Studio Maddy

In February I challenged myself to 30 Days of Lettering. I spend 15 minutes a day making quick sketches of a quote I picked in order to practise composition of words. It was the perfect 30 day challenge: not too hard and very informative. Curious to what I've been up to? Let's take a peek in my sketchbook.

[NL] In februari daagde ik mijzelf uit om 30 dagen aan één stuk 15 min per dag te handletteren. In deze 30 Days of Lettering challenge maakte ik snelle schetsjes van quotes die ik tof vond. De bedoeling? Mijn compositie van woorden te oefenen. Het was de perfecte 30 day challenge voor mij: niet te moeilijk en erg leerrijk.


Ladies and gentleman, we have a video. I repeat: we have a video. Ok, it's super short and I spent an insane amount of time editing this 30 sec video, but hot damn it, it's done. Finished. And uploaded to the YouTubes. (This is the part where I applaud myself because it only took me a year to make my first YouTube video. Whew.)

[NL] Om te beginnen heb ik een video-tje. Super kort en ik spendeerde veels te lang aan editten, maar het is mij ein-de-lijk gelukt om een video te maken. De video staat zelfs op YouTube (waar ik nu ook een kanaal heb. Vollgggg mij!). Applausje voor mijzelf omdat het maar een jaar geduurd heeft vooraleer ik mijn eerste video afwerkte. Whew.


Maybe the video was a bit too quick (but you can put it on repeat forever and for free ;)), so here are a couple of sketches I really like. As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I spend about 15 minutes a day (in bed most of the time) sketching out quotes I liked. To be honest, I probably spend more time deciding on which quote I wanted to do than on actually sketching. The goal was to practice composing words and to have a bunch of sketches by the end of the 30 days of lettering that I could digitise if I wanted to.

NL] Ik weet het, de video is niet perfect en een beetje te snel (maar hey, je kan hem wel op repeat zetten tot in de eeuwigheid en voor niets). Het leek me dus ook wel leuk om hier een paar van mijn schetsjes te delen. Zoals ik zei, ik spendeerde ongeveer 15 min aan een pagina (meestal lag ik al in bed). In die 15 minuutjes zette ik vlug wat verschillende woordcomposities op papier en dan werkte ik mijn favoriet snel wat verder uit. Om eerlijk te zijn, spendeerde ik veel meer tijd aan beslissen welke quote ik nu precies wou tekenen, dan aan het effectieve schetsen. Op het einde van de 30 dagen wou ik eindigen met een collectie schetsjes die ik dan verder kan uitwerken.




By the end of the 30 days, I also started to itch to draw other things besides quotes. Still, I barely made time for this. Creating a habit of drawing daily is definitely something I need to work on.

[NL] Naar het einde van de 30 dagen begon het natuurlijk ook te kriebelen om wat vaker andere dingen te tekenen dan enkel quotes. Waarvoor ik dan eigenlijk te weinig tijd maakte, om eerlijk te zijn. Ik zou het super vinden moest ik van dagelijks schetsen echt eens een gewoonte zou kunnen maken.



In case you're wondering what I meant by "to digitise" my sketches, here's an example. This is the first quote I drew for this challenge after processing it through Illustrator. It's the only quote I finished so far, but I had great fun doing it. I think it would be pretty awesome to have a collection of these.

[NL] Moest je je afvragen wat ik nu precies bedoel met "verder uitwerken" van mijn schetsjes, hier is een voorbeeld. Dit is de eerste quote die ik voor mijn challenge tekende en nadat ik hem door Illustrator gehaald heb. Tot nu toe is dit de enige quote die ik afgewerkt heb, maar het was super (en soms ook super frustrerend) om hem te digitaliseren. Een hele collectie van dit soort quotes (en misschien een pakketjes poskaarten) lijkt me alleszins geweldig. 


I hoped you liked my (embarrassingly) short video. Tell me, do you like the digitised quote? I'm always a bit nervous when I share personal work.

[NL] Zo, hopelijk vond je mijn (heel erg korte) video leuk om naar te kijken. En, als je feedback hebt over de gedigitaliseerde quote, mag je die altijd in de comments delen.

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It shouldn't surprise you that I love art supplies and I love discovering new tools. When I saw Brush pens popping up for the first time, it made me very curious. So I bought a Pentel Colour Brush pen and a Kuretake brush pen and tested them.

I know your equipment doesn't define how good your work is, but damn, sometimes good equipment does help you a long way. The brush pen I bought defintely are part of that "good equipment".

Pentel Colour Brush pen

I bought my Pentel Colour Brush Pen at Schleiper, a local art supply store. It cost €9,18; which I found quite some money for what I though was just a fancy marker. The brush pens are refillable though, with a filling costing around €2,20. The Colour brush pen comes in different colours, but because my art supply shop only carried the refilling for the black ones, I bought a black one. I wanted to use it for typography, so black was a good choice.

Kuretake Brush pen

The other pen I bought was a Kuretake Brush pen (in medium), which also cost €9,18. This one differs from the Pentel brush pen because you buy an empty pen. The reservoir on top of the pen can be filled with water and then you can use the pen like a normal brush. This means you can always pick the color you want to use and it makes this pen wonderful for watercolour or ecoline. When I first tried it I used watercolour, but I didn't get the colour saturated enought for my purpose, so I switched to ecoline, which was a great success!
The Kuretake Brush pen is also pretty awesome for when you want to work on location, for example with watercolour pencils or with just plain watercolour.

Comparison

As I said, I bought the brush pens because I wanted to use them for handwritten typography. I picked the Pentel Brush Pen for my work, but since then I used the pens some more and sometimes the Pentel Brush pen does dissapoint a bit. It probably has to do with the way I hold the pen + with being a leftie. Sometimes the pen makes very sharp edges, while I rather see more roundness in my letters.

The Kuretake Brush pen really makes pretty round lines, which I prefer. I also like that the Kuretake Brush is multifunctional. If you want to work with different colours it's really easy to do. Being able to work both with watercolour paints and ecoline is also something I really liked because the different media give different effects.


I used both pens to make some quick sketches and I liked using both of them. The results are quite different, obvously. With the Pentel Brush Pen I felt a bit constricted, not being used to work in only one colour. In my sketches I didn't have the same problem with the sharp lines.

With the Kuretake Brush I felt more at ease. My go to medium for colouring illustrations are watercolours. With one filled reservoir (and no extra water) I could draw different subjects in different colours. The only thing you need to switch between colours is a rag to wipe your brush clean. I loved using this pen, although I kept trying to put my brush in my tea, out of habit.



I really like these brush pens, they're probably one of my favourite discoveries this year. I can see lots of options with both these pens! Do any of you use them? What is your experience?

Let me explain myself. I'm currently employed as a full-time graphic designer at a local start-up. I've only been at my job for a couple of months and although I love doing it (and it's only my first job), I decided even before I found this job that one day I want to be self-employed.
I've just finished a long time as a student (trying to become a vet, and failing, getting a master's degree in communication and doing an extra bachelor in graphic design). It took me years to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. The longer I was studying the more certain I became of a couple of things:

• I want a creative job
• I want to work to live, not live to work
• I have ever shifting interests
• I want to keep on learning new things. This is one of my priorities in life

So, considering all those things made me conclude the self employed life is the way to go for me. Being able to be an independent creative person (graphic designer/illustrator/...) and creating my own products are my goals. I'll try to be patient, work hard, learn as much as possible, but during the next couple of years I want to work towards those goals. And this blog will basically be my journal for this journey. If you're in a similar situation or you just want to see what happens, you're more than welcome to follow along (and maybe say hi in the comments).