Materials I use for my Sketch Journal

Mostly about pens - and I'm back using watercolour

Lamy Fountain Pens

OK, so I like, and use, Lamy fountain pens. They're great for sketching and drawing. Having used a few others I kept coming back to these.

Lamy LX Ruthenium with Broad Nib
My latest Lamy addition - basically an upgraded version of a Vista / Safari. I use it for most of my sketching - a good solid line is produced.

Lamy Vista with Medium Nib
I use this for finer details on sketching

Lamy Studio with Medium Nib
I use this for writing and outlining heading text.

It is, of course, all just a matter of personal taste and what suits you and what you're comfortable with.

Noodlers Ink

Bulletproof black - I've used it for years. It's good for fountain pens and it's water resistant which is great for me as I add watercolour over the top of it.

Pentel Brush Pen

Refillable (FP10 cartridges) brush pen with great, black pigment ink. As a lot of what I do is in a sort of negative with a lot of Black background (similar to comic noir style) I use a lot of ink. I've used a few things but I find no brush pen compares to the ease of coverage and quality of ink.

Watercolour Paint

As you can probably tell I’ve started using watercolour paint again - I missed it. But I will show more of this is my next newsletter.

I use a variety of different paint kept in a standard watercolour paint tin. The assortment of paint I’ve acquired include Winsor and Newton, Daler Rowney and three very good paints from Beam in Canada.

I don't use too may paint colours - I find it's better to have a few good quality as opposed to a lot of student quality. You can mix them after all - I do quite a bit of this.

Treasure your materials - even if they aren’t too expensive. And there’s no reason they should be

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What’s coming?

This Substack is intended to expand upon the ideas of the ink and watercolour sketch journal, to provide examples and inspiration. In the next newsletter I will expand on why I am back using watercolour and more about the process I use for sketching.

It’s all about getting your thoughts and feelings out onto paper without any rules to follow - this is sketching with narrative - not drawing.

Thanks for reading this and coming on the journey with me. Enjoy the journey and the destination can just look after itself.
All the best,
Peter