Lots of Black Markers
I was making some drawings this week and I made some with my Three Marker technique (Art Writing Three Marker Technique Blog) for the first time in a little while. It’s actually not as accurate a name for the technique as it once was because I’ve added some markers to it but I decided to go back to basics and make some with just the three pens.
That’s when I ran into a problem. One of the three pens, the Tikky Graphic .8 was running out of ink and I went to pull out a replacement for it and I had none. That was my last Tikky .8 and I wondered how I could not have bought any more when I pulled out that last one. When I went online to try and get some more that’s when I realized that they don’t make them anymore. Bummer.
The world of art supplies is filled with tools that they don’t make anymore. Every artist has a favorite brand of art supplies art a favorite particular tool that stops being made. I’ve heard from many a cartoonist that the best white-out ever made was something called Snowpaque. I’m unsure of that spelling because there is a new company called Snopake that makes white out but it’s not the same one. The original was gone by the 1980s and I’ve only heard tell of it.
I have a friend who has been using Primacolor Art Stix for years and years but they just recently discontinued them. He went out searching for the last of them and spent hundreds of dollars buying up all the ones he could. You can still get them eBay but they cost between $200 to $400 for a set of 48 Art Stix. And how long before those too are sold out and used? Not a good time if you’re an Art Stix fan.
All this got me thinking of my favorite supplies and which ones are gone now. It turns out that all three of the markers from my Three marker technique are no longer made. How crazy is that? But two have decent supstitues. It’s that Tikky .8 that doesn’t have one so far.
Tikky Graphic .8 — By the way the .8 in the name refers to the fact that the tip in .8 of a millimeter. At least that’s what I learned a long time ago. I learned it so long ago that I’m not even 100% sure if it’s correct. But what else could it be?
The Tikky has an ink that I really like a lot. It’s very dark and flows off the pen tip in a more liquid way than my other markers. It makes a very pleasing line. It also uses a liquid ink reservoir rather than a sponge with ink in it so I can’t refill it. Other markers I pull the sponge out of and refill them with India ink. So once the Tikky is dry it’s done.
Tikky still makes other size Graphic pens but the .8 was the biggest one and that’s why I like it. On Tikky’s website I saw that they are now making a .7 Graphic pen but they are nowhere to be found to buy. I’m certainly willing to try that one out but I can’t.
I ended up finding some of the Tikky .8s on Amazon. They were going for around $6 a pen so I ordered a half dozen of them. The strange thing was that the six pens I ordered came from five different places in five different packages. They all must have been among the last pens in whatever warehouse they were in. I don’t think I’ve ever had pens delivered like that before.
Dong-A Computer Pen — I used to get these pens from Jetpens.com and they’re just cheap Japanese Sign Pens. I refill them with India ink and they go for a long time. They don’t make them anymore but I still have a few of them left and the Pentel Sign Pen is interchangeable with it. There is not much of a difference between the two but I like the yellow caps and black barrel on the Dong-A. I’ll be sad when the last one is used up.
Deleter Neopiko Line 2 – 2.0 — This pen tip is big (2 millimeters) and has nice black ink (I also refill it) and is my go-to thick marker for my Three Marker drawings. It’s got a black barrel and cap but it was replaced by the Neopiko Line 3 which has a white barrel and cap. The Line 3 model is a solid replacement but the tip, though just as wide, is a little bit shorter. That and the fact that my Line 2 pen is worn down (from use) makes the new model feel very different. But I’ll eventually get used to it. And it’ll wear down like the old one too.
Technical Pen 1.0 — I’m throwing this one in here but you can still get tech pens. They just don’t make them like they used to. There are all different sizes and I can’t even remember which one was my favorite but I think it was the 1.0. These are pens that you would fill with India ink and it would make a single weight line.
Technical Pens were kind of replaced in the 1990s when archival artist markers such as the Micron were invented. Small tipped black markers were easier to use than to tech pen that often clogged. I preferred tech pens to those artist markers but I have to say that I don’t really miss them anymore. It’s been over a decade since my last good tech pen and I’ve gotten along fine with the markers. Especially since I figured out I could fill them up again by rewetting the sponge with ink.
French Curves — Once again, they don’t make these as good as they used to make them. A lot of the curves have burrs in the plastic and the curves are not smooth and even. I recently tried to buy some old ones on eBay but the sale got cancelled because the seller no longer had them.
Haff Hatching Machine — I mention this one but I recently wrote a whole blog on it. I still haven’t bought a new one (the old one still works though) and I no longer see any of them on eBay. Such is life.
Art Writing Haff Again Blog/