An Inkophile And The Spam Folder

Spam is a total time suck. So Inkophile management has made an executive decision to dump the junk without review in favor of spending more time doing fun things like painting doodles on a mixing tray.

Akismet does so well at identifying comments from miscreants, that little, if anything, of value will get tossed. Actually, the statistics give Akismet a whopping 99.83% accuracy rate after reviewing over 86,000 comments at Inkophile. I read all of those comments just to be certain nothing of value would be deleted but no more. After getting an eyeful from a particularly noxious spam comment, I am done.

Bye, bye spam. Hello sanity!

(If you must know, the paint is a mix of Daniel Smith Manganese Blue Hue and Green Gold tube watercolors. The brush is a #5 Cosmotop that is particular impressive for controlled strokes.)

17 Links For The 17th Of March

And a Happy St. Patrick’s Day to ya whether you’re Irish or not.

• Sukatto Notebook Helps You Destress (h/t Cheryl Lindo Jones)
• Mom Builds Lego Hogwarts (h/t Speedmaster)
• Cute Photographs of a Backyard Squirrel Doing Human Things (h/t Cheryl Lindo Jones)
• XBOX 360 Pico-Reef Aquarium
• FP Geeks: The F.P.R. Dilli, a piston-filled, flex nib fountain pen for $18
• Paper art from abadova
• Brilliant watercolors by Brenda Swenson
• Real Simple: Tic Tac Box as Spice Holder
• Black letter calligraphy by Seb Lester
• Not for fountain pens but still golden
• The Curse of Non-Cursive Writing (h/t Speedmaster)
• Leigh Reyes calligraphy video: Stones Inside Your Shoes
• Teeny, tiny watercolor palette
• Stillman & Birn New Zeta Series
• Moleskine Messages in Pastel Colors
• Frustrated over the demise of Google Reader? Check out FeedDemon and Feedly.
• TheKitchn.com: How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa

Note that the sidebar was updated in the calligraphy section this past week. A big thank you goes to Kate Gladstone for some fine suggestions.

Pen Links Plus Doctor Who And Winston Churchill

Like bow ties, watches are cool. Maybe not as cool as a fountain but close. (If you don’t get the bow tie reference, sadly you aren’t a Whovian.)

• A fountain pen collector gets seduced by a watch
• AlvaroRC shares great fountain pen photos with the Fountain Pen Collectors group on FB
• Doctor Who should own this TARDIS guitar
• The Pen Addict: The Pilot Custom Heritage
• Palimpsest: Winston Churchill and his Pens
• Daniel Smith: Neutral Tint Can Expand Your Watercolor Palette Exponentially (See the paint out) and Gentian’s use of it
• Pendemonium’s National Handwriting Month Contest & Special Offer

2012 And Some Really Good Pen Stuff

2012 was a very lean year with few items to review and no ink or pen purchases. So there is little new to recommend. Still there are some favorites worth mentioning along with a few new products on my list of

Really Good Stuff

• Best new tool that came my way was the InkJournal.
• Best new paper product was any Stillman & Birn Sketchbook.
• Martha Stewart cahier – The batch I bought was fountain pen friendly and very attractive.
• Canson Art Book cahier – Surprisingly good performance for both pens and watercolors.
• Daycraft Gold Slab journal may not be perfect or easy to source but it sure is gorgeous.
• Rhodia pads got the most action. The orange covers make them a standout in my messy office.
• My regular ink rotation expanded with the inclusion of Noodler’s Ottoman Azure and Black Swan in Australian Roses. No new ink colors came my way but Karen at Exaclair sent three reformulated J. Herbin inks for comparison to what I had on hand that were produced prior to EU meddling. I still enjoy all three, Vert Empire, Lie de Thé, and Poussière de Lune, but they are a bit different.
• Current model pens with stock nibs that were consistently in my rotation included the Lamy Safari with an EF or 1.1mm italic and the Vista 1.1mm italic as well as the Levenger True Writer fine nib. Most of my other pens are no longer in production or have been modified. The greatest difference in my rotation this year was that fewer fine nibs like Pilots and Sailors got used while the Montblanc 220 OB never fell out of favor.
• Custom nibs can be heavenly or not. Nearly all of mine were crafted by different people and in some cases I don’t even know who did the work. However, one Masuyama stub and one Binder cursive italic rose to the top. The former was a dream from the first fill though Iroshizuku ku-jaku is its current best friend. If ever there was a fickle pen this one is it for it will mate with darned near any ink. The Binder sat unused for years until on a whim got paired with Ottoman Azure. Now that Pelikan M-215 Rings is a delight to use. Some nibs are finicky and the right ink can make a huge improvement in performance. Admittedly, a little inspiration helps or that Pel and Ottoman Azure would never have met. So don’t discount what you think might work. Just try it and see what happens.
• The pen that resided in my handbag was the Kaweco Classic Sport. If it accommodated a converter, the Kaweco would get more use and take up residence on my desk.
• Best new (to me) non-fountain pen writing instrument was a tie between the Sanford Uniball Gel Grip medium (utilitarian) and the Pentel Libretto (attractive). The Autopoint remained my favorite mechanical pencil in large part due to its 0.9mm HB lead. The Levenger True Writer Rollerball sporting a felt tip refill continued as my first choice when a fountain pen or mechanical pencil wouldn’t do.

That wraps up 2012. My wish list for 2013 is simple. Buy or trade for another stub or italic nib and acquire a few new inks, mostly Noodler’s or perhaps a Diamine or two. A bottle of Iroshizuku kon-peki might be nice but on that I can wait.

Did you get some “really good stuff” this year? What’s on your list for 2013?

2012 Favorite Pen, Ink, and Paper Products

Noodler’s Ottoman Azure and Black Swan in Australian Roses, J. Herbin Poussière de Lune, InkJournal, Stillman & Birn Sketchbook for Pen & Ink, Levenger True Writer, Autopoint Mechanical Pencil, Rhodia pad, Pelikan Tradition M-215 Black Rings fountain pen.

Canson Art Book: Inspiration – A New Cahier

Yesterday I discovered a new cahier journal at Swain’s Art Supplies. It’s from Canson and not only does it work for light water media, it is good for fountain pens, too.

Canson is a very old French company that offers paper for artists under the Arches and Canson banners. This past year one of their Mix Media spiral notebooks became my testing ground for watercolors and brushes. Fountain pen ink works in it, too. I had high expectations for the Canson Art Book: Inspiration and was not disappointed.

Canson Art Book: Inspiration

The cover is bendable and unadorned except for an unobtrusive logo embossed at the bottom of the back cover. The interior of the cover could hold a lot of data including contact info or an index. The paper is acid-free and fine grained though with an almost imperceptible tooth. It works beautifully with pencil and erases easily. This may well be its first and best use.

Canson Art Book: Inspiration Writing Samples

Other writing instruments performed well with only a few exceptions. The Sharpie Ultra Fine Point demonstrated mild show-through with the Copic and Tombow showing even more. The Copics also bled-through but a blotter (a doubled sheet of printer paper in this case) prevented damage to the succeeding page.

Canson Art Book: Inspiration Fountain Pen Samples

Just because a paper is good with a variety of media doesn’t mean fountain pens will take to it. But even writing with wide, free-flowing nibs turned out well except for the Noodler’s Black Swan in Australian Roses that suffered a smear. There was no feathering, no bleed-through, and only the faintest hint of writing visible on the reverse. The paper might be a bit dry but that control makes this journal good for two-sided use.

There is only an unlined version so it won’t suit all writers. I tried a sheet of Rhodia with its lavender lines as a guide beneath the Art Book paper and that worked well enough under good lighting. Something with darker lines would be even better.

Canson Art Book: Inspiration Watercolor Swatches

I used a fairly wet, #8 round synthetic brush for the watercolor samples using straight Daniel Smith and American Journey paints. The colors turned out suitably rich and very bright. The paper did wrinkle slightly but much less than I expected. There was no bleed-through and the blotter prevented any moisture from seeping though to the next page. Each remained pristine and ready for immediate use.

If you are a Moleskine fan, this is a fair competitor should you need a different grade of paper. It isn’t a substitute for a specific Moleskine product but rather an additional journal for certain uses.

Canson Art Book: Inspiration is targeted at artists but good for anyone. A blotter sheet between pages for tools that are very wet like the Copic brush pen tip or watercolor media is essential. That really is the only caveat.

The minimalist form and quality paper make this cahier a real treat for an urban artist. Just tuck in a small box of watercolors and a tiny bottle of water and you can discreetly catch any subject. If you are a writer, especially one who uses fountain pens, anything in your kit should work just fine. No need to match pen to paper since the paper handles most every ink and pen equally well.

Do I sound enthusiastic? Well I am. Nothing since I was introduced to Stillman & Birn Sketchbooks has hit the mark for my paper needs so well. Now there is a very portable cahier to complement my S&B hardcover journals. Color me very happy indeed.

Canson Art Book: Inspiration specifications:

Comes in a package of two journals

Sizes: 8.3″ x 11.7″, 3.4″ x 5/5″, 5.5″ x 8.5″

Contains 30 sheets of 65lb/96gsm, acid-free, heavyweight Mi-Teintes paper

Simple sewn binding

Flexible cover in four colors:

• Cover: Indigo, inside cover: Lavender
• Cover: Black, inside cover: Grey
• Cover: Tobacco, inside cover: Oyster
• Cover: Wine, inside cover: Red

If You’ve Got The Time, Inkophile Has The Links

So many links this week. Bet you can’t click just one…

• JustDaveyB: Waterman Preface Barleycorn Blue inked with Noodler’s American Eel Blue
• Just A Minute Shorts (Can you guess what that is before you click the link?)
• An inside look at the After-Work Schedule Notebook Collection (Paper may or may not be FP friendly.)
• 25 Iconic Cars for Style Aficionados’ Appreciation, Part 1 (h/t Chris Meisenzahl)
• Motor Trend: Top 10 New Car Future Classics
• Smart Shopping: A Surprising Way to Tell If Meat is Really Fresh
• NewScientist: Tractor beam built from rings of laser light
• The Guardian: How To Write A Book In 30 Days
• Kit Kat Watercolor Tin on Ebay (So cute!)
• AOL May Have Invented Email’s Next UI Paradigm (h/t Cheryl Lindo Jones)
• 10 Delightful iPhone Cases for Dog-Lovers
• Five Ways to Boost Your Facebook Privacy
• How To Prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in Writers
• Microsoft Announces Office 365 University for Students and Faculty

Watercolors for Chinese Brush Painting

When painting in the Chinese style, there is no substitute for the watercolors that come from China. Add to that the way the brush is used and its supple grasp of paint and those color dishes become a necessity rather than a luxury.

Flaming Mum

If you want to purchase the real deal, my foundation set used for the painting above came from Nan Rae as have most of my Chinese brushes and other supplies. There are other stacked, porcelain dish sets available but I prefer Nan’s selection. Her basic colors include Chinese rattan (chunk) yellow*, vermillion, rouge red, burnt sienna, indigo, and neutral tint. Somewhere along the line during a painting class, Nan put a squirt of burnt umber next to my burnt sienna. It is handy for trees but I use it for little else so it falls in the nonessential category.

The swatches below are either pure color or mixes from the original six paints with the exception of the burnt umber.

Chinese Watercolors

vermillion, burnt sienna, burnt umber, diluted rattan yellow, rattan yellow

red diluted to pink, rouge red, indigo, neutral tint, neutral tint diluted to gray

three mixes of yellow and indigo to create green, one mix of yellow and green to create blue-green, and lastly rouge red mixed with indigo to create purple

If you just want to dabble at it and already own Western watercolors, there are some passable substitutes. Cadmium yellow will do for Chinese Yellow. Vermillion really has no peer but Daniel Smith Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet can be used, though it is more red than Chinese vermillion. For rouge red, Daniel Smith Permanent Alizarin Crimson or Perylene Scarlet are fine. Daniel Smith Burnt Sienna works well for the Chinese version. Neutral Tint from Winsor & Newton or Daniel Smith Payne’s Gray have the slightly bluish look of the neutral tint in Nan’s set. Finally, W&N indigo is the exact paint in my dish and it makes gorgeous greens. I am not as enthused by the indigo watercolor from other companies. They are too gray or black and less suitable for skies. In addition they lack the luminosity of the W&N version.

All of the tube paints can be purchased from Daniel Smith but that will cost more than a set of the Chinese colors. In addition to containing the paint, the porcelain dishes have a certain elegance, practicality and can easily be refilled. Another advantage is that they accommodate huge brushes, an invitation to paint large and loose strokes.

The backbone of Chinese painting is ink whether full strength or diluted but color enlivens any subject. It is amazing how much can be accomplished with so few colors especially when those colors work in close harmony. This simple, six color palette is all that is needed.

*Chinese chunk yellow is slightly toxic. Follow package directions especially if you are putting it in your own watercolor dish. A few minutes before you paint, dampen a section of it and let the water soak in before loading your brush to paint. Otherwise, the color will be thin and lacking in saturation.