Daler Rowney Simply Sketching Set spotlight

For beginners, you would be hard pressed to find a better value than this Daler Rowney Simply Sketching Set that I picked up earlier at Jerry's Artarama. The hardbound sketchbook was made in China. The pack of Drawing artist trading cards (ATCs) was made in England. The KUM magnesium wedge sharpener was made in Germany. The HB drawing pencil was made in Austria. The paper feels a bit rough for markers, but it works just fine with a graphite pencil and colored pencils. 

While not meant for wet media, the watercolor pencils and waterbrush combination worked ok on this  support. It did warp the paper a bit, so I wouldn't recommend it for wet media experimentation. Still this value pack should meet the needs of budding artists and provide an adequate platform for doodling and practicing with pens, graphite pencils, crayons, and colored pencils.

Manga Drawing Workshop at Cameron Village Regional Library

Somehow these pictures from a Manga Drawing Workshop held at the Cameron Village Regional Library back in October got lost in my stash of memory cards.  Thanks Nicole for inviting me, it was fun to talk about Manga, Japanese Pop culture, and sketching techniques with the teens of the Anime Club.  Special thanks to the generous folks from Jerry's Artarama in Raleigh that donated tons of art supplies for the kids to experiment with.  Attendants had a blast trying out and sketching with the different grades of graphite pencils and the set of SoHo colored pencils during the art engagement portion of the program.  I was also pleasantly surprised by the brightness of the colors and their fairly smooth lay down considering that they seem to be a student grade product.  I would highly recommend visiting the Raleigh store if you are looking for gift ideas for the creatively-minded in your lists.  I already picked up a few sketchbooks and visual journals from their wide selection to add to the gift bundles for my cousins and nieces.  They also carry the blister card with the full range of Faber Castell Graphite Aquarelle pencils and a paintbrush that make a pretty versatile sketching kit.

Canson Fanboy Comic & Manga Trading Cards Review

As I continue to try the pre-made Artist Trading Cards (ATC) blank packs available commercially, I picked up a couple of Canson Fanboy Comic & Manga Trading Cards boxes on my last visit to the Jerry's Artarama store in Miami. Each box contains 20 cards (2.5" x 3.5" 150 lb/250 gsm acid free paper) with their protective sleeves.
A two-sided instructional sheet is included in each box. One side is printed in French and the other in English. It is more of a quick primer and a bit of inspiration to get a budding manga artist started.
The front and back of each card is printed with non-repro blue grids for framing miniature art and recording the name of the artist and contact info.
Used the Prismacolor Archival Illustration Markers with a chisel, 03, and 005 nibs to ink a ninja character on the blank Canson Fanboy manga card. For a tighter cleaner image, it would be better to draw the coloring outline first with pencil, ink it, and then erase any remaining pencil marks that are still visible.
The Prismacolor 005 pen nib is quite delicate and bends rather easily under my normal drawing pressure. Thus, I had to periodically rotate the pen to bend it back to its original shape. I should probably stick to the 03 nib as my smallest regular pen nib, but all of them feature a steady ink flow and smooth performance on all the ATC stock tested. Even the bent nib retained its functionality throughout the test, but I would not expect the 005 nib pen to last as long as the larger nibs in the long run. Already decided not to get the 005 eight color set because of this experience.
Couple of finished cards drawn on Canson Fanboy manga paper. Once in its protective plastic sleeve, the card is a tad more difficult to photograph.
Not really happy with how this mermaid card turn out on the Blue Line stock. Yellow was not a particular good choice for rendering shadow areas of skin tones. Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens can be difficult to blend and apply evenly. I actually prefer the uncolored stage of this particular example.Selecting the colors more carefully and working from light to dark hues resulted in the cleaner image of this dragon sketch card drawn on smooth Strathmore 300 Bristol board.
The small size of the ATC format allows for their design and completion in a short time with very few tools almost anywhere. Managed to do a few of these sample cards while waiting at the hospital and auto shop.
Using the thickest pen nib, 08, to outline the figure and separate it from the background more clearly.
Sketching with the Prismacolor Archival Illustration Markers to create waterproof coloring outlines and coloring them with the water-based Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens is a pretty effective combination of art materials.
Finished custom manga set of ATC in their protective sleeves.
The Canson paper readily accepted H and & 7B graphite marks and erased fairly easily without damage to its surface .
A pack of Canson Fanboy Comic & Manga Trading Cards is quite a suitable addition for a field sketching kit. Its compact size and performance works well while on-the-go with a variety of drawing and coloring tools. The box of 20 cards with their sleeves is often priced quite competitively for 2-4 bucks, so it can be a pretty efficient option for when you lack the time to cut your own ATC cards.

Shopping for art Supplies in Miami

While I do get quite a few art supplies from several online sources, I do love visiting actual brick and mortar stores to check out the full range of offerings if given the option (sadly there is not a single well-stocked art supplies specialty store in the Naples area). Had to drive dad to the Miami Airport earlier today, so I was lucky to fit a couple of interesting stops after dropping him off. Finally was able to check out the enormous and well-stocked Jerry's Artarama Miami store. Got some hard-to-find drawing leads for my 5.6 mm Cretacolor leadholders and my Worther Shorty pencil. As far as I know, this might be the only brick and mortar store that carries the full range of Cretacolor 5.6 mm drawing leads 6-packs. The store is very well-organized, and it is a pleasure to stroll through the aisles loaded with a wide variety of quality art supplies neatly stacked and clearly priced. This was the first time, I was able to appreciate the size and heft of the Caran D'Ache Neocolor II full boxed set of 126 watercolor crayons with extra accessories and the wooden box set of all 72 Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, it is well worth a visit.

On the way back to Naples, I stopped at an enormous Office Depot store in Hialeah right off Palmetto Hwy - 826. With their heavily discounted Red Tag Sale items, I managed to stock up on tons of sketching paper and blank index cards for drawing lesson points for my students. Word to the wise, stop for a few minutes to check for good deals if you happen to drive by one of their stores.

Art Backpack fine tuning and Sketch Folio

The Sketch Folio could be a good choice for field sketching, for it can efficiently organize and hold a handful of pencils and 9"X12" sketchbook in such a lightweight and compact format. The Sketch Folio works fine if there is adequate room available to set it down flat to draw. It can be awkward to hold while standing and drawing. It's rather easy to poke yourself if the pencils points are stored as shown on the picture, and the sketchbook and tools can still slip off the folio depending on the angle it's held. It would be nicer if it held its contents more securely. Its magnetic closure is rather weak, so the folio never closes tightly allowing tools to fall off while moving about and running. Careful children could get some practical use out of the Sketch Folio on field trips. More rambunctious kids would probably be better served with fully enclosed messenger bags that would more securely hold all their art supplies.
The single strap Adidas bag is my current default art backpack which I tend to carry everywhere. Definitely way too many tools to use on short trips, but just about the right variety for longer trips. Good to have when sharing quality time with the nieces, so they can have a wide range of choice of media for impromptu art lessons. Got some watercolor and watersoluble crayons in case the weather is nice enough for a painting session in the patio. Lots of markers, pigment pens, pencils, and leadholders options to provide variety and fun choosing and trying different artist-quality sketching tools under close supervision. Generous supply of drawing paper and loose card stock sheets to accommodate the needs of several children. A digital camera for documenting artistic output tends to add a tad more weight.Still gotta pare it down a lot more, to come up with a more efficient daily take-along sketching kit.