In Tools

Review: Yasutomo Niji Pearlescent Watercolor 21- color set

Author AnaPosted on 1 Comment

Yasutomo Niji Pearlescent Watercolor 21- color set

Yasutomo Niji Pearlescent Watercolor 21-Color Set ($5.25) was a total impulse purchase. The price point was so low and sometimes I’m just a crow and require something shiny. Besides, I love watercolor sets. I knew this was not going to be the end-all be-all of watercolor sets because no watercolor set that sells for under $6 is going to rival the Daniel Smith tube paints I have which can sometimes cost $30 per itty bitty tube and are made from grinding up the horns of unicorns. Okay, not really but some are actually made from real ground-up gemstones so they might as well be unicorns. So, anyway… back to the 21-color pearlescent set from Yasumoto.

The set comes in a lovely plastic box which makes it perfectly portable and fine to share with your favorite junior artists. There is a slot to store your favorite brush in the case so you can keep it in the kit. I suspect my niece and I may one day paint many a My Little Pony with these.

Yasutomo Niji Pearlescent Watercolor 21- color set

I aligned my swatches with the colors in the pan so you can get a good idea how vivid the colors appear in the pans versus how they look when they are applied to paper. I used my Strathmore multimedia sketchbook for swatching and a Princeton Neptune synthetic squirrel #8 round paintbrush from Blick. I wet each color first before I swatched to give the pans time to rehydrate. However, the colors were still quite a bit lighter when I swatched them. They were quite luminescent though with lots of sparkle.

Overall, there seemed to be a lot of beachy colors: shell, sand, earthones and sea hues. There were not a lot of bright, fantasy colors. Everything was very subtle. The colors are quite pretty but they do not paint as bright as they appear in the palette.

The rinse water also had a lot of sparkle in it too so be warned not to cross-contaminate your rinse water with other paints.

Yasutomo Niji Pearlescent Watercolor 21- color set

In the end, I suspect I will use the Yasutomo Pearleascent colors as an accent with more vivid watercolors rather than as a standalone set. But its a fun little set and would definitely be a nice addition for the paint hoarders out there.

DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In feature

A Safer Way To Sit

Author AnaPosted on 7 Comments

I keep hearing people talk that they sit too much and that they know its bad for them. I know they are right but I wanted more details on exactly why it’s bad. So here are a few articles:

The health hazards of sitting (via The Washington Post)

The “Sitting Is Killing You” Infographic Shows Just How Bad Prolonged Sitting Is (via Lifehacker)

Most experts, including Cornell University, recommend that for every 20-30 minutes of sitting, you get up and walk or move around for two minutes. Getting up and moving is considered as effective as a costly (and often less work-efficient) standing desk and its free. Add in 30 minutes of brisk activity each day (which can be broken into 10 minute segments) and you might just live a longer, healthier life.

I’m going to try it by using the Pomodoro Method. I’ll work for 25 minutes and then walk around for five minutes. I also used to sit on a yoga ball and I have to say I’ve been missing the bounciness. I think I might reinflate it and try that again as well to help improve my posture too.

Do you worry about how much you sit? Are you using a standing desk or trying any techniques to walk, stand or move more? Any tips?

In Link Love

Link Love: Pen Shows & Crotchety Old Men

Author AnaPosted on

rp_link-ana1111111111111111-1-1-1-1-1.jpgPosts of the Week:

What Happened When I Tried To Declutter My Brain (via FastCo) which lead me to the podcast Note to Self’s project Infomagical, a 5-day effort to make information overload disappear. I recommend listening to the whole Note to Self series and trying to streamline your digital information overload… I’m willing to bet you have one too!

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Paper & Notebooks:

Planners & Organizers:

Other Interesting Things:

In Ink Review

Ink Review: Akkerman #9 Laan Van Nieuw Oost-Indigo

Author AnaPosted on 8 Comments

Akkerman #9 header

Akkerman #9 Laan Van Nieuw Oost-Indigo ($28 for a 60ml bottle) appears to translate to “New Eastern Indigo Avenue” which is not at all what I expected when I looked at the color. I thought it was like “new moon night sky” indigo or something like that since its such a deep blue color and has a fascinating reddish halo in the swatch.

Akkerman #9

I paired it with my Lamy Scala in blue black which seemed like a fitting match and the 14K gold nib let the ink color and shade beautifully. Yesterday in the comments, someone mentioned how Lamy pens tended to lighten inks overall which was such a wake up call for me. And I think it probably holds true for this Akkerman #9 too. The ink looks darker in the painted title and I suspect in a wetter pen, the ink would be darker overall. But I think the color is legible and shades nicely in the Lamy so its completely useable even in a drier pen.

Akkerman #9 swab comparison

Compared with several of my other deep blue black inks, its clear that the Akkerman #9 is bluer and more “denim-y” than most. Noodler’s Bad Blue Heron is probably the only one that’s more blue while maintaining the deep tone of a blue-black. Akkerman #9 seems quite similar in color to the Caran D’ache Magnetic Blue which is not quite as vivid and actually a bit more expensive, if you can believe it.

Are you a fan of blue-black inks? Do you like them more vivid or more subdued? I waffle between wanting a deeper blue-black and preferring a bluer blue-black. Either way, I love blue blacks and Akkerman #9 is no exception.

DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Vanness Pens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Fountain Pen Review

Review: Lamy Al-Star Charged Green

Author AnaPosted on 5 Comments

Laym AL-Star Charged Green Writing Sample

The new limited edition Lamy AL-Star in Charged Green is absolutely beautiful. It clearly is THE signature color for a Lamy pen for me. I’ve always favored the AL-Stars to the Safaris as well for the beautiful luster of the the anodized aluminum as well and the price increase for the aluminum is nominal for the added good looks. If you are a green aficionado then you will want to grab one of the Lamy AL-Stars in Charged Green this year while you can. It’s really a lovely addition to any pen collection and can be had in the fountain pen, rollerball or ballpoint model. I really get a kick out of the 80s springy look of the ballpoint if only I liked ballpoint pens.

Laym AL-Star Charged Green Writing Test

I got the Charged Green model with the F nib, however, the Charged Green ink was as much of a letdown to me as last year’s Neon Lime. Sadly, both colors are too light to be used for much more than highlighting. I even swapped out the nib in the AL-Star from the F to an M to a 1.1mm in hopes that a wider nib might allow the Charged Green ink to be usable. Sadly, even when it dried, it was still too light and shaded too dramatically from super light to just-barely-legible to be usable.

n the end, I swapped out the Charged Green ink fro Diamine Meadow which was a close match to the pen and much darker so that I could use the smooth F nib.

feb2-2

Laym AL-Star Charged Green Ink Comparison

In my swab comparisons, you can see that even Pilot Iroshizuku Chiku-Rin appears darker than either the Charged Green or the Neon Lime. Lamy keeps trying to make a good lime green. Maybe next year…?

Laym AL-Star Charged Green Pen Comparison

Finally, I also included a comparison photo of the Neon Lime Safari and the Pilot Retro Pop in green so that it is clear the the the Lamy Charged Green Al-Star is definitely more of a yellow-y green. Its definitely a metallic guacamole green when compared to the other two pens.

All-in-all, I’m a big fan of the AL-Star in Charged Green but the ink is not what I’d hoped it would be. But, of course, as a fan of all things green, this pen color was made for me.

DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Fontoplumo for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In feature, video

Podcast: Freakonomics “Who Needs Handwriting?” Part Two

Author AnaPosted on 5 Comments

Oh, yes… its time to listen to and discuss part two of the second part of Freakonomics “Who Needs Handwriting?” podcast called “How Can This Possibly Be True?”

I listened to the episode this morning and it went into more detail about the making of pencils and that no one person or country can actually make a pencil nowadays… or maybe ever… and less about handwriting. So, I really couldn’t get too riled up about this episode.

Here is a video version of the I, Pencil essay that they talk about in the podcast which is quite interesting.

In the end, I don’t think that Freakonomics came to any clear conclusion in the first episode about the importance of handwriting (or necessarily took a strong stance on the other side of the argument either). I have listened to the first episode three times now and have decided that it is decidedly rabblerousing, neither making a case for or against handwriting but rather just stirring the argumentative pot. I still feel that the act of writing helps develop cognitive skills and fine motor skills. But I also realize that typing can increase overall speed, editing and collaboration. As an artist and designer, many things start on paper and then are finished digitally and have been done that way for well over 30 years. Since visual creatives work this way so frequently, combining analog and digital tools seems like an obvious pairing. Maybe to others it needs to be an either/or proposition.

An example of how both analog and digital are needed to make the creative process happen.
An example of how both analog and digital are needed to make the creative process happen.

In the end, like so many other things in our modern world, I think you need to learn to use both analog and digital tools as a child and then choose the best tool for the job along the way. And sometimes BOTH is the correct answer.

In Fashionable Friday

Fashionable Saturday: The Ink Is Not What It Seems

Author AnaPosted on 3 Comments

FF-twinpeaks

This week, I’m inspired by my current knitting project which is called From Another Place from the Kickstarter Twin Peaks-themed knitting book called The Great Northern. It makes me want to listen to Angelo Badalamenti, eat cherry pie and drink lots of coffee.

  • Trusco Ridged ‘Packard Lumber’ Tool Box $30 (via Fresh Stock Japan)
  • ‘The owls are not what they seem’ A3 Art Print by Stephanie Baxter $26.52 (via Etsy)
  • Log Lady Riso Print 13×18 by Dana Damki $9.94 (via Etsy)
  • ‘A Fish in the Percolator’ Mug $15 (via Etsy)
  • Diamine ‘The Trees Are Not What They Seem’ Fountain Pen Ink $15 (via Goldspot Pens)
  • De Atramentis Night Black Fountain Pen Ink $15.95 (via Goldspot Pens)
  • Retro 51 Tornado Playing Card ‘One-Eyed Jack’ Rollerball Pen $25 (via Anderson Pens)
  • Acme Stiletto ‘Black Lodge’ by Massimo Vignelli (*) Rollerball Pen $49.50 (via Goldspot Pens)
  • ‘Welcome to Twin Peaks’ Giclee Fine Art Print by Jazzberry Blue starting at $22 (via Etsy)
  • Faber Castell ‘Packard Lumber Executive’ Loom metallic orange fountain pen € 30 (via Fontoplumo)
  • ‘Laura Palmer Secret Diary’  Habana 4″ x 6-3/8″ Lined Red Journal $16 (via Anderson Pens)
  • ‘Diane’ Wooden Brooch $11.79 (via Etsy)
  • ‘The Secret History Of Twin Peaks’ pre-order available on Amazon $29.99 due to be released on October 18, 2016 (via Welcome to Twin Peaks)

If you want to get in the mood, here’s a playlist from Spotify of some of the music from Twin Peaks:

*Massimo Vignelli is one of the most famous graphic designers in the world and best known to me for faxing a list of the only five fonts you need when I worked at a font shop in Chicago in the 1990s. While I’m more inclined to agree that less is more nowaadays, I still think I like fonts too much to live with just five fonts. But he did great things with his limited palette.