LINKS
(Photo credit to Mathew Henry of Burst)
Tools of the trade!
This is my links page, where I will be adding links to my favorite resources and vendors for supplies. Pens, Pencils, drafting supplies, software, and so much more for the avid creator. I hope all you "makers" out there find this page useful. This list will get longer as I am able to add to it!
Pens:
Retro 51: My check Signin' pen! A very nice pen. Takes cartridges, writes great, and has a nice hefty weight- it's the pen I sign my checks with. I do not use this pen to write long manuscripts with, but it is a damn fine instrument.
rOtoring: Wonderful drafting pen. This pen is kind of epic. It is the right combination of weight, aesthetics, and durability with an all-metal barrel, fine grip, and hexagon shape to keep it from rolling. It is nearly a perfect pen, the only downside is that it takes harder to find cartridges. Although some of the Parker refills work. It's a must-have for the writer on the go. I recommend the rOtoring 600 for a good entry. The one downside to this pen is that despite it's German engineering, the ink cartridge it comes with is crap.
Micron Pens (Sakura): For a lot of my ink art, I do the fine lines with .005 pens. When I need a pen that small, there's only one I get, Micron. Great pens for detail and fine line ink work. You can get all the information you need on these pens from the website, but they sell through third parties, you can get these at almost any store that carried art supplies. I recommend them for just about any inking.
Precise V5/V7: This pen, well, not much to say about it. This is the pen I do a good deal of the thicker linework on my art with. I have a grip of these at my art station. I prefer the V7 to the V5, but either one is a great pen. They have great ink, they are affordable, and you can get them anywhere, although I buy them bulk.
Pentel EnerGel: Another great pen for inking and thicker lines. It's a great all-around nice pen, the ink bleeds a little bit more than the Precise V7, but sometimes that's what I am looking for. This pen is cheap, it's available everywhere, and it is a surprisingly nice pen. I buy these by the 12 pack because people always steal them from me. You can get them in a variety of colors and sizes, but I only buy blue and black .7MM.
TUL Pens: Some people swear by these. Until recently I hadn't tried them. I was in a pinch and without my usuals for my art, so I went to the local Office Max to get some Pilot V7s (see above), unfortunately, for some strange reason, in my area these are the most shoplifted pen. In short the Office Max was out. So I went with these. Long story short, they are pretty good! Especially the .04 Fine-liner. They are very affordable and easy to find as they are the house brand at Office Max. These pens are affordable and really good for the price, they bleed a little more than some pens, but I can't complain about the quality for the price.
Pencils:
Blick/Alvin Drafting Pencils: For all my pencil work, fine or not, I use Alvin drafting pencils (although rOtoring has great mechanical pencils too). Alvin is a great source for all kinds of art supplies, technical or not. They make the whole line up from (.3MM, .5MM, .7MM, .9MM, even a 2MM). I love these pencils, have used them for years.
Ink Refills:
Parker Ink Refills: A good ink refill is hard to find. Especially is a GEL refill of just the right size. I like .7 black, a little more watery so there is some bleed. The rOtoring pens come with a crap ink cartridge, I recommend getting a parker refill for them. The "Parker Quink Flow" or the ".7 GEL"is the one I use in the rOtoring and the Retro 51. They come in blue, or black.
Journals and notebooks:
Ciak Notebooks: These are Italian made, enough said! No really, these are some super nice notebooks, and they are affordable too. I use them for writing when I travel because they are a nice size, flexible and the paper has a nice sized ledger. The cover is real leather and there is an elastic band that holds it closed. Also there are two ribbon markers in it, and in the front of the notebook, at least some of the line up, there is a table of contents and a calendar for the year. I use the B6 (12cm x 17cm) size. Realistically, you can get just about any size, style, ledger, and binding through these guys. I use the Ciak Smart, and I love it. I have gone through a couple of these now.
Moleskine Notebooks: Personally one of my top ten picks when it comes to notebooks. They have a great selection of all different sizes and colors. Lined, blank, and grid for all your needs. I have been using them for the better part of 25 years. And, now you can even personalize them. They also make a great full-size soft notebook with wide margins for footnotes and annotations- I love it! Another great product is the reporter-style notebook.
Leuchtturm1917: For those who love the functionality, and heavyweight paper that doesn't bleed. A little more expensive, but really nice. Like super nice, those germans and their engineering. I recommend these for anyone with expensive tastes.
DingBats: This one is for the person who goes green. I have only one of these notebooks, but only because I have not filled it up. I really like the quality, I really like the paper and the sizes. The going green part is pretty awesome too. Lastly, these are pretty affordable.
Erasers:
General's Factis Mechanical Eraser: This is the eraser I use for all of my line art. This eraser is amazing. It has been through many iterations and different names. Currently, it is known as the General's Factis, I highly recommend this one. The only downside is that the eraser reloads is at times, hard to come by.
Writing Software:
LibreOffice: Most people will use MS Word, which I won't even link on this list. For people who like VERY functional alternatives, and open-source software, this one is for you. This one is free, and it works on Windows, MAC OS, and Linux variants. It's as close as you can get to MS word without the overhead.
Scrivener: One of the best programs for the writer who "novels". This program was built for writing novels, short stories, and more. I have used this for a few years now and find that it works wonders for organization and rewrites.
LivingWriter: An alternative to Scrivener. It has a lot of the same functionality, and options, just a different layout. I haven't used it as much as Scrivener but I like it.
Grammarly: Yeah. I use this, don't laugh. It can help you write killer emails. It also does a great job of cleaning up your writing.
Google docs, the honorable mention: it works great, it's reliable, and saves to the cloud. I use it from time to time but prefer something with a little more power. If you have a Chromebook, this is your main "stock" go to.
Distraction-free writing: I love distraction-free writing when I get in that groove and just go. I do this on my chrome book, so most of these are chrome extensions or apps for android. I will post my favorite here. The first, and my favorite, is an app simply called "LiteWriter". It is by far my favorite. Simple, easy to use, and very few bells and whistles, but it's clean. The second one I like to use is called "Autumn note", which is much like "writer" but has a number of options. It's compact, smooth, and looks really nice. It also has good export options. Lastly is one that was built for the minimalist novelist. "OmniaWrite" is the best minimalist writing experience for desktop environments- MAC, Windows, or Linux. The upside to all of these (at least the last time I checked) is that they are all free!
For the musician- Lyric Notepad: This one I use on occasion when I fancy myself as a poet. IT is designed for people who write song lyrics on the go. It is for ANDROID, but easily runs on Chromebooks. For anyone who writes music, this is a powerful tool to get the job done.
Art Software:
I won't mention the big boys here- AKA Photoshop, that being said, if you are really serious, this is the way to go. Below, I will post the free ones I use. I do have a copy of Photoshop, but I actually don't use it as much as these other ones.
GIMP: This one has been around for a long time, it works on Windows, MAC, and Linux. I have used it for a long time. Once you adjust to the controls and menus, it is nearly as functional as its big brother. I highly recommend it for the artist on the budget.
Inkscape: This one is great for adding fonts to art, creating fonts, and masking among many other things. I recommend it to anyone who wants to touch up work and add things like drop shadows, shading, and highlights.
Krita: I am relatively new to Krita, so I don't have much to say about it, so far I really like it. It is more built for the comic book scene, manga, and framed images, although I have used it for all kinds of artworks, photos, paintings, etc.
Sketchbook: This one is one of the most affordable and easy to use programs for the artist. For the person who is familiar with the basics of most art programs, this one has very little learning curve. Its for android and works best with on a tablet with a stylist. It's lite weight and really has all the most important features.
