Leadholders 101: Where to Find Leadholders for sketching and drawing

During my drawing classes students get the opportunity to try and draw with a variety of specialized sketching tools. One of the most popular happen to be one of my favorite mechanical pencils for doodling on the go: leadholders. I have gotten many of mine through JetPens.

The "Drafting Tools" section of your local office supplies store would also be a good bet for finding the reliable German Staedtler Mars Technico 780 2 mm leadholder. Its main advantage would be the built-in lead pointer in its push button. Though refills available in brick-and-mortar stores are usually limited to standard HB graphite drawing leads.

You can find a greater variety of 2 mm graphite lead grades online, and even some red and non-photo blue leads.

I would recommend getting one or two Uni leadholders and a selection of your favorite lead grades. If you plan to sketch lightly and then ink your drawings, you might want to use harder leads like 3H or H. If your style relies more on linear strokes, you might want to go with F or HB leads. If you prefer bold dark lines and prefer to draw with lots of shading, a 2B or 4B would be good choices. If you need a lead pointer to restore your sharp points, I would recommend the KUM Automatic 23 or the Kum Automatic Brake Long Point sharpener that also features 2 mm & 3.2 mm lead pointers on its sides.

Attention parents: some quick links to sources for some sketching kit upgrades

Thanks to the teens and parents that came to the manga cartoon sketching class on Saturday at the Cary Arts Center.  I know we discussed and introduced quite a few sketching tools that are not so readily available locally, so for your convenience here are some links for the main ones that your kids may wish to add to their current sketching kits.

Japanese mechanical pencils for those that prefer not to have to sharpen regular wooden pencils:

1. Pentel Graph 1000 a personal favorite.
2. Uni Shift Pipe Lock Drafting Pencils feature a design that protects the drafting tip during transport.
3. Pilot S3 drafting pencils value priced plastic model with sleek look and good performance. I recall seeing it for the first time in photos in the How to Draw Manga: Sketching Manga-Style book 1 by Hikaru Hayashi.

2 mm Leadholders for a reliable drawing too with constant length and width with a comfortable grip:

1. Ohto Comfort Sharp Leadholders are a nice value priced introductory choice with built-in lead pointer in the push button.
2. Uni leadholders and leads are another personal favorite choice that have been a staple of my own sketching kit for years. You might want to pick up a leadpointer to round up your kit and sharpen your lead as needed.

Waterbrushes and Brush pens to expand the versatility of your sketching kit with the ability to apply watercolors with a minimal set up and draw with brush and ink anywhere:

1. Pentel Aquash waterbrush nice convenient tool for working with watercolor pans and water soluble pencils anywhere. Also available from Holbein, Sakura Koi, and Kuretake.
2. Brush pens wide selection of drawing pens for when you need some line width variation in your strokes. Some feature flexible nylon marker tips, and others are actually made of synthetic filaments and even sable hairs. Popular choices include: Zebra disposable brush pen, Pentel Pocket brush pen, Kuretake No. 13 Fountain brush pen, and Pilot Futayaku double-sided brush pens.

Erasers:

1. Uni Boxy Eraser Black another personal favorite since it does not show smudges given its dark base color.
2. Pilot Foam eraser love its performance with dark softer leads.
3. Iwako erasers for a bit of fun or inspiration, but probably won't be used much for actual erasing.

Good sources of imported art supplies for Summer Art Camps intermediate to advance students

Greetings parents and fellow instructors! Summer anime & manga art camps and sketching workshops have been going smoothly with full class groups at the Cary Arts Center.

As your kids or students continue to practice and develop their drawing skills, you might want to upgrade their gear to the same tools often used by Japanese artists for the high quality, smooth performance, and reliability.

For your convenience, I'm listing my main three sources for specialty Japanese art supplies like brush pens, waterbrushes, leadholders, and premium drawing and mechanical pencils.

Recommended Sources for Art Supplies

1.     www.jetpens.com

2.     http://www.dickblick.com/

3.     Askew Taylor Paints

Sun-Star Knock Free Sharp Mechanical Pencil and the SharPits 2.0 mm leadholder video review

George from the My Supply Room blog generously send me a couple of his extra pencils from his latest Jet Pens order: the green Sun-Star Knock Free 0.7 mm HB Sharp Mechanical Pencil and the black Sun-Star SharPits 2.0 mm B leadholder. Thanks again George!
The Sun-Star Knock Free 0.7 mm Sharp Mechanical Pencil was made in Taiwan, and I had to play around with it a bit to figure out how it works and how to refill it. While it might look just like your regular yellow No. 2 pencil, it is made entirely out of plastic with an automatic-advance mechanism that uses 0.7 mm graphite leads. You can view my video review for both items here.
Considering that we are dealing with a value-priced Chinese plastic leadholder, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a metal clutch mechanism after unscrewing the front conical cover inside the SharPits.
The 3 metal jaws hold the 2.0 mm lead securely and prevent it from rattling. The SharPits felt quite precise and easy to control while drawing, and its included B lead was smooth, dark, and quite smudge resistant for such a soft graphite grade.
The non-replaceable pink eraser on the Knock Free Sharp Pencil cap does a fair job in removing graphite from the paper in a pinch, but it would be advisable to rely on a dedicated vinyl eraser instead to preserve the pencil's pristine look.
Sample doodles on Rhodia dotPad paper. The Knock Free Sharp Pencil automatically advances its lead, but its tip tends to drag when the lead grows short and the plastic sleeve starts rubbing against the paper. Though the lead can be advanced a bit manually by pushing down on the black plastic sleeve around the exposed lead if you don't like the speed of its automatic advance feature. Personally I have yet to meet a mechanical pencil with an automatic advance mechanism that I like, for I did not care for the Kuru-Toga or the Faber Castell Grip-matic 1375 either. I suppose the auto-advance feature would be more appreciated by people that use their pencils more for writing, but I just find them annoying when attempting to sketch quickly with them. While not certain about the durability of either pencil, they are both inexpensive and should perform well enough to meet a child's writing and drawing needs during a school term.

Chance to win Nomadic PE-10 Tri-Fold Pencil Case

Attention kids! just in time for the summer break here is your chance to win a free Nomadic PE-10 Tri-Fold Pencil Case. JetPens has this neat promo running in their forums section until midnight Pacific Time June 10, 2009. One winner will be chosen at random from the comments. One comment per person please!

Also if you are active in Facebook, you could try winning a Nomadic PE-08 Easy Classification Pencil Case by posting a comment on this discussion thread from now until midnight Pacific Time June 5, 2009. One winner will be chosen at random from the comments. One comment per person please!

Kawaii Ballpoint Pens Alert

Coloring page inspired by the sighting of some pretty cute character pens at JetPens: series of ballpoint pens topped with Kewpie doll figurines dressed up as Retro Manga Characters like Mazinger, Ultraman, and Science Ninja Team Gatchaman among others.

Pilot Hello Kitty Cap Limited Edition Hi-Tec-C Gel Ink Pen Review

Just got this pen sample for review from JetPens. Thank you Lily!
Since this is such a cute pen, I felt it was a better fit to review it in this kid friendlier blog. It's my understanding that the mascot decorating this pen is Hello Kitty's friend: "Charming Mouse" (Correction update: this HK mascot's actual name is "Sugar", thanks Gentian!)
This limited edition Hi-Tec-C light blue pen performs as well as its regular black counterpart. Great pen for taking notes and writing tiny letters. Its 0.3 mm fine tip writes and draws very smoothly on the paper surface without skipping. Its shade of blue is quite similar to the Pentel Slicci Baby Blue gel pen ink, and it has some non-repro blue quality (when photocopying the scanned image below, only the black kitty appeared clearly while all the blue outlines were barely visible). Thus it would be a good choice for initial blocking and sketching.
The Pilot Hello Kitty Cap Limited Edition Hi-Tec-C Gel Ink Pens are sure to please little girls and girls-at-heart everywhere. The full set of 9 color pens in 0.3 mm or 0.4 mm would make an ideal gift for birthdays and graduations. Alternatively one could get a few sets to distribute as prizes for students in a classroom.