Noodler’s Griffin

Ah well. As the year rapidly draws to an end I manage to produce something that has been on my mind almosts the whole year. An entry to the Noodler’s Artist Prize. As I finished my entry I discovered that the original has to be sent in by snailmail and thus, I believe I am too late to enter the competition. So, I’ll post my drawing on the blog instead, but I am still not too proud to send a message to Noodler’s Ink by their Contact Page informing of this post.

Why?

1) I love Noodler’s ink and I am happy informing everyone of this.
2) I appreciate the incentive of this competition. It has moved my muse, of which I am grateful. I’d like those responsible to know this, even if I can’t participate in the contest.
3) I’d like to show you my Noodler-Griffin.

Now, to the drawing:

Title: Noodler’s Griffin
Size: about 10×10 cm (I tried to make a bigger one, I really tried!)
Inks: (all Noodler’s inks) Zhivago (which is great as a black-with-only-a-hint-of-green in a pen but really shows its large capacity when used in water washes), Apache Sunset (also great shading alone as well as in washes). For the pillow the majestic Purple Martin and for the tassle Red Rattler and Lexington Gray.
Pens: Noodler’s brush pen. Noodler’s flex pens.
Paper: Seawhite of Brighton.
Computer alteration: Scanned and cut, heightened brightness as well as contrast a little.
Inspiration: Mythical creature meets Catfish. I had several other ideas as well, but this one inspired me the most today.
Notes: I think this went rather well, although the griffin is a tad more youngish than intended. Maybe the holiday spirit made me veer off from the regular scary-monster theme. I blame Christmas. But approach this little one with caution, it could very well bite your head off.
In Other News I must confess that I wish there were an Artist Prize of 2012 as well…

Apache Sunset

Noodler's Zhivago - Can you believe this came from ONE bottle of ink?

Happy New Year!

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Noodler’s flex pen in self-made frost finish

Pen: The Noodler’s flex pen became a great success when released as it provides good flex for a modest price. There isn’t really any other modern pen in the same price-bracket with flex like this. I was eager to try one for myself. Actually I ordered two of them from Gouletpens, a red/green and a demonstrator (clear/see-through). They smelled a bit weird at first. The nib is slit vertically almost in half, which gives a good degree of flex although the metal in the nib itself doesn’t feel as soft as in vintage flex nibs (it’s like comparing apples and llamas anyway). There was some flow-problems in the beginning, but as I have used the pens and adjusted the feeds and nibs in the sections I believe I have reached a happy equilibrium and the line is seldom broken. For a writing sample see the “Five Reds“-post.

Why I like it: I like to be able to bring a modern, inexpensive flex pen with me everywhere and know that I can buy another one if I lose it. As of now the pens are all sold out though, so maybe I should be careful anyway. I like that the nib is very fine when not flexed, as this is good for drawing. I am especially fond of the demonstrator as I like seeing the ink inside the pen. Also, I’m satisfied with how the modification turned out on my particular pen. The other colours of the pen are nice as well, I think I’ll get a couple when they go back in stock in the middle of May.

Modification: I wasn’t satisfied with the surface finish of the pen (too glossy and some scratches inside of the barrel from the turning machine) so I decided to modify it a bit with really fine grit sandpaper. Unfortunately no “before”-picture. Here is the result:

The ink is Noodler’s Red Rattler.

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Five reds

Discovering the joy of writing with different shades of ink, I’m surprised I did not discover fountain pen inks earlier. I love shades, blending, chemistry, drawing. You’d think an interest in inks would come naturally. Alas, after getting my first fountain pens I got a bunch of Diamine inks in small bottles from Nordic Pen Imports. Then I discovered Noodler’s. Now I’ve got more than 50 different inks from various makers (I know that this isn’t much compared to some, but mom, if you read this, I got most of them on sale).

At Fountain Pen Network there is an excellent Index of Ink Reviews section, a great resource. I also have to commend Goulet Pens Ink Drop, where you get several small ink samples in the mail regularly. I’m not a member myself, but I have bought small sample-bottles of ink from there. The Noodler’s Red Black below is from such a bottle.

So, on to the comparison. These are all the reds I have. Written with different pens, this is not a review per se as the ink behave different with different pens. I do not aspire to be a clean cut reviewer, I make up things as I go along. The paper is Clairefountaine Graf It Sketch pad. I plan to post this comparison in the appropriate forum at FPN so if you have come here from that post, welcome to the blog!

Detailed description and more pictures:

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