Pens are one of the few things that I truly go all Leftie over. Oh, I'm willing to go along with the world isn't made for Lefties complaint/mantra (I swear, for some people it really is a mantra) to a certain extent, but I think most people will agree that most leftie-unfriendly things can be gotten past reasonably well. Right-handed scissors can be learned, for example (but please, folks -- if you have left-handed kids buy proper left-handed scissors while they're learning. And not just those "suitable for either right or left hand" ones. They aren't. Trust me). Pens? Pens are another thing. Pens can go a long way to making a person's life miserable.
Ok, ok, maybe not miserable. And as annoying as an annoying pen can be, the problem's easily fixed by getting another pen. I admit it. I hope I'm allowed a little blather hyperbole, though, because otherwise we'll be lacking a post today.
Anyway. When I was in school smudging was the bane of my existence. I had enough trouble with handwriting as it was, and then to leave massive streaks all over the end result? Very frustrating. It didn't help that there was a brief vogue for erasable ink when I was a kid; everyone thinks it will be easier for someone who's just starting out with a pen to be able to correct their mistakes like they would with a pencil, but those erasable inks were absolutely smudgetastic.
Like most lefties, though, trial and error (and, in my case, calligraphy practice for hand positioning. Yes, seriously) helped me find things that I could write with without leaving both the paper and the side of my hand looking like abstract art. Nowadays I know that there are a few brands of cheap ballpoints that I need to avoid. Rollerballs and gel pens are complete disasters for me, too. Surprisingly, I can usually manage fountain pens (there was a disposable brand that I used for years. It was kind of fun. I wonder if they still make them?). And ever since I started doodling with nylon-tipped pens, I've had a tendency to buy nylon-tipped writing pens now and then.
Which, I guess, neatly brings me to today's completely and absolutely pointless photo. Just for fun I dug out the old Osmiroid (old, notice. It's not an expensive pen, but at least it's not one of the new Chinese ones. Reviews on them are pretty horrible, I notice) I used to use for calligraphy. It's reeeally been a while, and now that I'm more used to drawing pens the drag of a calligraphic nib took me aback. Of course, it also took me aback that my ink was still at all usable. My B4 nib is a bit damaged now, I see, but overall the thing's not in bad shape considering the abuse it took.
After playing with the fountain pen for a bit (and incidentally, I'd forgotten about the "fun" of dealing with ink bottles. I think I might be wearing more on my hands than what actually hit the paper), I figured I'd may as well round things off with a line comparison between it and some of my art pens. Oh, and a couple of other random pens that I found lying around. The felt is just a chisel tip that was advertised for calligraphy years ago. Thought it might be easier than using the fountain pen, but the results were never good. The Uniball was on the piano from back when I was still teaching voice. I have no idea why I even had it; like I said before, rollerballs don't generally do it for me. The Spider Writers were a novelty for scrapbookers, I think. They have sticky ink that "webs" from point to point.
The others? My dip pen in the middle there (just a standard Speedball, if I remember right). I still use it on occasion for inking because I do like the lines you get, but the unexpected dribbles can be frustrating. I've never used a fountain pen for drawing -- maybe I should give it a try sometime? I'd have to get one specially, because I don't have anything like that around. Something to put on the possibles list, I guess. The other two pen sets are nylon-tips, and they're what I do most of my doodling with today. I'm still in love with my Pigma microns (easily still in the top five) but the Prismacolors I picked up with last Christmas's gift certificate certainly do a decent job. My Pitt pens are in my desk at work at the moment. They're ok (obviously, since so many people use them), but for my style (I want to say "style" in quotes, because it seems weird to think of myself as having a style at all) I think they're just a bit too... flowy, maybe. I went through the 01's ink supply in record time, and I just don't seem to do that with the Microns.
And that's probably just enough pointless wordage about pens, don't you think? I could talk more about... well, a lot of things I've touched on here, but seeing as I'm usually pretty hard up for topics on the blog, I think maybe I'll put my other thoughts in my back pocket for now.
Not the ink, though. Ink in a back pocket? Definitely not a good idea.
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