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…
Review by Tina Koyama It’s planner prep season, and it’s also time to start thinking about (say it ain’t so!) the holidays. I took care of both with one set of brush pens: the Kuretake Zig Fudebiyori Metallic set of 8 colors (8/$17 or $2.50 each). Although I have a gazillion brush pens and use…
I did an epic sketchbook review a few weeks back and I included watercolor swatch tests in each sketchbook. Those swatches were created using the Viviva Colorsheets (original set of 16 colors is currently available for $20, new Inktober edition for 2021 is coming soon). Viviva Colorsheets have been on the market for a couple…
