Torrit Grey

It seems these days that there are a million new companies that make paint. water soluble oils and all kinds of 'hand made' paint. Some I like and some I don't, but one company that I DO like is also impressive in their recycling efforts.

Gamblin Oil Paint makes paint...duh. For those of you who don't know how different paints are made, oil paint is made from dry powdered pigment mixed with a drying oil such as linseed oil. There might also be OMS, or varnish etc that change the gloss of the paint, but basically, without getting into a scientific discussion of paint, suffice it to say that oil paint is dry pigment mushed into linseed oil.

Well at the Gamblin factory, there would probably be an awful lot of colorful boogers with the massive volume of colors they make. Think about it. Y'know when you pour flour into another container, or sugar...or any powder, it makes cloud, gets in your eyes, your nose...(hence the rainbow boogers). But at Gamblin, they have an air filtration system called the Torrit air system.

This Torrit air system sucks all of the otherwise rainbow shnoz pigment particles into the system and collects them for a year.

Imagine every color you have, mixed together. What color would it be? Well, I can tell you that if you mixed every color that Gamblin made this year into one paint, it would be Torrit Grey. They take all of the dust from all of the pigment of all of the colors that they make and make it into a paint called Torrit Grey. Every year it's a little different. Sometimes, it's a brownish grey. Sometimes, it's very black.

And, not only do they recycle all of the particles (some of which would not be good to work their way into the water system if they were flushed down a drain or thrown in a landfill), but they have a contest every year to paint a picture, using JUST Torrit grey and white and black. There is a small cash prize each year and some of the entries are impressive.

The best part of Torrit grey is that it's FREE. or supposed to be. Some less reputable dealers make you buy X amount of stuff to get it, but if you ask at the counter of better art supply stores, they are supposed to give you a tube. gratis.

Check it out.

Recycling with a cool end product. Can't beat that.

Favorite Pen

The world is going to hell in a handbasket. The economy is screwed, the Earth is FUBAR and I've put on at least 20 pounds since college. BUT

BUT...

There's a bright side. Never let it be said that I can't find something happy. Today's source of happiness boys and girls is a new favorite pen.

Now...if you are not an artist, or an artist who never draws...ahem...read the last entry...then you probably don't or can't grasp the magnitude of a favorite pen.

However, as I DO draw CONSTANTLY...I have been through my share of pens.

First let me say, I'm a pen girl. There's more to that statement then might meet the eye. Some people are pen people and some folks are pencil peeps. Pencil people are more tentative. They like to have an out. A do-over...a mulligan if you will. They sketch or write in short bits always ready to flip that puppy over and wipe out whatever they've just done.

Pen people on the other hand are fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants folks. Permanent ink baby. In the immortal words of Ghandi..."Shit or get off the pot". We do crosswords and Sudoku in pen. Our sketches have no hope of being erased. They're there pal...for all perpetuity. (by the way, pen people with white out handy are just closet pencil people).

Now, Sharpie people are just out there. These are the people who bungie jump and play in traffic and dont care if the writing instrument of their choice will not only mark on whatever they are writing on, but will most likely bleed through and leave a permanent announcement for all future generations that 'a Sharpie person was here".

But...I digress

I have a new pen.

"This is the pen I bought ONE HOUR before my bike was stolen! What's the significance?! I DONT KNOW!!!" -Pee Wee Herman.

I've been partial to a few pens over the years. I ten

d to be drawn. haha. get it...drawn... to almost anything that Pilot makes. I've liked the V5 Precise with the little ink window. So smooth so black..

There was something space age about this pen. No suddenly running out of ink with this baby. Nooo...you had plenty of warning young lady.

But then...it had it's drawbacks. Have you ever taken one of these bad boys on a plane? The air pressure -or perhaps it was the result of appalling service on Delta- would make these puppies leak like yesterday's diaper. They tended to blob a bit.

And...while they say the ink is permanent...it's not. If you used this pen in a mixed media work, and got the ink wet, you know, it turns kind of a cool red. Great if you want that effect, a royal pisser if you didnt.

So, my next pen was the G2. Not to be confused with any sort

of failed government summit, this was another pen by Pilot.

This sleek puppy had the cool window so you could keep track of your ink supply (not to mention some sort of groovy yellow wax looking thing that followed the ink down. Sleek clip, more ergo dynamic, even a comfy grip.

so, what's the downside. For one, these pens are harder to find than a virgin in New Jersey. Everyone steals them. And if you find them on sale, folks gobble them up. They are a bit pricey in my opinion too.

And, they also tend to glob a bit, especially if they've sat awhile, and they are much more of a throwback to the roller ball ink that tends to be a little harder to control when working on a precise drawing.

So...what's the new pen already. Keep your hair on. I've left the ranch and have turned down the Pilot cool aid. My new pen is not a Pilot at all, but a Tul. Go ahead...make your jokes. What a tool. (I think that's why they made the name all...faincy and called it Tul with an umlaut <---SAT word...look it up)

so without further ado, a dew or adieu...The new pen

TADA!!! The Tul needle fine black .5 retractable gel pen. With a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time. Ok...not really, but c'mon. This is a cool pen. A subtle ink window. a meh clip, but a point so fine you could take out your own appendix with it. The line is consistent, smooth and sooo fine. Fine as in thin and fine as in...well...fine.

Now granted, I havent had this pen very long and TUL's drawback seems to be that they are their own biggest fan, with space aged packaging that reeled me right in. Forget bubble packaging, these babies are sold in capsules. Screw Tang...if we still had a space program, they'd be taking these pens to the moon.

I'll keep you posted, but for now, along with stock piling Ramen noodles for the 2012 end of the world, I'm gonna buy a crate of these bad boys.

Sketching sketching sketching

**Edit...allow me to apologize ahead of time for the crazy picture placement in this entry. Blogger is messing with me and what I put in place seems to have a mind of its own. So...the pictures in this entry are very Zen like in their random-osity. Deal with it.
I've been really caught up in applying for grad school so I've been slack in much of the online department. I've been painting, and photographing, and sketching...but no blogging.

While I was working on one of my submissions the other day at a local coffee shop, a lady I knew from town came in and we started chatting about drawing (as I'd just seen her at a figure drawing session). She was frustrated with her work and said that she gets tense and doesn't like what she has drawn and it discourages her etc. etc.

I told her that she, and I...and anyone else who wants to improve their work needs to sketch...all...the ....time. Everything. There is no end to what you can draw.

I think the problem is that people wait for something "pretty' or 'picturesque'. Well...if that's the case, you aren't going to draw much. However, if you draw EVERYTHING, then when that great something comes along, you'll have the chops to carry it out and come much closer to what you envision in your mind.

I have a small (8x10)

sketchbook that I take everywhere

with me. Nothing fancy. I think I bought it at Barnes and Noble for like $6. I have a pen I like clipped in the binding. If I'm having lunch alone,

I'll draw. If I'm waiting at an office, I'll sketch. Heck, if I'm sitting on

Marta on my way to the

airport, I'll draw the folks around me. Nothing is off limits.

Don't worry if 'people are hard'. or any other excuse, just draw it. Do some blind contours. Who are you drawing for anyway? Who's going to see it? This is your sketchbook, your artistic gym. Give yourself a workout.

Besides...if you are being constructive and practicing your drawing skills, you can put off getting off your ass and going to the real gym.