Ideas, concepts and artworks showcase
Lost count of how many P20x in my drawer, but there is always space for more of these. Such timeless design.
Although the inside is not its original content (black P205), but it’s even better, a set of For Film Sharp, these were designed to use on semi-transparent film paper which was quite popular to architects and engineers for technical drawing. And some other retractable Pentel Sharp with out-of-product colors.
Taking about mechanical pencils, people often hear about big names such as Uni, Pentel, Faber Castell etc. But in fact there are lots of many small business who has unique designs. What they do is manufacturing customized barrel and classical insert (such as Schmidt or Pentel P20x), as a result, we can have some nice metal/wooden pencil instead of commercialized plastic mechanical pencils.
Here is a list of these manufacturers that I know, and this list will be updated whenever I know someone new :
QwerkTools – Heavy Brass Pencils
Toms Studio
S.T. Dupont Line D Medium Mechanical Pencil Black
Blick Studio
Nicolas Hemingway : simple cylindrical design, not really something standout but if you want to metal alternative (also fiber carbon and wood), go have a look.
Modern Fuel
Before Breakfast – Made in England
Everyman Grafton
Meister by Point
Manufactum – Made in Germany
IJ instruments – Very pricey and very solid pencils.
LRD
Parafernalia – Their Revolution Pencil is very uniquement, and this design has something to do with the Centre Pompidou architecture in Paris.
22designstudio – They have concrete body mechanical pencils. Pretty cool.
(from the book Drawing Dimension – Shading Techniques: A Shading Guide for Teachers and Students (How to Draw Cool Stuff))
From light (and hard) to dark (and soft) : 9H -> 9B. Most common ones are HB and 2B.
Well, I was a fan of COPIC. Was.
I’m not an artist whatsoever, but I like drawing and coloring, so in my arsenal, I have a full set of COPIC SP Multiliner and many COPIC CIAO during these years, and I enjoyed them.
When I first hearing about COPIC SP Multiliner few years ago, I immediately became a fan, since I like the concept of replacable nib, and refillable ink. I like them not bacause of economic reason (well in the past yes, university students don’t have much money), but I’m also a careless dude with the constant fear of dropping, pressing to strong etc., and the feeling of having my pens fixable eases me whenever I use them.
The same reason went for COPIC CIAO, refillable ink may sometimes be a nuisance and a mess. But having the capability of playing around with the marker has a very relaxing value.
Till today, 2025.
I’ve learned that the refill-ink is reduced in volume for the increased price (for the marker). Inflation ? I understand. But COPIC reduce the volume while increase the price at the same time is a scummy move.
I also learned today that in 2021 COPIC stopped supporting the spare nib for COPIC SP Liner, but the COPIC SP Multiliner is still being sold. WTF? What the point of selling the product but you stop supporting the product left and right ? About this point, Canon is the same, they stop manufacturing the ink for the Portable Printer QX10, but they’re still selling the printer. Evil.
What to do now ?
Too bad, not many choice for replacable nib (there is but I will write anothe blog post). For Copic SP Fineliner nib repacement, now we can still find some left on Amazon. Or switch to disposable pens like Sakura Micron, Ohuhu, Graph’IT etc.. they are great. COPIC also has disposable fine liner pen, but fuck them.
For marker, recently Ohuhu is a very capable candidate, and the quality is pretty good, I have dozens of Ohuhu Markers, and they are great : saturation, blending, longitivity… and they support many colors as well. Graph’IT also jumps on the “refillable” wagon as well, which is great since in my region finding a graph’it marker is very easy (europe). Anyway, among Ohuhu, Graph’it, Promarker, Faber-Castell… I realized that COPIC is overpriced and seem to forget about what made them great : good quality and good durability, now they don’t respect consumers anymore. It’s sad but it’s a good lesson for me, there is no reason to be a fan of an only brand if they don’t care about their customer.
Viết chữ đẹp là một trong những thú vui / kĩ năng vừa thú vị vừa quan trọng trong cuộc sống. Bên cạnh tính giải trí, viết chữ cũng là một cách thư giãn không quá tốn kém: bạn chỉ cần bút, gôm và giấy, kết hợp thêm trí tưởng tượng nữa là đủ.
Loại hình nghệ thuật xuất phát từ việc viết chữ có nhiều, có thể là Calligraphy (chỉ thuần viết chữ), Typography (nghệ thuật sắp xếp kí tự) hay nếu bạn thích cả vẽ nữa thì kết hợp với viết chữ nó sẽ là Hand Lettering. Continue reading Hand Lettering là gì?
Drawing on tablet or phone is much more easier and convenient nowadays, with the help of the stylus and some decent drawing apps.
Reviews of those drawing app for android devices can be found everywhere, but some are outdated, some are too professional, so I try to write a review for the apps that I used, also try to write them as simple as I can.
Even when the your life is a little bit busy with works, with your house and several misc. things, you should always find a little time to develop your skill of writting and drawing, because it’s simple: it’s good for your brain.
What do you need?
Một trong những điều nhức đầu của các designer Việt Nam đó là sự hỗ trợ kí tự (glyphs) không đầy đủ của font chữ nước ngoài, đặc biệt là các font dạng viết tay đang là mốt thời gian gần đây. Các nhà thiết kế thường vẽ tay, scan, sau đó lên font trên máy tính, và vì thường vẽ tay như vậy thì glyphs rất hạn chế.
Có nhiều cách để khắc phục những vấn đề này, ví dụ như vẽ thêm dấu vào trong thiết kế, hay sửa lại font v.v… tuy nhiên, còn một lựa chọn khác dễ dàng và đỡ nhức đầu hơn và hoàn toàn không phải thuê bên ngoài làm, đó là sử dụng những font Việt hóa do một số thành viên trên internet đã bỏ thời gian công sức ra thiết kế cho bàn dân thiên hạ dùng một cách miễn phí.
Đây là kích cỡ giấy quốc tế, kiến thức khá căn bản có thể tìm thấy trên wikipedia nhưng học ở đây cũng được. 😀
pygal 1.4.2 is a dynamic SVG charting library.
Python is a powerful and fun-to-play-with-but-also-serious programming language. Recently I discover a package that help us create some beautiful charts, so besides the default matplotlib, sometimes we can switch to this one and play with it (or also be serious and use it for your research). Here is the homepage of the package
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