Book Elves

Faerie fight sketches

From this past weekend, working on cover ideas for the new PDF archives.

I’m going through the drawing paper too fast without hitting the final drawing!

But I made it out to Hobby Lobby today and got a new sketchbook. Prices have gone up a bit since I last looked (about 25% higher, I’d say), so I decided to give a budget-priced sketchbook a try, one I considered before. It’s a thick sketchbook from a company called Pentalic. Between its size and so-cool-it’s-corny, student-appropriate flap graphics, you would think at first glance it was some kind of college textbook.

The one drawback is the glue binding, opposed to spiral. That might make it harder to scan, but I’ll make it work somehow.

[CORRECTION: the Pentalic sketchbook is stitch bound! I made the glue assumption because the price was so low, and I was afraid to open it too wide, for fear of messing it up right off the bat. But as it turns out, the sketchbook opens remarkably flat without damaging the paper or binding. It’s my best sketchbook ever!]

Anyway, 288 pages for $8 (all prices I mention are subject to rounding, not to mention region, etcetera). Not quite the quality of paper of a Strathmore or Canson book, of course, but very appropriate for lots and lots of comic sketches. I had a 40% off coupon, too. :D

I also got the pen replacements I need. The nib on my .005 Zig pen had literally disappeared, leaving nothing but the metal casing. Either it disintegrated, or what little was left submerged. The nib on my Pitt Small bent during a particular vigourous bout of drawing (that last batch of Lake Froth comics), so now it’s like drawing with a limp wrist at the end of the pen. My Pitt Medium is just wearing out. I guess the thick line goes through the ink that much faster. Oddly enough, the pen I use most these days, the Pitt Fine, is going strong.

I couldn’t replace the .005 Zig, since it’s nigh impossible to find. But as luck would have it, Faber-Castell has introduced a brand-new Pitt pen: Extra Small (XS)! At .01, it’s actually a better size for my need; small enough for wispy hatching, but not so small that the line will disappear from view. Thank you Faber-Castell!

So I was able to replace all the pens I need with one $11 4-pen set, including the Extra Small, Small, Fine, and Medium. Only the Fine didn’t need replacing, but it’s welcome in my art box just the same. Individually, the pens are $3.50 each, so the set is a bargain under the circs.

With the inclusion of XS to the line, the Pitt pens so completely cover my needs that I have relegated all of the Zig pens to the “rare use” box, freeing up space in my small, regular cartoonist’s art box. The Zig pens are nice--honestly, I don’t see much difference between them and the more expensive Micron pens. But the Pitt pens are better than both, for art, anyway. The Pitt pens have more give, while the stiffer Microns and Zigs are better for drafting.

Hey! Time for an inaugural Artblog art box inventory.

First off, the box itself. It’s a blue Spacemaker, one of those common plastic boxes you see in the stores in vast quantities when it’s time to go back to school. I have one box full of cartoonist equipment, another box stashed somewhere with watercolor stuff, a box with a vast quantity of color pencils, and yet another box with some celebratory cigars, for when I get my life back together. As soon as I get my life back together, I’ll shorten it with demon tobacco.

Around the lid of the art box, I’ve wrapped two large rubber bands, so that the inside of the lid can hold extra supplies. I would like to eventually replace these bands with sturdier straps of some kind. They have to be thin, though, for the box to close.

What the lid holds:

• 6-inch plastic ruler (C-Thru #18)
• Ames lettering guide
• Goniometer (C-Thru GO-180)
• mmArc/protractor (Safe-T #46110)
• Crayola Cool Rule/circle maker (don’t laugh, it works! :D )
• Circle guide (C-Thru T-800)
• Small right angle triangle (C-Thru, just barely fits!)

Within the bands, there’s also ample room for a stack of clipped index cards, a small notepad, or a box of matches. Nothing too heavy, or the bands will snap right away.

Inside the box itself:

• Scissors
• Exacto knife
• School compass
• Misc. drafting device (I forgot what it’s called!)
• Pilot writing pen (Precise V5 RT)
• Permapaque black marker (this one’s lasted a good long time)
• Papermate PHD mechanical pencil, green barrel
• Pack of extra .5mm 2B pencil lead
• Lovely Moo eraser
• Little tin box (formerly held caffeinated peppermint mints)
  • Unused kneaded eraser
  • Unused polymer eraser
• Prang brush pen
• Pitt artist pens
  • Pitt C (calligraphy)
  • Pitt XS
  • Pitt S
  • Pitt F
  • Pitt M
• Bottle of Wite-Out
• Extra rubber bands

The box is breathing easy right now, because I just moved a bunch of stuff to the “rarely used” box. Brushes, watercolor pencils, redundant pens, etc. It has been packed pretty tight. The Wite-Out is technically “rarely used”, but, you know. For emergencies.

Some things are too big for the box.

• 15-inch plastic ruler (C-Thru B-80)
• 16-inch metal ruler
• The other C-Thru triangle’s mate, a bit too tall
• Ancient drafting brush

I have an art backpack (Studiopack Jr) to stick that stuff, large pads of paper, and the boxes as well. There’s a Ranma (girl-type) keychain hanging off the zipper. That’s a pretty complete look into the mobile studio of travellin' Cars.

Written, directed, and performed by Carson “Marvy” Fire.
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