Stationery Geek Fest

Okay, so this is probably my geekiest post yet. Art materials and stationery probably don't merit this level of enthusiam, but I'm not ashamed, I tell you! If you're an illustrator, fine artist or just a lover of good pens you may find this of interest. If not, you probably won't remotely understand, but never mind...

I am truly obsessed with Pilot Hi-Tec-C pens. Apologies for the product placement, but I am yet to find a more useful pen for both writing and drawing. Seeing as I like to write long, painstakingly-decorated letters, it's always good to have a lovely writing pen handy. Sadly they do rather hurt my hands due to my recently-diagnosed hypermobility (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermobility) and I need something with better grip, but presumably that can be rectified with a bit of foam or something wrapped around them! I will give it a try soon.

Yes, I own more than enough of them to write the above without running out of a different colour for each letter. They are not all the same thickness though. I prefer the 0.3 or 0.4 for drawing and 0.5 for writing.

Here is a birthday card I made recently for my boyfriend's dad. It's a picture of Roccatederighi, a Medieval hilltop village in Tuscany. Hi-Tec-C all the way. Oh and Copic Sketch markers for the writing (outlined with the Pilot pen!)

Nothing else will do for my myriad To Do lists.

The above was written in an amazing notebook bought in Eslite in Taipei (or maybe Hsinchu - I used to haunt both regularly!) Here is the front cover, which was not in fact hand-drawn but actually came like this!

I usually stick to a policy of not using pencil first so am forced to incorporate mistakes into pictures. I find it so much more satisfying to draw straight onto the page, especially as I used to be too precious with my art and spent far too long on the initial sketch.

Ah, watercolours. Probably my favourite type of paint. And guess what - they can be used in tandem with the pens!

I bought most of these pens in Taiwan as they were so much cheaper there (the equivalent of a pound at the most) and they cost about £2.75 in Paperchase in the UK. The colour selection here is limited to three at the most as far as I've seen (and not very exciting colours at that!)

I used to buy the black ones here before I went away so imagine my delight at discovering the ridiculous selection of colours available for cheap in the vastly superior stationery shops of the Far East! However, I've now discovered you can also buy them on eBay from Hong Kong and get them for almost as cheap as they are out there. Good to know as one day my precious collection will surely dry up/get used to death. Copic Sketch markers, on the other hand... well, I wish I'd bought loads more as they're insanely expensive over here.

EDIT: As a few people have asked me - all the artwork in this post is my own except for the notebook cover.