Thanks, Slickdeals!

I previously proclaimed the opaque goodness of the white uni-ball signo gel pen. Although it’s still the best opaque pen of its kind, Sharpie has now come up with something even better. The Sharpie Poster Paint markers have found their way into my art arsenal. They come in tons of colors, fine, medium and bold points, and they’re water-based so you don’t get the nasty fumes of oil-based paint markers.

I tried them on a whim. The lady at Rubber Stamp Fantasy showed me how the white one worked a few months ago, and I was skeptical. I had my Signo gel pen. Then a few days ago I was doodling to OK Computer with my gel pens, watercolor crayons, wax crayons and some watercolors and my white lines drawn with the Signo were washed away by my paint brush!

I went back to the rubber stamp store to pick up some more Copic Markers to round out my collection when I remembered the Sharpie Paint pen. I picked one up just to try it out. I was floored! This is the most opaque white pen I’ve seen. It writes flawlessly and I love the fine point. It’s not super-fine like my Pilot Hi-Tec-C, but for a marker it’s a good fine point.

I went to Dick Blick and picked up a few more – black, gold & silver and played around most of today. These pens write over EVERYTHING. I’ve tried them on plastic, shiny acrylic paints (dry…), over wax crayon, with Copics & watercolors. This is definitely what I’ve been looking for. In my art journaling, I use caran d’ache neocolors I & II (wax crayons & water-soluble crayons) and writing over a layer of these clogs up most pens. There’s not much more I can do once I use those crayons. It’s also difficult to write on slick magazine pages with most pens. Now I’ll be able to write over these waxy layers. Oh the freedom!

I also tested the pens with watercolors, and once the ink/paint is dry, it’ll stand up to a good wash. Drying time is around 10-20 seconds depending on the thickness of the line, but once it’s dry, it’s waterproof, provided you’re not torturing your paper with your brush.

I’m very pleased – and I’ll probably get more colors later on. You can definitely find them at Dick Blick & Amazon.com, but there are other small stores and online stores that carry ‘em.

So I went back with birthday money in my hands this past Friday, and found that I not only couldn’t find any Golden paints, but they gutted and rearranged the entire store. I scoured the newly-arranged aisles with no luck.

As I walked between two empty checkout stands, I saw three carts full of stuff. I peered in one that looked promising and found the remainder of Golden products… all 70% off – no paints, but giant pint-sized jars of acrylic mediums. I had recently left my only jar of matte heavy gel un-lidded overnight, so I definitely hit the jackpot.

Two 32-oz jars of Heavy Body Matte medium, normally just over $20… bought for $6 each, and one 32-oz jar of Light Molding Paste, normally around $17.00 – I paid just over $5.

Major score. And apologies for geeking out on acrylic mediums. I can’t help myself.

A while back I bought a few pens from Jet Pens, one of them was the Hi-Tec-C Cavalier Pen .3mm.

I have to say that I *love* this pen. My search for an extra-fine-point everyday use pen has come to an end. I’ve been using the .38mm uniball signo pens for years and was happy. I wanted something a little more non-disposable, classy & professional-looking (not that I have anyone to impress), and this one caught my eye.

The line is consistent, no skipping, very smooth writing and I like the weight of the pen – substantial without being too weighty. One thing I did notice is that the ink is not completely waterproof. It’s a minor thing, but an inconvenience when I want to use watercolors over it. I have other waterproof pens in my arsenal so it’s not a huge turn-off.

I use this one every day in my moleskine and art journal. Just a word of warning (although most who like using very fine pens will know this already) this pen WILL go through paper if you write hard enough.

I showed this off to a friend of mine and the next time I saw her she pulled out a blue version of the exact same pen. She’s just as much of a pen-freak as I am.

One day I found Jet Pens – it’s a US-based site selling pens, pencils, deco tapes & such from Japan – and being a complete pen freak, I was in heaven. I was originally looking for some really opaque white pens I had seen mentioned by several of my favorite artists and found them there – the Japanese Uniball Signo White Gel Pen:

For months I was agonizing over how many to buy and what to stock my cart with to meet the $25 limit for free shipping.

Last week I finally took the plunge – after filling & emptying my cart about 6 times, I ordered three of those white gel pens and a Pilot Hi-Tec-C Cavalier Executive Pen with a 0.3mm nib in silver:

I checked the delivery confirmation yesterday around noon, and it was on its way to my mailbox. When I got home, I almost asked my husband where the package was before I gave him a hug & kiss hello… OK.. I did ask him where the package was as I gave him a hug and before I kissed him… I think.

Anyway, I tore open the package and dumped its contents on my junk-mail pile (aka the kitchen table). There they were. Three Uniball Signo White Gel Pens and the Cavalier.

I’ll put a review of sorts of these two pens when I get a chance to put them to some more use, although I did stay up a bit last night and play with the white pen…

So, I went to the one in Roswell, which is now almost 40 minutes away from my house. While I would love to say that the enhanced inventory (the new store is enormous) makes up for the distance, the increase hassle in getting to the store may limit my spending there. We’ll see…

Anyway, I am in LOVE with Cavallini’s decorative papers and bought these two sheets on Saturday (as well as some watercolor paper, fabric pen & canvas boards):

These will make excellent books…

Now I have to stop sewing long enough to make them…

1. When painting more than one color, make sure you have enough brushes of the right size so you don’t have to keep going back & forth cleaning the same brush every time.
2. When experimenting with monoprints, remember to write backwards.
3. Fabric will most likely smell funny if you don’t prewash it. Either deal with the smell or prewash your fabrics, dummy. (I suppose there’s always Febreeze…)
4. When using fabric paint to paint on rough surfaces like duck cloth or canvas, do not expect dainty lettering to be so dainty when you’re done.

And I took the plunge & upgraded to pro… somehow it feels like i can breathe now