Quick sketch with a Kaweco fountain pen and waterbrush
2 minute sketch with a Kaweco sport M nib and J.Herbin Bleu Pervenche and a Kuretake water brush.
After applying water:
A blog about writing, sketching, running and other things
2 minute sketch with a Kaweco sport M nib and J.Herbin Bleu Pervenche and a Kuretake water brush.
After applying water:
When my brother and I visited The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando we bought a pack of postcards and some postage at Hogsmeade and posted some postcards home. They have a little “Owl Post” booth where you can get your postcard stamped with an owl post stamp, and it’s a charming experience. We ended up with a few postcards left over, so we posted them from our Disney hotel. A few weeks after we got home the postcards arrived and made out day.
I was just at a Shalom Sebba exhibition at the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art and after my visit I went to the museum store and bought some postcards there. Later that evening I spent some time writing postcards for my family, with little sketches inspired by Sebba’s work:
I had no idea where I would post them, as most of the post boxes in my area have been removed, but I wanted to at least try to post them before my dad’s surgery this week. With today’s postal service sending them would be a bit like tossing a message in a bottle into the sea and hoping it would eventually arrive at its destination. Yet there’s something about not just the wonderful experience of receiving snail mail which I wanted to give to my family, but something particular about postcards that made me want make the effort to post these cards that I could more easily hand deliver myself.
More than letter postcards evoke some things to me – a break from routine, a holiday, exotic places, better days. There’s something creative about the selection you make, and they make me want to sketch in them, write in their margins, be creative in the tiny space I’m given to work with. The limited space, zero privacy and the need to withstand the elements at least somewhat makes them a creative challenge we rarely encounter in days where everyone is an instant message away.
Yet that’s what made them appeal to me, because more than anything postcards speak of hope, and these days I need all the hope I can get.
I’m still working my way through the Inkvent inks (9 pens left to write dry), and I’m trying to sketch more even on busy weeks. So I dusted off an old Traveler’s Notebook that I set up years ago and didn’t fill, and I started playing with fountain pens.
A quick cafe sketch in my Stalogy B5 with a Lamy Safari Diamine Merry and Bright.
Happy fountain pen day to all who celebrate. I purchased a Leonardo Momento Zero Nuvola rose gold fine flex nib from Fontoplumo with the hopes that it will arrive at some point in the future (deliveries are still severely delayed).
Unlike past years I’ve started working on my Inkvent reviews now instead of in real time, as a way to make them less stressful. I decided to theme my sketches this year around my teddy bear collection.
My PTSD has been kicking my ass since Tuesday, when I got caught in a crowded shelter (small room, no windows, closed door, large rocket barrage. Couldn’t have been more triggering if I’d designed it). I’m taking some time off daily posting to take care of myself.
Daniela Shemer wrote a series of posts on her Instagram and I felt every word, so here’s her posts:
Inktober day 30 with more kitten action.
My parents’ new kitten is having the time of her life.
Three rocket attacks today and I’m getting ready for an uneasy night. They’re sending them in large waves so Iron Dome missed a few and there direct hits and more wounded people today.
In better news the stray black kitten that my mom and brother saved is back from her stay at the vet’s (she had to have her tail removed after she was run over by a car). She’s so friendly and fearless the vet thinks that she belonged to someone who threw her out (a common fate with black cats in particular). But now she has a great forever home and she’s having the time of her life:
Adopt, don’t shop.
Spent a few hours at the office this morning instead of just working from home. It was nice to get to see people face to face after three weeks. Got caught by a siren attack a few minutes after getting off the bus so I sprinted to the shelter in the middle of a heatwave. There was a direct hit near my parents’ house just as they were bringing home a new stray 4 month old kitten that had its tail amputated after being run over by a car. She’s black, cute, and was terrified by the siren and the booms of the rockets, poor thing. I hope she settles in and the other cats there accept her.
I had a phone call with an old friend today, and he asked me what I do to stay sane these days. I told him that I’m back to my chemo routine:
It worked then, and so far it works now.