not like the camera

Tabloid Self Portrait

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:08:00 -0400

Tabloid Self Portrait

With the return of “The Walking Dead” tv show and having just...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:35:00 -0500

With the return of “The Walking Dead” tv show and having just read “World War Z,” I’ve got zombies on the brain.

The Palomino Blackwing 602

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:19:49 -0500

I’ve heard a lot of hype about the Palomino Blackwing 602 pencil, and I’ve been eager to try one. I wasn’t excited about dropping $20 on a box of untested woodcase pencils, though, so when Brad from JetPens offered to send me one to try out, I jumped at it.

The blue-ish gray, metallic finish with the gold stamped logo and the distinctive eraser design make for a good looking pencil. On the other side of the pencil they’ve stamped the tagline, “Half the pressure, twice the speed.” I guess that’s their way of saying that the 602 is smoother than your typical yellow, no. 2 pencil. It’s no big deal, but it would look sharper if they left it off.

The lead in the Blackwing 602 seems to be in the range of 2B on the hardness scale. It’s smooth with just a little bit of resistance on paper that gives it a nice feel for drawing. You can get a wide range of tones out of it by varying the pressure used. With leads that are too hard or too soft, it’s hard to get as much range.

The eraser design gives the pencil a unique look which is a big part of its branding, but I don’t really have much use for it. It erases well enough and is easy to replace once it gets worn down, but it leaves a lot of little black crumbs on the paper. It is also rather large which makes a new pencil feel back heavy and little unbalanced. That wouldn’t be as noticeable as you sharpen down the pencil, and it gets shorter. I would probably just take it out and stick with a kneaded rubber eraser.

Is the Blackwing 602 “the best pencil ever made”? I don’t know about that. I like it more than I thought that I would, and I think that it is comparable to other good quality drawing pencils from manufacturers like Tombow and Faber-Castell. If they were to make a model without the eraser and sell it for less money, it would be an interesting option, but I don’t see that happening.

I’ve got too many half-filled notebooks going. Once I...

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:37:30 -0500

I’ve got too many half-filled notebooks going. Once I finish the books that I’ve already started, I plan to stick to a three notebook system. I’ll use a Canson Universal sketchbook for working out ideas, a Stillman & Birn Epsilon for more developed drawings, and a Moleskine pocket sketchbook for carrying around. I guess that this is about as close as I’ll get to making any New Year’s resolutions.

I broke in a new notebook that I got for Christmas with some...

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:32:00 -0500

I broke in a new notebook that I got for Christmas with some sticker paper and markers on the inside cover.

Blood Parasites on Flickr.Probably the best rendering of a heart...

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:33:07 -0500

Blood Parasites on Flickr.

Probably the best rendering of a heart valve that I’ve ever done.

Checking to see how the Staples inkjet label paper sticks in a...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:00:00 -0500

Checking to see how the Staples inkjet label paper sticks in a new book.

They’ve been running a lot of ads for the “Rise of...

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:38:00 -0500

They’ve been running a lot of ads for the “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” DVD release. I haven’t rented a movie in years, but I feel like I ought to check it out.

Solved it.

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 08:37:54 -0400

Solved it.

All Hallows’ Eve, a set on Flickr.Halloween decorations around...

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:25:22 -0400

All Hallows’ Eve, a set on Flickr.

Halloween decorations around the neighborhood, run through Photo Forge and PictureShow then pushed out through Instagram.

Pushing some paint around.

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:37:35 -0400

Pushing some paint around.

Bar Fights/Vegas on Flickr.A couple more pages filled.

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:09:43 -0400

Bar Fights/Vegas on Flickr.

A couple more pages filled.

Playing around with Adobe Ideas.

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:43:03 -0400

Playing around with Adobe Ideas.

Quote from “Conan the Barbarian” with clowns.

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 11:35:00 -0400

Quote from “Conan the Barbarian” with clowns.

I’ve got a bold nibbed Lamy Safari that spends most of its...

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:48:01 -0400

I’ve got a bold nibbed Lamy Safari that spends most of its time sitting in a box, so I thought that I would see if I could make it a little more interesting. I pulled the feed out and replaced it with a ferrule from a dip pen. It works well with Hunt nibs like the 102 and 103. The Hunt 512 and Japanese G nibs are too long, though. The cap won’t fit over them.

I had the idea of storing nibs in the body. I’ve found that smaller nibs can fall out through the ink level window. I’ll have to see what I can do about that. The G nibs won’t fit through the window. I can carry them in the body and switch them out on location if I need to do so.

Hoodies

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 22:22:00 -0400

Hoodies

Honky Tonkin’ at The Basement

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:06:55 -0400

Honky Tonkin’ at The Basement

Deadbeat Dad/Starsky

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:29:00 -0400

Deadbeat Dad/Starsky

C-3PO: Action Figure, a set on Flickr.The life of an action...

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:53:38 -0400

C-3PO: Action Figure, a set on Flickr.

The life of an action figure isn’t as exciting as you might think.

Splat Monkeys

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:17:00 -0400

Splat Monkeys