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There are Strange People Working in the House (wearing face masks, at least, oof) and the cat has flattened herself between a desk and a radiator in the hope that she will become invisible. I feel the same way, frankly.
To distract myself, let me ramble on about pens. I started drawing with fountain pens a while ago, since I love writing with them so much that it felt natural to draw with them, too. And I went down a whole rabbit hole figuring out how to use waterproof ink in fountain pens without clogging them up. That way I can draw something and then use watercolor paint on it later, which is my favorite way of working with paint so far.
One of the best waterproof inks I found is Platinum Carbon Black, which is just a gorgeous deep, deep black that also dries rapidly and is 100% waterproof. It's from Japan, comes in cartridges as well as bottled ink, and you can use it in ordinary fountain pens, though probably you shouldn't let them sit for a long time without using them. But Platinum also makes a couple of fountain pens that are specifically designed to use the waterproof ink. The Preppy is one, and the Platinum Carbon Ink Desk Pen is another, and the one I use for drawing. I have multiples of this pen now - it's cheap, it's plastic, it looks odd with the long tail because it's meant to go in a desk stand, it draws a very fine line, it always starts up immediately, and I absolutely love it. I've seen people describe it as a cheap-looking pen that writes like a $200 nib. (I don't have any fancy nib pens to compare it to, but I believe it.)
And so, in Lost Tomb Reboot, when Wu Xie started writing in his uncle's diary with that lovely long-tailed red pen, I recognized it immediately.
( Wu Xie's desk pen )
I love that whole setting with the desk and the diary and the warm light, and I love the elegance of that pen in Wu Xie's hand.
There's a great blog post by a sketcher in Singapore here, with lots of detail about the different desk pens he uses. He managed to find a version of Wu Xie's pen that has an actual 14K gold nib, which I've never seen for sale.
To distract myself, let me ramble on about pens. I started drawing with fountain pens a while ago, since I love writing with them so much that it felt natural to draw with them, too. And I went down a whole rabbit hole figuring out how to use waterproof ink in fountain pens without clogging them up. That way I can draw something and then use watercolor paint on it later, which is my favorite way of working with paint so far.
One of the best waterproof inks I found is Platinum Carbon Black, which is just a gorgeous deep, deep black that also dries rapidly and is 100% waterproof. It's from Japan, comes in cartridges as well as bottled ink, and you can use it in ordinary fountain pens, though probably you shouldn't let them sit for a long time without using them. But Platinum also makes a couple of fountain pens that are specifically designed to use the waterproof ink. The Preppy is one, and the Platinum Carbon Ink Desk Pen is another, and the one I use for drawing. I have multiples of this pen now - it's cheap, it's plastic, it looks odd with the long tail because it's meant to go in a desk stand, it draws a very fine line, it always starts up immediately, and I absolutely love it. I've seen people describe it as a cheap-looking pen that writes like a $200 nib. (I don't have any fancy nib pens to compare it to, but I believe it.)
And so, in Lost Tomb Reboot, when Wu Xie started writing in his uncle's diary with that lovely long-tailed red pen, I recognized it immediately.
( Wu Xie's desk pen )
I love that whole setting with the desk and the diary and the warm light, and I love the elegance of that pen in Wu Xie's hand.
There's a great blog post by a sketcher in Singapore here, with lots of detail about the different desk pens he uses. He managed to find a version of Wu Xie's pen that has an actual 14K gold nib, which I've never seen for sale.
