Yellow & Black

What's on my table top right now.

Going from left to right -

I used to map out my sketches and any underdrawing in water soluble pencil however after watching Sean Phillips rough out a convention sketch in blue ink I eventually followed suit and now tend to use more brush pens and fibre tips. The Crayolas are a real pleasure to draw with, hardy tips and good coverage - not just pour les enfants. The Tombow and Copic Ciao also hold their point well and will tend to dry out before they split.

Moving onto ink -

The Faber Castell PITT has a reversible double ended tip - handy to know when it begins to fray.

The Pentel Brush Pen. Comes highly recommended by D'Israeli. At around 12 it may seem costly, but that said I've used mine regularly for nearly five years now and it's never let me down. Ever.

The POSCA brushes have been around for about 18 months or so. They travel well but tend to gum up quickly in the heat if you don't regularly refresh the tip using the pump action button on top. Given the right care and attention the water based acrylic will flow evenly over paper, board, canvas, existing paint, India ink - the lot.

The Pentel Aquash refillables. Weapon of choice right now. Can't help but feel Pentel have misrepresented this product, billed as a convenient shortcut to watercolouring for beginners and the terminally time-poor, you can actually fill these bad boys with most anything as long as it's let down with a little water first. I've been using the broad tipped for a little over a year and can go super fat to ultra fine in one stroke. I lent the one with yellow tape on the barrel to Jesús Redondo as he sketched out Capitán Trueno for us during Mike's Megazine interview. Verdict: the bomb.

Next, not to be confused with the Marvel universe story - the Edding Secret Wars special. As part of the Best Joined Up collective and sponsored by Edding I get a regular supply of these monsters. I'm told the ink has been specially formulated to flow smoothly over emulsion primed surfaces, wood, plaster, MDF - I've also found it sits up nicely on bristol board too - excellent for solid blks.

Ruling pen from antique stall in Oporto, Portugal and vintage speedballs - in my possession for at least twenty years.

Broad and fine Rotring Artpens. Dependable, durable, German. Don't always travel well though - they do have a tendency to cough and splutter some if they've been banged about in a rucksack for a while.

Finally -

White POSCA brush pen. Perhaps not as opaque as I'd like - can produce some satisfactory highlight effects but needs a few passes when correcting any line art - still undecided about this one.

Statutory Muji correction pen.

Uni-ball Signo. From Rotring drawing ink to photocopier toner there is nothing this gel pen won't roll over. Formidable. Now they just need to design one with a broader tip.