I bought several new art supplies this weekend. A Brause pen holder and six broad-edged lettering nibs, a four-bottle set of Sennelier drawing inks—The Art Store (now owned by Dick Blick) didn’t carry the bottles separately, and the set was packaged in an appealing box. Also a sketchbook which was an impulse buy, too, but one that I could justify. Well, I can actually justify all of them. I’ve wanted to try Brause pen nibs forever, and having tried them, I’m glad I bought. They give a crisp line and sharp edges.

The sketchbook is by Holbein, spiral bound, about 5″x7″, and is called Multi-Drawing Book. They had several other sizes. It has 30 sheets of a heavy paper suitable for watercolor and multimedia, and a hard cover, which I want for support when writing and drawing. But it’s small enough to carry around. I’m tired of thin paper that buckles.

The inks: I had wanted some walnut ink, but the only one I could find locally had a vile odor. (In The Art & Craft of Hand Lettering, Annie Cicale says that most commercial walnut ink is actually made from peat moss!) So when I saw this Sennelier set which contained an ink called “walnut stain,” I decided to go for it even though I know it’s not true walnut ink. The other colors in the set are black (India ink), sepia, and cobalt blue. I used the walnut color and one of the Brause nibs to letter the heading in the sketch.