The drama of the leaking water bottle (259)
Daughter created a beautiful painting, but it was ruined by a leaking water bottle. Boo to all manufacturers who promise leak free bottles. You keep on lying.
Rainbow Ruby (252)
Daughter’s colourful interpretation of one of her favourite characters. Really brightens up the living room.
Gel pen replacement next level (237)
As it turned out the Tombow pen I bought last week is great for covering large surfaces, but its flexible point makes it hard to draw circular patterns with evenly thick lines. Peter’s enthusiasm for fountain pens starts to creep into my life and I started searching wether a fountain pen could serve as a drawing alternative. I clearly remember assignments in art class which required using indian ink and pens. Those are a hassle to work with on the road, but could a fountain pen work as well for drawing? I discovered websites that showed you can indeed. Not by using indian ink, since that will clogg it’s flow mechanism, but plenty of other inks will do. I went back to the shop and bought a pen with thinnest point available and a pot of the cheapest ink available. I tested it and the point is still thicker than I’d like, but using the point upside down helps when in need of very thin lines. This pen is not suitable for covering large areas, but that’s where the Tombow can work its magic. The ink I bought is rather watery. That may also cause the lines to become thicker than I want. So my guess is to first look for better ink for drawing. Any recommendations, Peter?
Finding Muji gel pen replacement: experiment one (232)
I’m a fan of my Muji gel pens. I use them for my A6 drawings and I use them for writing (although I’ve now switched to fountain pens for writing). But my stock of black 0.5mm gel pens is running out. Recently I started using the last one and even though it will last me for a while I have been thinking about what to use next. The thing is, I used to buy these pens when visiting Düsseldorf where my dear friend P used to live. During my last visit, knowing P would move out of the country, I stocked up. And that stock is now gone. As Düsseldorf is now less of an attractive visit (no friends to hang out with, covid rules and slightly longer distance driving there) I have two options.
The first option is to order a bunch in the EU Muji store. Muji has no stores in The Netherlands, but they do ship to this country. However, it comes with significant shipping costs of a minimum of €8. That sounds a bit steep for pens that cost €1,95 a piece. Nevertheless, I can order by bulk to lessen the shipping costs per pen if I really want to keep using Muji pens. That said, I’d rather use something that I can buy locally.
So my second option is to find a similar (or better) alternative in the local shops. I went back to the store I bought my new fountain pen a couple of weeks ago, but they focus more on selling writing pens than pens to draw with. Then I went to the hobby shop in the city center. They have a wide collection of pens to choose from. After test driving several black pens I decided to buy a Tombow brush pen. I can use it for both details (I tend to use tiny dots a lot) and paint larger surfaces.
While I was there, I discovered another wonderful collection of felt tip pens in all tints you can imagine. In the last few pieces I drew I used colour as well. One was with water colour paint the other with Muji gel pens. I wasn’t really satisfied with the end result. Therefore I decided to buy a bunch of these felt tip pens to experiment with.
On my A6 cards they render like this.
So now I have to test drive the Tombow and the colours on a new drawing. I will post a review when I’ve finished a new card.
P.S.: I cycled 18 km on this trip. And I also enjoyed a coffee while writing.
The importance of peers
Until recently Daughter has been reluctant to draw actual things. My parental opinion is that she takes after me when it comes to perfectionism. Her mother is thirty-eight years ahead of her when it comes to drawing circles, so Daughter prefers my circles over hers. When she wants to draw a Sun, I draw the circle and she ads the sunbeams. But still, most of her drawings look similar to the one she made in daycare a little over a week ago.
I was totally convinced she could do more, but wasn’t ready to show it yet. Then two weeks she did start to add more purpose to her lines. She created abstract figures following the rules of zen drawing: taking it one line at a time and turn ‘errors’ into features.
So far Daughter attends the toddler group at daycare, for two to four year olds. When school starts in September she will move on to the after school care group. It is in the same building as her current group so she is allowed to attend her new group for a few days in the run upto full transition. Last week was her first day there and this is what she made:
Hello mum, dad, daughter and baby in the belly. Daughter told me that while she was drawing she sat next to a girl that used to be in her toddler group as well (who turned four a few months before Daughter did). I was right, she could draw more than she showed so far. But when surrounded by two years olds you draw like a two year old. When surrounded by four years old you draw like a four year old.
And now she is unstoppable.
Coproduction (166)
I’m still waiting for Daughter trying to draw more than what seems to be random lines (the lines probably make a lot of sense to Daughter). Yesterday she asked me to draw a circle. I added two dots inside the circle, representing eyes. Then Daughter started adding things, asked me to draw more heads and eyes and clothes. Ten minutes later we finished our coproduction of two parents a baby and her sister. I loved the process.
