Three Questions With David Brennan

David Brennan takes his fountain pens and inks seriously. More specifically, his Pelikan pens, and he has the database to prove it. If you want to work on rotating through all the pens and inks in your collection you could learn a lot from what David does. My thanks to him for answering Three Questions.

1. What role do analog tools such as pens, pencils, and paper play in your day to day life?

Analogue tools allow me to strike a balance in my life. I work in IT for a large transport company and could easily spend all of my time in a purely digital world, however I chose not too. At home I write in a journal daily, keep paper lists and choose to post hand-written birthday cards to friends and relatives. At the office I tend to print out documents to do my revisions rather than on the screen and I enjoy nothing more than sketching out a process flow with a good pen onto Rhodia grid paper. My work colleges think I am strange for using fountain pens and paper and they might be right.

2. What are your favorite products you are currently using?

I have so many favourites but here are five:

• Apple MacBook Air 11" - I consider this the best portable laptop available, it hosts my Filemaker Pro fountain pen database and all my other digital guff.

• Canon EOS 6D DSLR with a 100mm F2.8L Macro lens - my first choice when taking close-ups of pens, nibs and inks for my blog.

• Franklin-Christoph Penevelope Six leather pen case - I own two of these cases, one in Brown boot leather, one in black, they keep six fountain pens safe and secure.

• Topo Mini Mountain bag in Duck Camo - This current work bag whilst quite compact it is large enough for my MacBook Air and Franklin Christoph P6 case.

• Rhodia products - their paperstock works so well with fountain pen ink that I use it for all my blog writing samples and for general use both at home and the office. I will nominate their elasti book and the 80 year anniversary range of Ice pads as my current favourites.

3. What is your perfect Pelikan pen, nib, and ink combo?

I actually laughed out loud when I read this question - how do I pick between my 38 lovely 'birds'?

Actually my fountain pen database's next proposed combo into rotation turned out to be as good as any I could think of myself.

The pen is the M800 Tortoiseshell Brown Special Edition - the 2013 release that gave us Pelikan fans a chance to own the pen we could only dream about. (This size, pattern and colour was only previously available as a Spanish only limited edition, so was rare and expensive) The nib proposed by the database is one of my many custom grind nibs from Mr Richard Binder, it is a Medium nib ground into a 0.7mm cursive italic. Like many of my Binder CIs this is quite crisp and with that comes good line variation - it makes my average handwriting look decent. Sadly (for me) Richard seems to have now closed his online pen business but I hear he still does grinds and nib adjustment at selected pen shows.

My database selected one of my long time favourite inks, Kon-peki, the beautiful blue ink from PIlot Iroshizuku to be used with this combo. This ink normally shades but not much from this fairly fine CI. I think I would be happy to use this combo everyday if I had too.

Three Questions With Kevin Mellon

I first ran across Kevin Mellon’s artwork when I was working for JetPens. I was impressed with his style, and was interested in the tools he used to create. Watching his career take off - he is now a storyboard artist for Archer and created his own comic series called Suicide Sisters - has been really exciting to follow. My thanks to Kevin for taking the time to answer Three Questions.

1. What role do analog tools such as pens, pencils, and paper play in your day to day life?

Sadly, not as much daily as they used to. I work on the FX cartoon Archer, doing storyboards, and most of that process is digital using cintiqs. That said, I keep sketchbooks with me to work out my thoughts on scenes I’m assigned and various pens to doodle/take notes with.

I love pens/paper/etc. I have a severe JetPens addiction, as the drawers of various tools I’ve bought from them over the years continues to fill up rather than diminish. I will often buy pens just to try something, as they’re fun for me and I like finding/trying different things.

For my comics work, I often do my layouts/thumbnails in sketchbooks, so those are usually pencil, pen, and paper. I vary what I use, and a lot of the pens I buy to try out get used there.

When I do get a chance (read: make the time) to sketch for myself, that’s when I really go through what I have, just trying everything I’ve bought but haven’t gotten to yet, or just enjoying my old standbys.

2. What are your favorite products you are currently using?

For paper, I’ve been really digging Strathmore 297120 60-Pound 192-Page Sketch Book, 8.5 by 11-Inch.

It’s a sturdy paper that’s almost bristol-like. I prefer a bit of tooth to my paper, and this one certainly has a nice bite to it.

For comics pages, I’m pretty standard. I use Strathmore 300 series Vellum surface Bristol. I buy the 11x17 (unruled/no blue-line) packs of 24 in bulk from Dick Blick. Since my comics output has decreased the last few years, I’m still sitting on about a dozen packs, but they’ll get used over time.

For pens, my go-tos at the moment are:

Uni-ball Vision Elite roller ball pen. I love this one for just general use. Writing, sketching, whatever. It’s just a solid, cheap pen that never lets me down in every day use.

Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen (Super Fine). I’ve used quite a few of these in the last two years, and I beat the heck out of them and they keep going. (I’m bad about chewing on the caps/stocks while working). I love the response and line that these get and the long stock is like holding a brush, which is nice since my traditional comic/illustration inking is done with brushes. These I just use for sketching, though.

Another one that’s very similar is the Sailor version of the same pen. They’re different in ways I appreciate subtly, but the Sailor is a solid one to have.

I use the Platinum Carbon ink, as I can’t be bothered to mess with filling my own ink into the converters that I have, and the carbon ink has done me well in all my various brush pens over the years.

I’ve also been messing around with Deleter G nibs using this stock (I might mention that the pink handled nib holder is slightly shorter than the blue one. I have one of each, but use the pink more, as I prefer it better).

For brush pen sketching, I use the Kuretake Fudegokochi Super Fine and Regular.

And my go-to brush pen for many years has been the Kuretake no. 13. It’s a work horse and the ability to replace just the brush half makes it invaluable for sketching and travel. Also, as long as I’m not too hard on them, they last me quite a while.

For pencils:

A couple years back, you yourself got me onto the Palomino Blackwings which I didn’t expect to like, let alone fall in love with, but I did. It’s a pencil that reacts like a brush. From there I dipped even further and have switched over to the Blackwing Pearls for the most part, and those have been a mainstay for the last year or so.

Otherwise I’m using a Pentel Graph Gear 500 filled with blue lead for sketching and whatever else. The weight and feel of it, plus the metal grip is what sold me on that pencil.

Digitally, I’m forever in love with Sketchbook Pro. It’s my go-to digital sketchbook/workhorse. I swoon over every new iteration of it, and it’s been my mainstay for digital sketching/design/comics penciling for about 6 years now.

3. What creation are you the most proud of?

Hmm. This is a tough one. I’d have to say that my most recent full-length book, Suicide Sisters would have to be it. Before putting that out, I’d have said LoveSTRUCK, my second graphic novel with writer Dennis Hopeless, but since I conceived, wrote, and drew Suicide Sisters myself, I have to go with that one. Wow, that’s a lot of commas. Obviously I’m good at writing.

Three Questions With Johnny Gamber From Pencil Revolution

The Pencil Revolution will be written, and that’s just how Johnny Gamber wants it. Johnny has been doing his thing online since 2005, making him the godfather of our little online world. My thanks to Johnny for answering Three Questions.

1. What role do analog tools such as pens, pencils, and paper play in your day to day life?

Paper is literally My Brain on a daily basis. It is my Memory and my Expansion Slot. If I need to remember something, I have to write it down. A combination of sleep deprivation, over-exposure to technology and too much time in higher education have combined to really erode my memory. When I realize I haven't written something down, there is a horror I feel in the abyss of my Being because I know it is gone forever. I have an obsession with record-keeping that owning a lot of stationery probably exacerbates. I note cute things my kids say or do and what adventures we have together in my journal or in my 5-year diary (the latter, in seasonally-colored Micron 05 pens). There are also frequent times when I have to write something down to get it out of my head and have a better look at it. This can be something about which I am anxious or a diagram for making matchstick rockets on my marble stoop. In this way, paper becomes a literal space to expand My Brain. I don't leave a room without paper and something to write with. And while we joke about me hating pens on the podcast, this is sometimes a gel pen or a Bic. I usually have a sharp pencil somewhere on or near my person, though, and – to be sure – I will probably impale myself with it one day.

2. What are your favorite products you are currently using?

I am always using an embarrassing array of stationery at one time. Currently, my journal is a Baron Fig Three-Legged Juggler, while I am using a custom Write Notepads and Co. pocket notebook for Erasable podcast notes. In my pocket, my Field Notes change pretty quickly. I am at the last part of an Ambition notebook and am eying my next charge – possibly a Shelterwood for a winter feel. To write in these nice books, I have lately been experimenting with less soft pencils than I usually prefer. The Staedtler Wopex and the Faber-Castell Castell 9000 (in grade B) have been great on the Baron Fig paper, and General's Cedar Pointe has been the weapon of choice for my Ambition books, whose paper I really like for graphite. On the go, there is a short Blackwing 602 and a Bic Cristal in my vest pocket, with a small knife for sharpening and old grocery lists.

3. What post are you the most proud of on your blog?

I think the two-part interview I did with Aaron Draplin back in 2011 stands out the most (Part one, Part two). He was so kind and generous with his answers that I had no idea how famous he was/is. I found out first-hand that Mr. Draplin's kindness is as legendary as his amazing designs.