Pen recommendations?

[Mercury Hat]

Lots of places sell blue lead refills for mechanical pencils. Sometimes it's in the art section, it's in with the regular pencil lead at my school's bookstore.

[Lozza]

Pilot Drawing Pens are the UK/European equivalent of Microns.

Things make a lot more sense now I know that.

I don't trust myself with a quill - I'm very messy so I'll probably end up with a big black blob.

Can you get blue pencils specifically for drawing (As opposed to colouring)? And can you erase them easily?

[War]

Yes, you can. No, you can't.

There are blue leads intended for drawing, I use them in my mechanical pencils. However I don't know any British chain that stocks them, I only know of small privately owned stores that stock them.
Blue lead is typically not erasable. If you're weak at whatever it is you're drawing, stick to regular pencils. That way you don't end up with an illegible blue smush.

[Kokiro]

Maybe not the blue lead for mechanical pencils, but the blue pencil I have can be erased fairly easily (as long as you don't press down too hard, I guess). It's not just lead, though--it's an actual pencil with its own eraser on the end. I think it's just a normal eraser...

[Rcmonroe]

I'm able to get non-repro blue pencils at my local art supply store, but I know a lot of them don't carry them anymore. You can probably find them online; do a Google search for "non-repro blue pencil" or "photo blue pencil."

They don't erase well at all, but the whole point of them is that they don't need to be erased. They're a lot more useful if you have a good idea of what you're drawing before you draw it. Don't use them for sketching; it's not what they're for.

[RemusShepherd]

I have used a standard blue colored pencil, which does erase fairly well. It is not 'non-reproducing', but when scanned into Photoshop you can make it go away by using only the red channel and maybe a little layer adjustment.

This is a solution that would probably get any real artists laughed out of the clubhouse. I only offer it as an amateur's quick solution that might help someone.

[Rcmonroe]

I have used a standard blue colored pencil, which does erase fairly well. It is not 'non-reproducing', but when scanned into Photoshop you can make it go away by using only the red channel and maybe a little layer adjustment.

This is a solution that would probably get any real artists laughed out of the clubhouse. I only offer it as an amateur's quick solution that might help someone.

No real artists allowed in MY clubhouse. Sounds like a good solution, Remus. I'll try that if my source for non-repro blue pencils ever dries up.

[Mercury Hat]

So long as you can filter it out in some way, you aren't limited to just blue.

A hundred years ago, Ping posted up results of experimenting with different colored pencils here.

I was about to follow up with the results of the experiment...

Here's the colours scanned:


Here's the colours scanned in greyscale.


As you can tell, yellow is the least detected colour, followed by blue and green.

The grey was a grey colour pencil, and not graphite. It was very faint and silvery, and much too faint to see let alone count.

And that was just greyscaling the image. You can also split channels into red, blue, and green so any of those colors could be used for sketching and then filtered out. Neko uses red pencil lead for his drawings, for instance.

[Warofwinds]

...in a reply to my other post, I inked my first page with the microns I got (size 005 02 and 03) and dude, compared to pilot's needlepoint, they totally kick ass. I am never going back.

/fawning.

[Lozza]

Thanks everyone, I think I'm going to have to experiment with the cheap pack of colouring pencils I've got.

[One-eye]

I think this is the correct thread but can anyone recommend some good technical pens (with metal tips) because I've been using some pretty dodgy pens to ink some sketches and they always wear out. If anyone can recommend a good brand of technical pen that would be awesome. Cheers.

[Phalanx]

So long as you can filter it out in some way, you aren't limited to just blue.

A hundred years ago, Ping posted up results of experimenting with different colored pencils here.

I was about to follow up with the results of the experiment...

Here's the colours scanned:


Here's the colours scanned in greyscale.


As you can tell, yellow is the least detected colour, followed by blue and green.

The grey was a grey colour pencil, and not graphite. It was very faint and silvery, and much too faint to see let alone count.

And that was just greyscaling the image. You can also split channels into red, blue, and green so any of those colors could be used for sketching and then filtered out. Neko uses red pencil lead for his drawings, for instance.

A hundred years ago? Geez, Merc, you make me feel old...

For me I usually buy those Pilot 0.7 mechanical pencil color leads. (you can find them almost everywhere) I use light blue for the rough lines and darker blue (they call it just "Blue") for the firmer details. the lightblue is hardly picked up by the scanner at all. The dark blue is picked up as grey lines, which are really easy to level out.

In case you're interested, here's a little bit from one of the pics I did using this technique and inked over.

Unforutunately I can't recommend any metal pen, haven't used them since I switched to brushes, though my experience with dip pens weren't half bad. They're really hard to find though, which was why I dropped using them. I like cheap and easily available materials.

[Mercury Hat]

Well even if it was 100 years ago, I was around then, too, so you shouldn't feel quite that old.

The only reason I don't really use blue pencil on everything is I like having a nice clean image on the paper as well as in the computer. I'm silly like that.