New pens

When I heard from one of my online contacts, Lauren, that there was a new art shop in Glasgow, Cass Art, I decided to make a day of it and headed off there the very next day! I had a great time looking round Cass Art and lots of inspiring shops, including the Art Store, Millers (which was much better stocked than the last time I was there), and Paperchase. I also shopped at Urban Outfitters and Lush, and had my usual lovely Japanese lunch at Ichiban (which was pretty handy seeing as it's in the same street as the Art Store and Cass Art).

I've been feeling in need of some new pens for drawing with, having mainly used Copic multiliners and Pigma microns in the past, so I looked at some ideas online first, and ended up purchasing lots!

Set of Staedtler pigment liners 0.05mm, 0.1mm, 0.2mm, 0.3mm, 0.5mm, 0.8mm

Uni pin 0.1mm and 0.8mm

Pitt artist pen medium

Pigma micron 05 0.45mm

Signo uni-ball white UM-153

I also got a Tombow brush pen in Warm Grey, because I needed something to add a slight shadow to drawings since the Pitt pen I used had run out. And a Berol italic pen, because I use them a lot.

I did a test of some of the new pens alongside some of the other pens I've been using recently.

As well as the pens I got some foam board in white (A3) and black (A4), to use as reflectors and backdrops for photos. This was a real pain to get home, cradling it when crowds were busy, fighting against strong winds, and balancing it on my knee on the bus. I got some other crafty stuff, like gesso, a craft knife, and a carving block for making stamps. And a cute little tin of Conte crayons with the Eiffel Tower on it, the colours of which I think may be useful on my trip to Tuscany later this year.

I got a couple of books, too. Let's Draw Happy People by Sachiko Umoto was reduced, and I sometimes have trouble drawing people, so I decided to buy it. Now I want the animals one as well! And Calm by Michael Acton Smith is just such a well designed book, with lots of variety in the layout of the pages. A lot of the projects in it seem to be fun and creative, like pressing flowers, or doodling, and there are lots of pages to write on in the book. And we can all do with a bit of calm in our lives!