Putting together this kit as a Christmas present and I think this might be the most basic starter kit without having to buy a converter.
The Fabriano Venezuela is a hard cover notebook and from my test watercolour painting it seemed to hold up well under wet on wet washes well. It isn’t as nice as my favourite Hanhuhmle watercolour journal but this has a lot more pages and cheaper price (was $14 AUD on sale with Jackson’s art) means you can do a lot of sketching and not worry too much about the quality. It is also just thick enough to be able to hold calligraphy pen ink without it bleeding through the other side.
The fude 55 sailor pen is a great beginner calligraphy pen because of the entry price point is only $21 AUD from Amazon. Add a sailor converter for about $11 so you can refill the ink forever. I’m looking to buy some plastic 2ml vials from temu (yes I said I’ll delete it but it’s cheap) so that I can share my deAtramentis document waterproof ink also see a lot of sketchers use this to bring extra ink on site with them. I understand the converter doesn’t hold as much ink as a twsbi. As a sketching pen the fude nib allows you to do very fine and very broad strokes with the twist of the pen so it means you only need one pen. It allows for expressive and interesting marks as well as lovely calligraphy writing.
Adding a pen loop (also cheap on temu) it means that you have everything in one that you can chuck in your bag to be able to sketch anywhere and anytime.
Hopefully my friend can take this on the plane with them without it spilling. I have been doing some research and people have been successful with using ink pens by
– keeping it upright
– fill it with ink – there’s less air to expand and the little air will be on the outside.
– some use a snaplock bag and some paper towels to store the pen on the plane just incase it leaks due to air pressure.
– when opening it after a plane ride, hold it upright incase it spurts out.
– Alternatively others use the two cartridges that the sailor fude comes with stored in the barrel and only open it when you get to your destination and throw out before you board the flight. Then save using the converter for home.
All up this kit cost with buying all items on sale – approx $50 -$80 if you bought the whole bottle of ink ($30 from Adams art). There is a similar kit on larrypost which would set you back about about $105.82 plus shipping so it pays to shop around.
Rachel Fong Art 