Category Archives: Beginner Supplies

Review – Signo Angelic White

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Some colors of pens are rare, and white even more so. So if you need to highlight something in your art or maybe need a white-out pen that isn’t a white out pen you can try the Uni-ball Signo Angelic white gel pen.

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Starting with the pen itself: the barrel is octagonal near the back and becomes a weird grip shape near the front, though it is quite comfortable. The cap has a plastic clip that works I guess and securely clicks into place on both the front and back of the pen. A metal cone holds the tip and cartridge in place and can be easily unscrewed for refilling.

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The ink is white. Though not as white as one might hope, being a gel ink it is slightly transparent, and on darker colors would require several coats to cover completely. That being said it highlights very well and is very visible on colored paper, though it looks a bit grey on black paper. The ball is also very fine, leading to a line that can be very faint sometimes.

So overall it is good at highlighting and some writing, but if you’re looking for a pen that can precisely cover marks and don’t have the patience to use multiple coats you might not want to look at the Uniball Signo Angelic White.

Review – Pilot Precise V7 Black

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Smooth writing is something quite a few people desire, for both writing and sketching. Fountain pens are some of the smoothest writers available, but they have some convenience issues. And regular ballpoints require too much force for some people to write smoothly. Pilot’s Precise line of liquid ink roller balls are meant to fill this gap in the pen market. This is the V7 black version.

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The pen body itself is straight, nice on the fingers, not slippery, but polished. All necessary info is printed on a label on the side, along with an ink window so you can view your supply, of which there is a lot. There is quite an interesting, fountain-pen-like feed which is clearly visible under the grip. It keeps up well with the writing. From there, there are some strange ribs leading up to an extended point with a rolling ball.

The cap is simple: straight with a nice clip that works well and says “Pilot”, Though it does have some strange indents, it posts well.

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The V7 point is 7mm, which is shocking, I know. It is very smooth. It dispenses ink handily and never skips unless it is dry from not putting the cap on. I also find it is less prone to get away from you as some of the other rollerball pens with fine points I’ve used are. The ink itself is quite black. It dries quickly but not immediately. It does get grey after some wetting or smearing, but this isn’t much of an issue.

So overall this is a great “take everywhere” pen, for both artists and writers. Though I would recommend it more to artists because of the nature of the tip and liquid ink. I find that in sketching it pays to move fast, while in writing it doesn’t. Either way it’s a comfortable pen that writes super smooth and lays down a nice line of fairly black ink. It’s worth a look at least.

Review – Pilot B2P Ballpoint Pen

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I’ve come across quite a few interesting or novel pens. I’ve tested out most pens I can get my hands on and have determined my taste accordingly. But a pen caught my eye recently with a gimmick I’d never seen before. It was a Pilot B2P pen, made out of recycled bottles. I’d seen pencils made out of recycled denim, but never a recycled pen. I don’t usually pick up Pilot pens but I decided to give this one a try, if only for the novelty.

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I’ll start with the writing performance, because on this pen that’s less interesting. It’s a ballpoint, and for a ballpoint it writes amazingly smooth, even smoother than most Gel pens I’ve used. The ink is black and fairly dark. The line is thin, well, at least thinner than most ballpoints. It usually writes on the first go with no skipping, a problem I usually have with Gel pens. It’s fairly impressive, though I think it may run out of ink rather quickly.

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Onto the body, which is a fairly pleasing blue color. It’s got a fairly useless grippy-grip near the tip and a mid-way between sturdy and flimsy pocket clip on the back. The blue is dark but transparent on the back, mimicking a bottle, and to further the effect it has ridges and troughs to look and feel like a crumpled up bottle, making it feel quite nice in the hand in my opinion. There is an easily worn off label around the center of the pen that contains all useful information, though the more pertinent information is also on the clip.

The retractable mechanism works quite well and doesn’t seem break-prone, it’s nice and solid (though if they hadn’t perfected this tech by now they never would). It also disassembles easily and well into parts for replacement and refilling, though I doubt you’ll ever do either of those.

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So yes, it’s a nice ballpoint, not the nicest ballpoint, but a nice one. For the price it’s good and novel. And the feel is quite nice. Its uses are that of all ball pens and this one doesn’t stand out terribly. But it is good, and a very interesting idea. And it’s a better conversation starter than the standard click-y ballpoint.

Mini Composition Showdown

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A while back I reviewed the Dolgen Inspira mini composition book. I have quite a few books like this and instead of reviewing them all I decided to just compare them all together. So here’s the mini composition showdown. Mead vs. Inspira vs. Top Flight.

First off, covers and binding. All the covers are the standard composition marble pattern, with the Inspira being the most crowded followed by the Mead and then the Top Flight. The binding on the Top Flight is a sturdy fold stitch with eight signatures, while the Mead and Inspira are weak, simple glue binding. All notebooks lie flay fairly well, though the Top Flight takes more breaking in. Cover durability again goes to the Top Flight with the other two tied. The cover corners are straight on some of the Mead, clipped on the Top Flight, and rounded on the Inspira, meaning the Mead with the square corners will most likely tear up quickest. Other Mead notebooks have rounded corners.  If you want color the Mead and the Top Flight are the way to go.

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Their dimensions are about the same, with Inspira being slightly taller and Mead being slightly wider. The Mead and Top Flight both have eighty pages, while the thinner Inspira has sixty. The smoothest paper belongs to the Mead, the roughest to the Inspira, and the Top Flight is very akin to newsprint, unfortunately, not very high quality. All are not archival quality paper and fade rather quickly on the shelf, though they are bright white out of the package. None are very good at holding ink, but the Inspira is best without bleeding, followed by Mead and Top Flight.

What will really make or break these books, though, is their large price difference. The Inspira are three for one dollar (U.S.) the Top Flight are five for three dollars, and the Mead are one to two apiece.

So if you can organize all that and determine the best for you you’ll end up with a very nice pocket book. Each one is suited subtly to a different task so the main challenge is finding out what is best for you. They are certainly not the best memo books by any means, but they’ll certainly work, especially in a pinch.

Review – Dolgen Mini Composition Book

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Okay, this is kind of a cheat. But little notebooks are art supplies to someone. Even with the small price, should you get these small Dolgen composition books? Are they worth it?

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These little books contain about 60 pages of narrow lined paper. The stock is thin, and bleeds easily, but it is still about the same as average copy paper. They’re about 3½ X 2¼ inches, so they fit nicely into a pocket. They aren’t that great for drawing, but they excel at little notes and ideas.

The binding is fairly poor. I get the impression that it will fall apart quickly, but not as quickly as it takes to finish the book.

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These things are small, easy to carry, and really handy. They’re great for jotting down notes and the like. While they obviously aren’t made for drawing, a quick sketch or two definitely won’t hurt them, one just has the lines to contend with. At the three for a dollar price I paid for them, they are superb little notebooks.