skoBLOG

Hello. My name is Asia and I’m addicted… to art supplies. Specifically pens and pencils. Throughout my childhood and adolescence, my favorite stores to browse when I went somewhere like a mall or shopping center were stationary and art supply stores… and within stores, I usually made sure to browse the electronics/video game sections (if applicable) and the stationary/office/school supply sections.

So, long story short, over the years I have accumulated many pens and pencils, amongst other tools I use for art and craftsy things, but I seem to have an especially strong love for pens and pencils that are geared more toward drafting than standard illustration and fine arts. I find it rather odd, myself. I look at my favorite standard tools and the list usually comes out to a 0.5mm or 0.3mm mechanical pencil that uses 2H lead and Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph technical pens for inking.

Currently, my favorite pencil is a rare Zebra Drafix 0.3mm, which I ordered online for $5 USD when my last 0.3mm pencil decided to stop working entirely early last year. These are usually labeled as drafting supplies, as opposed to illustration and art supplies proper. Even when I go to Michaels, the rapidograph pens are found alongside T-squares, protractors and drafting kits; never near the ebony pencils, sketching sets, micron pens and colored pencils/markers.

Obviously, there’s no high tribunal of artists who have decreed you can only use certain tools and media for certain branches of artwork, but I feel like I’m somehow betraying my chosen specialties sometimes by using tools not commonly associated with them. I don’t know, there’s just something about the precision and control of steel-nibbed technical pens that you can’t get in a felt-nibbed pen like a Micron, Copic Multiliner or other felt-nibbed pens. At the same time, technical pens lack the flexibility to imitate brush qualities and line weight depends on building up ink through multiple strokes or passes rather than adjusting pressure and angle. Technical pens also tend to clog easily and leak, which is a whole new set of issues to deal with, although a caddy to keep the pens upright when not in use and regular cleanings with regular household ammonia seem to limit the occurrence of those particular problems.