Pencil Review: Non-Photo Blue Pencils

Pencil Review: Non-Photo Blue Pencils

Review by Tina Koyama Back in the day, graphic designers and printers used “non-photo blue” pencils. Certain shades of blue that could not be detected by camera film (or copy machines), so rough drawing lines or notations could be left on the art and would not appear in the final form. Modern scanners can see…

Brush Pen Review: Royal Talens Ecoline Brush Pens

Brush Pen Review: Royal Talens Ecoline Brush Pens

Royal Talens Ecoline Brush Pens ($3.40 each or sets available at various price points) feature a large, soft, flexible fiber tip and each of the 30 available colors features Ecoline’s liquid watercolor ink inside. The tip is firm enough to allow both thick and thin lines. The colors in each pen can be blended or…

Pen Review: Archer & Olive Acrylograph 3.0mm Warm Fall Collection Paint Pens

Pen Review: Archer & Olive Acrylograph 3.0mm Warm Fall Collection Paint Pens

There are a lot acrylic paint pens and markers available (Posca, Molotow, Krink, Montana, Sharpie, etc) but the Archer & Olive Acrylograph water-based acrylic markers ($35, the set I bought is currently sold out but this link will take you to the page where the other sets are available) have been created and marketed specifically…

Paper Review: Stonehenge Legion Mini Artist Pad Sample Set, Part 2

Paper Review: Stonehenge Legion Mini Artist Pad Sample Set, Part 2

Review by Tina Koyama If you missed Part 1 of my review of the Stonehenge Legion Mini Artist Pad Sampler Set, you might want to start there. Part 1 gives an overview of the whole collection and includes a review of seven papers. Today I’ll cover the remaining papers. Although six pads in the sample…

Paper Review: Stonehenge Legion Mini Artist Pad Sample Set, Part 1

Review by Tina Koyama When Ana asked me if I’d like to review the Stonehenge Legion Mini Artist Pad Sampler Set, I was delighted! I have received a few pads in Art Snacks subscriber boxes, but I’d never sampled the whole collection. I know some artists swear by the distinctive textures of certain Stonehenge papers,…

Pen Review: Sakura Ballsign Knock Gel Pen (0.6 mm  5-Color Metallic Set)

Pen Review: Sakura Ballsign Knock Gel Pen (0.6 mm 5-Color Metallic Set)

Of all the gel pens currently available, the Sakura Ballsign Knock gel pens are not frequently mentioned. However, there is no good reason that these pens are not mentioned more frequently. Pentel, Uni, and Pilot are all regularly discussed but Sakura is only mentioned in regards to their Gelly Roll collection. So, let me remind…