After my successes with the Paperblanks blank notebooks in 100gsm & 120gsm I decided to try out the Paperblanks Arabica Sketchbook ($34.95) with 200gsm paper. Once the stickers are removed from the cover, the aged look and gold trim is much more evident. I like that it already looks weather beaten. Even with the gold, it…
Review by Tina Koyama As a lefty, smearing my writing is a fact of life. As an adult without a critical teacher looking over my shoulder, it doesn’t don’t bother me much. The only time I get annoyed is when I’m working on a graphite drawing, and I see the mess I’m making – both…
Review by Tina Koyama I have been looking for waterproof, write-on-anything markers that are less stinky than Sharpies. As a secondary issue, and perhaps I need to lift more weights, but am I the only one who has difficulty pulling caps off of some Sharpies? I usually end up marking myself somewhere due to the…
Review by Tina Koyam\ Whenever I see a lovely, handcrafted pencil roll, it evokes fantasies: Seated at a sidewalk table in a Venetian or Parisian café, sipping an espresso, I sketch – my colored pencil roll, charmingly patina-ed with years of travel, casually opened next to my sketchbook. Despite the fantasies, I didn’t think a…
Review by Tina Koyama In addition to high-end, limited-edition, collectible pencils, Blackwing makes a few unique pencil accessories, including the Blackwing Point Guard ($10 each). Available in matte black, gold, silver, and a set of one of each color, the point guard is made in Taiwan of lightweight, machined aluminum. I chose matte black to…
I visited Wonder Fair in Lawrence, KS this weekend and was delighted to find the new Zebra Zensations 2mm mechanical colored pencils. Wonder Fair stocks the set of 12 ($11.76) as well as individual pencils ($0.90 each). The cost for these softly-rounded triangular, plastic, click-advance colored pencils was too good to pass up. I know…
By Tina Koyama When I first discovered urban sketching and began documenting my life with sketches, I almost immediately discovered a dilemma. Admiring the works of many sketchers who use this method, I especially loved the concept of putting sketches and writing on the same page. As a lifelong journal writer, I saw the value…
