Every so often I feel the urge to pretend I'm some sort of artist, and this time a swan was the object of my photo tweaking:

I quite like the effect - it works quite nicely, I think. I used The GIMP, as usual, and just went a bit overboard with the curves adjust, pulling the right hand side a long way in, leaving most of the picture white.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but these past few months my creative side has been ignored so much I considered putting my gear on eBay. My work area was littered with half-completed projects, faded scribbled ideas on coffee stained post it notes, and a journal so badly neglected I could barely describe myself as an embodiment participant anymore.

Latest Update: Just removing a broken link.

Even people who can draw other things fine often think they can't draw people, for a number for reasons...

• We draw in symbols - we think we know what an eye and a nose look like, so we tend to draw what we know rather than what we see - the person who you're drawing probably doesn't have a nose that looks like the nose you draw.
• We're often more worried about getting it wrong - if you're drawing a tree, you don't have to worry about the tree being offended at your drawing.
• People are curved and folded - and these things actually are quite tricky to draw.

Latest Update: Added a link to a Moleskine Hard Drive.

Moleskine? Little black notebooks, with a bookmark, elastic closure, and a storage compartment in the back. Useful little things on their own, but some people feel the need to trick them out further.

• Moleskine Notebooks

Marking Up

Most people just use their Moleskines freeform, scribbling whatever and wherever they like. Some people prefer a little structure...

Latest Update: Added some brief notes on the Faber-Castell e-Motion, and the Caran d'Ache Fixpencil, and a link to an article I've spent a lot of time working on recently - The Cult Pens Guide to Mechanical Pencils.

• For more information about mechanical pencils than you can shake a stick at, go read The Cult Pens Guide to Mechanical Pencils. I know it's good, because I wrote most of it, with lots of help and suggestions.
• See also: Pencil Hardness: What those letters and number mean - HB, 4B, 2H, etc.

Some of these link to full reviews of our own, and some link to reviews elsewhere (especially Dave's Mechanical Pencils.) Others just have a few notes. We get to try lots of pens and pencils now, but don't get chance to fully review them all. Most of the ones we've tried are via Cult Pens, Michael's employer. Opinions here are entirely our own, etc.

Types

There's two main types of mechanical pencils - Leadholders and Automatic pencils...

The last of my reviews of art materials by Pentel.

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What is it?

It's a set of 10 watercolour crayons with an aquash brush (a very handy hollow body brush pen for filling with water), a sharpener, and a cleaning sponge. All in a pretty little tin.

Is it any good?

Well, it does the job. The crayons work well wet and dry, and it's possible to get a good range of tones and effects. The sharpener ensures your crayons stay as sharp as they need to be, and you can create your own mixes in the little palette dimples left for you in the tray. The crayons come in white, blue, light green, green, yellow, purple, red, orange, brown and black, so you have everything you need to get going.

But...

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"CMYK Squares" Pentel Color Brush, 140lb NOT watercolour paper

What is it?

Like its friend the Aquash, the Color Brush is a hollow-bodied brush pen. These, however, come full of water-soluble vibrant ink in a range of colours. In my collection I have Sky Blue, Purple, Lemon Yellow, Black and Olive Green.

Latest Update: changed the title of this page, so it's more general, and added Post Office Drawings to it.

I wonder who owns the copyright on these results? If the postie made the marks, do they own the copyright?

Post Office Drawings

Make a box of some sort, with paper on the inside surface. Insert something that will make marks as it rattles about inside there. In the example a ball of pencil stubs does the job inside a tube, but there must be lots of options.

Pentel Brush Pen Review

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Time to take a look at one of Pentel's most popular products - the Brush Pen.

What is it?

It's a stylish black brush-tipped cartridge pen.

What's it for?

It's recommended for stylised design, cartooning and calligraphy. It's particularly good for chinese calligraphy.

Is it any good?