All my life, I’ve had a love of bright colours. I’ve shied away from the more earthy, natural or vintage tones. Recently, however, I’ve been using a lot of brown and more subdued colours in my art. When I saw Arteza had a box of vintage coloured gel pens, I thought I’d give them a go! So, I got out a sheet of bristol board and started to draw with the Vintage Grape Purple and Ginger pens.
Usually, I have huge problems with gel pens. The ink doesn’t flow smoothly due to the way I hold the pen (very upright) and it tends to blob. The pen soon stops working as well – and I don’t choose cheap pens. However, I was very pleasantly surprised at how smoothly the ink flows from these pens. No globs. It dries quickly. I can colour small areas smoothly. And the colours are rich. A bonus is I’m able to get the pen to produce thinner lines when I ‘flick’ the pen to add hatching lines.
Normally, I’d only draw in black. However, the darker tones of these pens may very well change my mind, for some projects any way.
The pens are non-toxic and acid-free. They are definitely smooth writing – the first gel pens I can say that work that way for me. And they do dry quickly, so no smudging!
So, one happy artsy me today. Always nice to have new pens that play nicely with me!
Angela Porter 