Logically Illogical

I got it during the Kickstarter deal, which was only $65.  I think it’s very pricey unless you use pens a lot.  The pen is still doing very well, not a single dent, not a single scratch on the damn thing, even though I always carry it around on in my pants pocket and never inside a case.  

I’ve dropped it many times on the pavement, accidentally thrown it across the room, and the thing is damn sturdy.  I’ve been doing my pen sketches with that pen using the Staples refill because it’s the cheapest, and other than the price tag, I have had almost no complaints about it.  Perhaps you do get what you paid for.

If I were to nitpick on the pen though, one issue I have is that because there’a s stylus on the back of the pen, the pen is rear-heavy.  So when you’re holding it to write, draw, it’s a bit difficult to balance.  This is made worse when you screw the cap onto the back of the pen (I like to do that so I don’t lose the cap) so with this pen I almost never put the cap on the back and would just leave it on the table.  

man, that thing’s still on there? bloody thing is like from back in 2008.

I’m gonna publish this because I think other people might be interested in reading this as well.

This might sound cliche but I think the best exercise is to just keep drawing and drawing and drawing.  Not mindlessly, though.  The easiest way is to set up a project for yourself, something big.  It can be “I’m going to make a 40-page comic book by the end of the year” or “I’m going to make a 20-page artbook by the end of the year”.  Set up a project with a deadline, ACTUALLY DO IT, and MEET THE GODDAMN DEADLINE.  

The nice thing about having a project is that it will force you to do things you normally won’t do.  Say you decided to do a comic project, you’ll come across a part where you might have to draw action poses, or you might have to draw a car, or action poses while driving a car.  If you want to make an artbook, you might have to paint scenes with colors you’ve never worked with before.  You might have to draw environment!  You might have to draw people in perspective, foliage, animals, plants, basically stuff you won’t normally do if you’re just drawing mindlessly.  But now because they’re needed for the “project”, you’re gonna have to draw them, or learn how to, like it or not.  I believe that the best way to grow is to take on stuff you’re not comfortable with, and by golly, you’ll be amazed at the amount of things you’re not comfortable with when you’re doing a project.  

Put aside all thoughts of “what if people hate my story”, “what if all the illustration come out like shit?”, “where am i gonna get the money to get the book printed?”, and other similar thoughts.  You don’t even have to print the damn thing or show it to anyone, really.  You just need to WORK. ON. A PROJECT. WITH DEADLINES.  

You’ll be amazed by how much you’ll grow when you complete the project.  Trust me.  Even if in the end you think the project looks like shit, you’ll have grown so much more because you’ve gone through the journey of having to complete a project.  This is why a lot of grade schools these days are switching from tests to project-based classes.  The amount of stuff you learn as you work on a project is amazing, and the sense of accomplishment of finishing the project is usually the push you need to keep going and keep growing.  The only way you’ll not have improved is if you DON’T do a project, or start a project and never complete it.

Best of luck.

I’m not sure which post you’re referring to, but they actually do wrinkle.  I just pressed the pages down hard and made sure they get reasonably flattened before I took the picture.  

The sketchbook in the previous post with the animals and treehouse is the Hand-Book Journal Co sketchbook, which takes watercolor reasonable better than Moleskines.  The problem with Moleskine sketchbooks is that they’re coated with some kind of wax, which gives you that nice smooth surface that’s really nice to work with when you’re using felt-tip pens, but because it’s waxed, it’s difficult to use watercolor on it.  If you want to use watercolor on Moleskine, my advice is to get the Moleskine Watercolor sketchbook and not their regular sketchbook.

The other post with the room interior and alpaca is done on a thick cold-press board.  It’s a sketchbook containing about 10-12 boards that’s not for sale yet, made by Cottonwood Arts.  I got lucky enough to obtain several beta version of the sketchbooks, so I’m trying them out.  It should be on sale sometime this year, so keep an eye out for those.