Category Archives: Art Supplies

Review – Fine Point EXPO Markers

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So, are markers art supplies? By markers, I of course mean dry-erase. Is the whiteboard the canvas of the classroom? I don’t know, but I would count dry-erase markers as art supplies so I’ll talk about them briefly.

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I’m going to focus on the pen-type variety of the EXPO marker. They are small, pen-size. They fit in the hand nicely and don’t slip despite the glossy finish.The cap holds well, but it has no clip so it won’t stay in one’s pocket.

 

The ink of this particular one is black, it goes on smooth, dries fast and is nice and bold. It stays well and looks nice and sharp. It obviously doesn’t have much line variation but the point is fine enough that one can achieve most of what they would want to. When one is done the ink comes of easily with an eraser. The smell has also been reduced (though not eliminated) and the ink is thankfully non-toxic.

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There’s a reason EXPO has become synonymous with dry-erase markers, they are simply one of the best, and for dry-erase needs one usually can’t go wrong with EXPO. As long as its large. (they also work just like a regular marker on paper.)

Review – Staples Medium Ballpoint Pen

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Pens, they’re necessary things. If not for art, then for simple, day to day life. You won’t believe how may people I’ve run into that need pens and don’t carry them around. Okay, maybe you wouldn’t, but I’m still going to quickly talk about a cheap way to get your pen fix so you can jot down notes and stuff (as in peoples’ numbers): the Staples Medium Ballpoint pen.

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The pens are simple: a small plastic tube, containing a smaller plastic tube filled with ink. The tube is slick, but not slick enough to have the pen slip out of your hands while writing. It has the logo and name on the side in plain lettering that isn’t prone to rubbing off. The cap also fits on nicely and allows the pen to be loosely held in a pocket. Overall, the body does its job.

 

But what about the point? The tip is a ballpoint which produces a medium weight line with a very universal width. It will take a little bit of skill to get variation from this pen. But what one would want out of a pen like this is reliability, and that is given to one by the constant line. The pen, however, does at times need to be coaxed into writing and will dry up beyond usability if neglected for too long.

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It’s a nice cheap pen. It’s nothing spectacular, but for the price, nothing is. It is great for jotting notes, getting ideas down, writing drafts and piling around the house so you’re never pen-less.

Review – Limn Books

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I am always on the lookout for new sketch/notebooks. I have hundreds already, but am hopelessly obsessed with paper. I have loads of different styles of notebooks. And when I found these fairly unique notebooks I had to have a look at them. (Disclaimer – They are made by my brother so I may be a little biased.)

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Limn Books come from Austin Texas. At the moment they come in two flavors of 5.5x 8.5. The flavors really only mean that one has red lettering and the other has blue. The only lettering is Limn on the cover and a contact email on the back. They contain 20 sheets of plain paper (no lines) covered by green cover stock. They are hand-sewn, single signature bound then covered with a binding strip.

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The covers are quite nice at protecting the books and looking nice, but they are not stiff enough to write on, so writing will require a table. The paper is almost butter, smooth but with enough grit to hold ink on the page well. Ink bleed is not much of a problem, especially if one is just writing and not drawing. They are comparable to Moleskine books in both paper and cover quality, but lack the elastic and are quite bit cheaper.20121207-001124.jpg

They are nice, inexpensive little books. They write well, are extremely portable, and are generally handy. They are good books for keeping notes, lists, and ideas. They have no real specific purpose in my mind, and are good at anything one wants to do in them, but are not necessarily the best at anything.

Review – Pentel Pocket Brush Pen

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So I do a lot of non-drafting type drawing, which I will admit is most of drawing. But in that type of drawing, lines are not the same length, they waver, get thicker and thinner and such. If you need to get a similar effect, Pentel has a pen for you.20121205-010917.jpg

 

The Pentel Pocket Brush Pen is quite a nice instrument with a very uninspired name (which is good for tracking it down). The body of the pen is medium length, slick and black. At the bottom of the cap in silver is an asian character that I don’t know the origin of and the word Pentel. They are both slightly engraved and hinder nothing. They are the only adornments on the pen. There is also a clip on the pen that serves its purpose well.

The brush itself is very nice, it is easy to keep at a point and is very responsive to pressure. The pen requires no squeezing or other methods to keep ink flowing so one always gets a nice full line.

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The ink itself is black but thin. It takes multiple coats to create a true black, otherwise one gets streaks, but these are only visible on close inspection and may be what you’re going for. The cartridges are also replaceable and fairly easy to find. The pen comes with two and one can buy packs of four.

In short the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen is just that, a pocket brush pen, and a very nice one at that. It does its job well and painlessly. It is one of the finer and cheaper brush pens I have encountered.

Review – Pigma Brush

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Do you like the flowing lines and moderation of a brush, but want the simplicity of a pen? The makers of Micron have a solution. The Pigma brush.

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The ink is the same as the Micron ink. It is a very deep black that applies smoothly to the page and rarely bleeds. It is waterproof and fadeproof archival ink. It marks just as well or better than any pen around.

 

The body of the brush is the same as the Micron’s, as well. It is slick and glossy, but fortunately easy to hold, and never once felt like it was slipping in my hand. The cap locks in place firmly and snaps haphazardly onto the back. The clip attached to the cap works das designed. The writing on the body is easy to read and rub resistant, and the identification on the cap is easy to read.

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But now for what this item is about: the brush. The brush is fairly short, no longer than the nib of the regular Microns or most other pens. The brush at its finest is super thin, and goes up to an above average pen thickness. The line range is roughly equivalent to the Micron 005 to 05 and everywhere in between. The application is buttery smooth and never splutters or splatters. Even when the brush begins running out of ink you will only begin to get a grey line instead of a patchy one. And it takes a long time to get it to run out.20121102-235937.jpg

 

For fine detail work this item is perfect, it is a perfect addition to the Pigma family and suits the audience it was created for perfectly. But it is for a specific audience. Very large or multimedia projects will find the product ill suited to create most desired effects. But that does not diminish the fact that it is a very good pen.