pulled out a set sharpies and a nice set of pens.

He said "I know these aren't your pills, but I figured you know, drawing is like a form of medicine for you and I just thought you'd like it".

My eyes watered so bad. I wanted to cry so bad. Confused by my reaction I then told him how while I was at work I had just bought a sketch book . He proceeded to hug me and by the end of the night we had gotten back together and everything was fine.

That whole situation was crazy to me and still is. The odds of that happening. My ex and I were so in tune with each other. There was no way he knew about me getting that sketch book. And the crazy part was that I debated on getting myself markers and color pencils and I had decided not too. That man knew me better than anyone else. He was my best friend.

I miss him so much. Ill forever hold on to that memory about him. I love you, Ivan. Take care.

[cobrienba1b]

Sketchbook Update

This is my last lot of sketchbook uploads, I have almost finished my second sketchbook, I have done some artist research and tried to apply some of that to my sketching, I have also done some more observation and imagination sketching, as I have found that this was a lot of fun. 

This was the first one I have done since the last update, I had a can of 7up with me and I chose to draw it through observation and then try and turn it into a little robot. I made some iterations before I moved on to the final design, I really liked the way it turned out, it sort of makes sense on why it looks that way and I even gave it a nice pose. This was mainly inspired by Sketchy Trav’s artwork, where he would make something completely creative out of nowhere and dedicate a page to one character design.

Next, I went on to draw my friends from observation and then turned them into little robots as well, I really like how these turned out, as well as giving them similar designs but having a good enough distinction between the both. The first one is more round and bulky, trying to give it a more stereotypically masculine design and the other quite sleek and pointed, trying to give a more stereotypically feminine design. I then redesigned them in pen without using any pencils, in the same way, that Kim Jung Gi would without any pencil work. Hoping that this would improve my confidence with linework. 

I next went on to do some artwork inspired by Terrance Whitlow, I don’t have the exact tools that he had but I managed to get some equipment similar that should hopefully do the trick. I had some markers to colour and to blend, I had a tipex pen do help with lighting and also had a white gel pen for thinner lighting lines. I also had a sharpie and a blending pencil (for the tipex). I then used a fine liner to add any small details later on.

This was the first artwork I did in this style, I remade Robot Noah but without any linework, I sketched out the rough shape and blocked it all in with the red marker, then I added lots of tipex and smudged it in to give a highlight, then added the shape and kept refining it as I went along and then finally got to this finished piece. I really like how this turned out, for such a messy picture it turned out a lot cleaner than I expected and I really liked the result. 

I then went and did the same with the ninja turtle that I created earlier on in the sketchbook, I added a few more colours into the mix as well, to give it some warm highlights and cool shadows, as well as mixing in some colours to get some others. I also really liked how this turned out too, it almost looks like a painting but it was all done with markers and tipex. 

Next I tried to also imitate Kim Jung Gi’s process with drawing with pens straight away, I drew my friends with bird heads and some odd quirk about each of them, one with multiple arms and one with multiple heads, I added some speech bubbles to give it more characters and throughout this process I had to try and train myself to live with each pen mark as I couldn’t erase any of it, so if I madea mistake I’d have to try and work around it. It turned out really well.

Next, I made a lot of random cuttings from this red card that I bought from the shop, then I stuck it onto the paper and used them to make some faces or draw whatever I could see in my mind when looking at them. I quite enjoyed this little task and I even added some shading and higlights as well. 

#sketchbook

[mysticsparklewings]

Wire Sunset (+ Time Lapse!)

An attempt at a speed draw/time-lapse number 3! Link: youtu.be/BllxcQOvWQg I'm trying to get myself into something of a habit with these, just to see how it goes over time. This one is a bit different though, as this isn't exactly a typical drawing for me. The drawing is more fitting with my little collection of sky hexagons I did a while back. So what gives? Well, before I did my Happy dAnniversary to Me! piece on the tan paper, I had actually planned to do it on my gray paper, and I got as far as most of the line art...Except I had already run into the problem of the gray paper being unusually difficult to see my sketch through when using my lightbox (which is still exceptionally weird to me, considering the tan paper does just fine ) and then to top that off my own hand was just not cooperating with me.  So I decided to save myself some frustration and just use the tan paper instead. I wasn't really sure what to do with the gray paper after that. It was already a "scrap" piece, leftover from cutting a piece down for Applet, and now it was being scrapped again. I couldn't very well try tracing another sketch, as I'd partially already learned my lesson with that (it is possible, as I've done it before with mild success, it's just that the sketch needs to be dark/have a layer of pen on top and my hand needs to be in the mood to be steady) and now I had pre-existing lines that would get in my way. That reality didn't leave me with a ton of options. For a little while, I toyed with the idea of doing a galaxy/sky piece before going through my camera roll to see if I had any sunset pictures I wanted to try my hand at. And more than ever I wished for a set of tree/leaf stamps to make my life easier because there's something just really appealing to me about having the pretty sunset colors broken up by stark black tree branches and stuff, and trying to draw those details out has just always felt like way too much work that never turns out quite right to me. (And very very easy to screw up.) But ultimately I did a bit of practicing and decided to just go for it and hope for the best. To be fair, the majority of my time was actually spent building up the color for the sunset in the background. I started with Faber Castell Polychromos, and that might have been a mistake? For whatever reason, despite them working just fine on the tan paper on my first test piece with them and on my Stellaluna picture, miraculously, they just weren't turning out very pigmented on the gray paper.  Like I really needed the white and lighter yellows to be bright and pop and they just refused. I tried not to; I really did. But I ended up having to pull out my Prismacolors for the majority of the good color payoff. The Polychromos did make a good base and gave me something of a starting point, but as far as the pigment, on the gray paper, they couldn't touch Prismacolor. Side note: Originally, I hadn't planned on using the Neon Orange Prismacolor, but the bottom portion of the sunset was supposed to be really bright and I wasn't sure how to get any of the pencils to do what I wanted, so I tried it on a whim and over the pink it actually looked really nice! Also, I ended up using this blender pencil by Derwent when I noticed I was seeing too much of the pencil strokes for my liking. I've had the blender for a while; I just haven't given myself much opportunity to use it. When doing reviews/first impressions/tests for colored pencils, I try to keep it fair and not use the blender to see how the pencils stand on their own, and half of the time I just don't think to use it otherwise. And, if I'm being completely honest, I've always still had a bit of a bad taste in my mouth (metaphorically speaking) left from the Prismacolor blender pencil. That's actually part of why I bought the Derwent blender in the first place: I had to see if all blender pencils were that difficult to work with. The Prismacolor blender technically does its job, but I feel like I always have to press way too hard to get it to work properly, and even then it doesn't always do what I want. Just after I got the Derwent one, I did a small side-by-side comparison with just some little circles and color swatches, and IT WAS SO MUCH BETTER LET ME TELL YOU. It doesn't take nearly as much presser, and I would argue it's just better overall. And I think it has to do with the Derwent one having just a little bit of a white/neutral pigment in it, as you can kind of tell that if you sample both blenders on a non-white paper. It's not enough to really notice when you're actually using it to blend, though. I'm not sure how that science works out, but hey, it's saving me hand pain and making my drawings look smoother, so I'm happy. Many layers of colored pencil and blender later, it was time to add something so it looked like more than just blobs of color on a page. I used a ruler to get a few lines, but beyond that, I was mostly free-handing everything (I did look up some extra reference for the birds, but I wasn't super picky about them) and I was trying not to be too picky about symmetry and everything be perfect and all that. (Hence why the power line pole might look a bit wonky). I learned pretty quickly my black markers didn't seem to like going over all the colored pencil wax at all. This worked out in my favor for the actual power lines, as even in my photo reference they looked a bit spotty like this, but those trees... Both of my Copic Multiliners, my Prismacolor liner I used on the pole, my black Sakura gelly roll I used for the birds, even my ultra-fine tip black Sharpie...NONE of them wanted to do those trees! You can see me constantly having to scribble on my scratch paper in the video to get through them. Ultimately, the Prismacolor liner worked the best, but that wasn't saying much. I think I would've been okay if I had stuck to just using the Polychromos, as they're oil-based and I've noticed my gel pens don't fight over top of them alone that much, and I have definitely had plenty of problems with my gel pens trying to go over wax-based pencils like the Prismacolors in the past. And dare I say the Derwent blender pencil probably did not help with that, either. Either way, I did manage to get through it. After that, I cut the edges off where my pencil strokes didn't go quite all the way, then had to cut a bit more to kind of straighten it a little. Then I grabbed my metallic cardstock and cut a piece down to mount the picture on. Neither are particularly straight because I was using an Exacto knife and my own judgment rather than a paper cutter, but eh, I'll live. (I have since borrowed my mom's paper cutter for future endeavors.) In the video you can see me applying mod podge to the back on the picture semi-off screen because I was trying to hide my jacked-up, unused line art.   Then I decided I needed one more bird to cover up a small smudge that was bothering me and signed it with my purple gelly roll, hoping my signature would blend in a bit more that way. (Not entirely sure that succeeded, but whatever.) Overall, I am quite happy with how it turned out  Though I'm not sure how this managed to be the longest video since I felt like it took the shortest amount of time, yet looking back I guess it actually didn't Next up, I've been toying around with some watercolors, so there's that. No clue what I'm going to do for the next Time Lapse, but we'll see. ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram