What I like

• I like using pen, and have been using only strictly but nothing else except pen and ink, and saying goodbye for now to pencils because it is the bold, the beautiful, the irreversible way is the way I preferred to go in my drawing practice. The irreversibility gives opportunity for mistakes to occur, and without mistakes, we don’t learn. I am not deliberately trying to make mistakes, but I give space for it to occur, and it strengthen my confidence, so perfectionism doesn’t ruin all the fun I could be having. 

Why I don’t have a preference 

• I drew these two pages chronicling all the pens I own, in the hopes of a deeper analysis of my preference only resulting in reminding me what a maximalist I am. 
• At the end of drawing all these pens, I realise that I actually don’t mind whichever one I use, depending on what the drawing i am trying to make. Even the most bleeding kinds I rather like. In this selection, that award goes to MUJI brush pen. What I like is still a finer tipped ink pen, but it must also have the flexibility to produce slightly thicker lines if needed. All in all, most of the ink pens here can do that, so the degree of preference becomes flattened. 
• The MUJI brush pen came with me on my year off traveling and this one I kept until it died had one hair sticking out of the brush, and that allowed me to make very precise details, such as a face even if its very small. I loved that pen. And this brings me nicely to the next point. 

Why I always look for the best brush pens 

• There is no such thing as the perfect brush pen, but there is that perfect brush pen for now. I go through stages with ink pens where I want fluidity to come before accuracy and even if the lines I made is wrong, i did it my way, which these days is confident inaccurate.
• I used to like the accuracy of a graphic fine liner, and the sizes I used to teach fashion illustrations was a range from 0,03 to 0.3, and 0.5 is just slightly too big. 
• These days, with travel sketching, I no longer use the smaller liners, even tho in countries limited in stationery, I manage to use the same ink liners months on end. And use the MUJI brush pen sparingly because it bleeds too much, and make my watercolour muddy when there’s too little details. 
• The best brush pens is one that has a nice fine tip, but when pressed down, can pull a lovely thick brush line and shape a nice leaf like stroke. The best brush pen is not one with actual brushes, but of a soft felt tipped kind mimicking a brush. The downside of the felt tipped kind is it gets tired really fast, and the tip will fray and be less pointy after a few use. 

 

• UNIBALL Air by MITSUBISHI, with the L-Broad tip is the one I end up using most in the latest travel sketchbooks because it has the sensitivity and line variety of a fountain pen, it has good feedback on paper, and it can be controlled to create thin and thick lines. In the end,  a brush pen is not my favorite liner, this one is.   

The Urban sketcher’s favorite ink pens seems to be the FUDE fountain pen, and after a long time, after a lot of hating, and a lot of grumpiness, I started to use FUDE in a way that feels how it should be appreciated. I still cannot understand this crazy looking nip, but i see the benefit of the flat broken-looking tip for broad strokes, and then twisted the other way round, it gives thin and precision if that’s what you need. 

The two FUDE pen I now use is not drawn in the big pen page but I drew them seperately. They are the inexpensive Sailor fude pens, the 55 degree nib and the 40 degree nib.  And I find myself gravitating towards the 40 degrees more as the weeks go by, it feels like more control can be hand, the thickness of the 40 degrees is more suitable in how I expect my pens to work. 

So finally, here’s my preference,squeezed out of me by deliberate pressure. 

Favorite liner : UNIBALL AIR by MITSUBISHI, L-Broad 

Favorite brush pen: PIGMA BB, by SAKURA. 

When in limited stationery places, for travel, I will always default to the PIGMA MICRON by SAKURA. 

And the ones I used a lot without realising it is ZIG MANGAKA by KURETAKE. Do I like it, I don’t think this way. It is effective, it is reliable, but it’s not something I LIKE or LOVE using. 

There’s little correlation to what I like using and what is effective. What is effective does the job, while the ink pen I love gives me a deeper satisfaction even if the drawing isn’t produced in it’s most highest standards, and the 40 degree Fude pens are currently still under review to fill this space. 

Hi All, 


I hope you are coping well with this crazy time of lockdowns, self-isolations and keeping your distance with social distancing.
I’ve been enjoying myself with so much less noise and busy-ness and I have been very creatively productive. Some of you have been asking for suggestions on activities you can do while you’re at home. Here are 7 No Money Fun as Mike Myers used to call it, that’s actually doable and fun. A fuel for our curiosity and good vibes producing. 


1. After listening to Audible.com for years, I am so happy to hear they’re giving away Free audible books of stories, classics such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and fairy tales from different parts of the world. There is enough free audio books to last weeks and weeks of isolations. There are even books in French, Spanish and Japanese. Is it time to re-up on my Spanish comprehension? Maybe    https://stories.audible.com/start-listen


2. Brooklyn Art Library #thesketchbookproject is offering this 28 days challenge with a prompt sent to your email daily. It’s a challenge and great for artists who’s really want to get their critical image thinking going.  https://brooklynartlibrary.org/28daychallenge


3. Do you own a house plant? Here’s a list of hard to kill houseplants that you might already have but don’t know much about. I’ve started this new hobby when we moved into our new house, it gives me a nice morning rituals while the kettle is boiling, to water the plants and then see little baby shoots coming up, is such a fulfilling experience.  https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/gardening/advice/g1285/hard-to-kill-plants/


4. If you’re like me, I’ve got a pile of ‘to be mend’ things including shoes, and Jewelry that is waiting for me to have time to take care of them. When I’ve done a mend to my clothes, it felt like new again, and if you like, you can even try visible mending, I wrote all about it here. If you’re into fixing electronics, hey, that has the same kind of satisfaction.  https://www.google.com.sg/amp/s/www.refinery29.com/amp/en-gb/clothing-repair-alteration-sustainability


5. Mindfulness meditation with Mark Williams on Spotify.   
Mindfulness meditation is a big trend and apps such as Calm or Headspace has been helpful to maintain a mindfulness meditation rituals. I’ve used Headspace for many years, and now on the daily, I listed to Mark Williams guided mindfulness meditation as part of my morning ritual. So being at home, gives you the opportunity to try this too. I’ve felt the benefit when I’m anxious and impatient in my day. It’s more beneficial ofcourse if you can do it every day. 
https://open.spotify.com/album/67uxFWx39wI8frDJuF2InX?si=y-DxoXg7R6KZtgX4Gp2vDg


6. Learn to cook a new recipe or two. Recently I’ve found this YouTube channel called The Avant Garde Vegan, even though I am not vegan nor vegetarian, I like to eat plant-based meals a few times a week. Gaz is very cute to look at, and says the word ‘Nutricious’ multiple times in every video. A few recipe that he has inspired that I make is the Moroccan recipes with chick peas and I end up making my own Harissa paste from watching his videos. Making a big batch of really ‘nutricious’ meals, that you can freeze, makes life so much easier and eating out unnecessary.   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF-ACPYNN0oXD4ihS5mbbmw


7. Instead of Pandemic focus, lets “Pandemake” and focus on being creative. The idea began on the day Singapore announced a travel restrictions and countries such as the UK and USA are all slowly panicking and locking down their borders and European cities all doing similar things. It’s a highly unsettling time and all I could see online was all content only about this pandemic. It becomes unhealthy as my anxiety and panic starts to rise just from reading the news. All other news not related to Corona Virus seems trivial and uninteresting, so I thought this is what I’ll do to help myself cope. You can join me as I am drawing daily objects, from pantry essentials to fresh produce, as long as the items is in your house, and you’re drawing it life, it’s an be anything. Have a look at the video process I post on my IG stories. https://www.instagram.com/olijstudio_travels/ 

Enjoy what you can, Stay healthy, and may new healthy beginnings come soon. 

Susan 

I have been playing with Procreate since I got the IPad Pro, and It’s been hand and arm ache-ly fun. One of my artist friend said Procreate is game changing, and I now understand what she’s talking about. It is addictive as well as Super Fun, when it can be combined with actual watercolour painting.

Here’s an example. I am back to sketching random mundane things in Singapore, there’s unlimited source of inspirations everywhere. This is a snoozing uncle in a hot afternoon in Tiong Bahru, the hipster area of Singapore :) 

Process videos are fun to make because it also shows my process, my thinking and my ideas in one few minutes episodes. This whole painting took around 2 hours and over the course of 2 days, a slow progression of layering and then finishing off with Procreate to add details. 

I think this is one of the better videos Ive made so far. What do you think? 

Susan