JetPens Watercolor Starter Kit: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

I’ve always been fascinated by watercolors and the people who can paint with them. I love seeing Hobonichi and Traveler’s Notebook pages that people have done in watercolor and envisioned myself one day doing the same. Although I may never get to the point where I can record every day using watercolor and washi tape, I wanted to give watercolors a try.

JetPens has a terrific watercolor starter kit for $36.00. It includes a Maruman New Soho Series Sketchpad, a Pentel Aquash water brush, a black Sakura Pigma Micron pen, a white Uni-ball Signo Broad gel pen, a 3H Uni Mitsubishi 9000 pencil (I never used this), and a set of Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors..

I sat down one morning and began painting. I started with my usual horse picture (that’s one thing I can sort of reliably draw, though this one’s legs are a bit long).

Then I did a small pumpkin that was decorating our dining room table.

Next I made a rather sad attempt at an empty coffee mug.

Then I painted what I think is a pretty darn good rendition of an antique vase.

And finally, I painted one of our kitties, Hermione.

I must say I’m impressed with this kit. The paper works reasonably well, though it does curl up after being wet. Maybe all paper does that with watercolors, I don’t know.

You can see the paper curled slightly.

The Sakura Pigma pen is terrific for the base drawing, and it definitely doesn’t smudge when wet.

The Pentel water brush is adequate, though I also used a bowl of water to rinse the brush out between colors. I’m sure, if I continue this watercolor thing, I’ll want to buy some nicer brushes. But for now, this one works.

I absolutely love the vivid colors of the Kuretake set. Usually, when I think of watercolors, I think pastel. But I really like the dark reds, browns, blues, and greens in this collection. The black is a true black, and the white is a great addition for lightening colors or adding subtle highlights.

I used the Uniball Signo for stronger highlighting (and whiskers) and for covering up mistakes.

I highly recommend this set for anyone who wants to try their hand at watercolors. I’m planning on buying The Complete Watercolorist’s Essential Notebook to help me learn better techniques. There’s something incredibly soothing about painting with watercolors–it’s like meditating with a brush.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

Sakura Zentangle Zendala 11-piece Drawing Set Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

Zentangles are taking over the doodle world, and they're doing a world of good along the way. They began as whimsical, repetitive sketches designed to add balance to an electric lifestyle, and they've evolved into a meditation technique that is helping people with everything from meeting boredom to anxiety, focus therapy, stroke recovery, and beyond. The list of benefits on their site grows all the time as people weigh in on how the technique has helped them personally. And the folks at Zentangle want to keep spreading their method and help as many people as possible. They've put together a number of kits with Sakura, several of which are available at JetPens.

This 11-piece tool set is a perfect introduction to the craft of Zentangle. One of the beauties of Zentangling is that it can be done nearly anywhere with nearly anything, but the tools included here are the ones widely considered the best for the job. The kit contains 3 Sakura Pigma Micron pens--two in size 01 and one in size 08, one pencil (with no eraser, because mistakes are the foundations for new patterns--you gotta go with the flow), one tortillon for blending and shading, three blank 45/8" diameter die-cut deckle-edge tiles, and three patterned tiles. The tiles are made of their 100% cotton archival paper. This setup is ideal for getting started with the technique yourself, or for gifting to a friend who needs a little relaxation and creativity in their day. It's also a great travel activity, if you need some extra Zen on your flight or commute.

The quality of the tools themselves is fantastic. I hardly need to add my voice to the choir of praises sung for the Pigma Micron pens. They're just great. And I think it's wonderful that the kit has three of them. It still would have been a good kit with just one, but three takes it to another level. The larger one is for bold outlines and filling in, and the two fine-point ones are for patterning. Having that spare pen just does wonders to add that extra bit of relaxation to the kit. There's no stress about running out of ink or dropping your pen. It's the old two is one and one is none thing.

The pencil has no label apart from the Zentangle brand, but it's a good balance of soft and hard. It writes a nice line, holds its point, and is still soft enough to use for shading, especially with the help of the included tortillon.

The tiles are likewise perfect for their purpose. The paper is super nice. It's firm with a toothy texture that gives you great control of your lines. The patterned tiles are just right for getting started, and the blank ones let you venture onto your own Zen paths.

I think the thing I like most about the kit is that you can really feel the thought that went into it. It's clear that, when putting it together, the Zentangle folks wanted to make sure you'd have everything you need to let go, relax and find a little peace in your day. And that's such a lovely thing. I'll definitely be picking up a few of these kits for the holidays.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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The Pen Addict Podcast: Episode #229 - The Most Nervous Pen Repair of All Time

Naginata-Togi!

Myke and I are joined this week by the wonderful Brian and Lisa Anderson of Anderson Pens. We talk about how they got started in the business, the opening of their brick and mortar, and the Pen Show World Tour they embark on every year. How do they do it all???

Show Notes & Download Links

This episode of The Pen Addict is sponsored by:

Harry's: Use code PENADDICT at checkout to claim your free trial set and bonus post-shave balm.

Capto: A powerful screen capturing, recording and editing app for the Mac.