Cleaning and reading about fountain pens

I was cleaning my pen with pen cleaning fluid or solutions because for the last few weeks I have been getting lots of pen issues - mainly clogging. And at the same time I was reading about how a fountain pen works so I could understand the mechanism and then know how to salvage a clogged pen. I tried cleaning solution this time cause soaking in water alone did not help. Even in hot water. One of my pen is working better now and I feel a little happier. I have a new pen standing by but I really want the old one to work again. I think I will clean and flush my pen more often now so there is no need for an overhaul in the future. Actually my pens are working very well until there was a couple of weeks I was using brush pens more frequently, thus the pens clogged.

Put your GRID View in Photoshop to good use by creating a "Rule of Thirds" grid as you draw or paint.

Steps:

1. Go to Photoshop, hit Command K (PC: Ctrl-K) to open Photoshop's Preferences.

2. Select and click on Guides, Grid & Slices.

3. Under the GRID section, change: Gridline every: 100 percent. Subdivisions 3, and hit OK.

This will create a grid that divides working area or canvas into equal thirds. Now go to View and Show > Grids OR press Command ’ (PC: Ctrl – ’(apostrophe) to turn on the Grids view. You can begin your composition and design with the help of the tool.

Or follow the visual steps below:

1) Take note of the Default Setting. You might not want to loose it.



2) Change the setting accordingly:



3) Turn on the Grid View (Or Use Command / Ctrl ')


4) The Result:

This is where I grew up, and I am glad to see this row of shop houses still intact and not demolished or becoming offices or pubs. The walls were repainted several times but that was all. I am happy to see that these shophouses remain as residential and not converting to commercial uses. Anyway, I sketched this a Hero fountain pen on location and added watercolor washes later in my studio. Here's is also a pix of how and where I work. In my palette, I am using Shinhan premium watercolors which is quite a joy to use. The pigments are brilliant and pretty thick so you get lot of saturation and color from a little paint off the tube. They are easy to mix and dissolves very easily even after the paints dried on the palette. The color wheel you see in the background is created with Shinhan watercolors too.

[caption id="attachment_2295" align="alignnone" width="584"] Everton Road - ink & wash[/caption]

Everton Road - This is where I grew up, and I am glad to see this row of shop houses still intact and not demolished or becoming offices or pubs. The walls were repainted several times but that was all. I am happy to see that these shophouses remain as residential and not converting to commercial uses. Anyway, I sketched this with a Hero fountain pen on location and added watercolor washes later in my studio. Here's is also a pix of how and where I work. On my palette, I am using Shinhan premium watercolors which is quite a joy to use. The pigments are brilliant and pretty thick so you get lots of saturation and color from a little paint off the tube. They are easy to mix and dissolves very easily even after the paints dried on the palette. The color wheel you see in the background is created with Shinhan watercolors too. Schut Hot pressed watercolor paper 24" X 11"

A snack and drinks corner...

[caption id="attachment_2289" align="alignnone" width="584"] Sketching at Garden Dome[/caption]

Trying out Shinhan's TOUCH markers. Brilliant colors. Easy to use and blend well with each other.

[caption id="attachment_2282" align="alignnone" width="584"] Duxton Road[/caption]

Dug out a pen & ink sketch I did at Duxton Road/Plain on a sketchwalk event during the book launch at URA last year Oct. The line art was done on location with my Hero fountain pen loaded with Noodler's bulletproof black and painted entirely with Shinhan watercolors.