Review: Fountain pen Revolution and Serwex pen

Just before Christmas, there was a Tweet floating around about almost-free fountain pens. As I knew Father Christmas was getting me ink, and I wanted to try out drawing in fountain pen and ink, I of course very interested.

All I had to do was 'like' the Facebook page for Fountain Pen Revolution Facebook page and they would ship a pen for $2.50!

I sent them an email to make sure this amazing deal would be available to people in the UK too, and within half an hour I got a lovely reply back from Kevin Thiemann- he was more than happy to ship to the UK! So I kept my fingers crossed for smooth shipping and waited patiently for the sillocone grease and syringes I had ordered on Ebay so I could fill the fountain pen without having to worry about it leaking.



The Serwex Special 101 arrived pre-greased, which was very nice of them, and I had no problem filling it, but for some reason, it was difficult to get the ink to flow after not using the pen for even as little as a few minutes.

I mentioned this to Leslie and she explained to me how some pens have 'breathing holes' in the cap. Sure enough, my pen had one too. This can cause the nib to dry out, making it more difficult for the ink to start flowing when you first start to write or draw. Her tip: put some wax in it.

It worked! I now have no problems getting the ink to flow, even if I haven't used the pen for a couple of hours.


Here's the first two page spread I did using the Serwex fountain pen:



Even though it took me a while to fall in love with my Serwex fountain pen, I do love it now and have used it for all my drawings since. And Fountain Pen Revolution gets my vote too. They are an American family-run business in India, The shipping was incredibly quick, communication was perfect (so important when you have a few questions and a company actually replies!) and their website says ' Join the revolution and declare independence from overpriced fountain pens!' Can't go wrong there! ;)

Please make sure you check out their Facebook page as they keep coming up with great deals you don't want to miss out on.

Creative License - a review of sorts

I am probably one of the last people to ever hear of or buy (been gifted) Danny Gregory's The Creative License, giving yourself permission to be the artist you truly are.
Now, it has to be said, the title made me rebel a bit. It's the 'permission' bit. I've always been 'permitted' to make art, but up until a few years ago I just never really thought of myself as capable of doing anything like that. The word just makes me itch a bit. But once you get over that part, it is an absolute awesome book!

Last summer I wrote about Gregory's book Everyday matters, and the same, if not more, is true of Creative License; it's a book that inspires you to finally get a pen and paper out and start drawing already! (Notice I said pen and not pencil, Danny Gregory feels that you learn more from drawing with pen than with a pencil you can erase.)

In this book Gregory talks about all the reasons people don't draw. They don't see the point, they don't have the time, they just can't do it. And then he explains how, even with as little as a few minutes a day (but hey, Daily don't work for me!), you can do simple drawings while actually looking at your objects instead of thinking you know what you're seeing. He shows you where in your busy day you could find the time to set aside a few minutes to do these drawings, and even thinks of what you could draw. And then a large part of the book is about keeping an illustrated journal and how that can benefit you.

Now I am currently working on my Art Journal number 10, in which I draw and paint and write in and stick stuff down in. It's not the same as a journal with just your own drawings. It's a completely different style. It reminds me a bit of Urban Sketching, which I am still working on from home.

The sketchpads I bought will be used for these drawings inspired by daily life, with some writing thrown in. I'm not giving up on Art Journaling at all, but I think this is something I want to explore for a while and see where it will take me.

And to start things off, here's my first drawing of the year:


Thank you Danny Gregory for being such an inspiration.

Watercolour Wednesday; a review

When I started Alisa Burke's Watercolor Bliss course, I felt I needed some new paints. I am very much part of the 'these supplies are too good to be used on nothing important'-club, which I know I shouldn't be, but hey, it's an excuse to buy some goodies, right?

After some searching, I found the Koh-i-Noor 24 pan stacking set.


The set is tiny, fits in my hand, but the colours are amazingly vibrant. I tested them by using the colours straight from the pan, and then adding more and more water as I went along. I really liked the results:


Then I tried them out even more, pairing colours together, seeing how they looked.







For what are considered a school supply, I am happily suprised by these paints. The colours are vibrant, they mix really well. The set is small enough to throw in your bag for on the go arting, and does not take up a lot of space on your desk (space is a huge issue for me at the moment!), and they don't cost the earth.

This Koh-i-noor 24 pan stackable set gets a thumbs up from me!