https://blog.kalechips.net This blog sucks, dude 18 August 2024 https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-08-18-Fude I've been faffing around with a Sailor fude nib I bought a few weeks ago. Fude nibs are bent upwards so they provide line variation as you change your pen angle, similar to a brush or brush pen. I'm still pretty bad at using the nib intentionally, but it does cool stuff if you mindlessly draw with it. You can block in color really fast with it, which is awesome but also requires frequent dipping, even with the built-in feed it comes with, because that is a fuckton of ink. https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-08-11-Travelers-Notebook My training to write more stuff on paper has been successful enough that I was able to justify buying a passport-sized Traveler's Notebook in March! And then... another one last week. The passport is perfectly pocket sized and more conducive for carrying around everywhere. https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-08-04-Carbon-Black I picked up a box of Platinum Carbon Black cartridges at a local art supply store yesterday. It's waterproof, so I thought it would be a good tool to have when I'm out and want to draw something to paint later. https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-08-01-Blaugust It's officially Blaugust, so here I am, blogging! Whatever else happens, I've narrowly avoided crushing failure because I posted this one time. https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-07-27-Field-Kit After experiencing some success with plein air drawing (as detailed in the tree-drawing post), I was consumed by my own hubris and set out to assemble a field painting kit. This is a well-tread road, but I wanted something small enough to stuff into a backpack or fanny pack. https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-07-18-Overhaul I spent a few days doing the website equivalent of cleaning your house to avoid doing more important things — in my case, I rewrote the entire backend for this blog, made a cute new design for it, made a pile of color schemes for the cute new design, and rewrote some posts as I transferred them over. Whew! All of that without writing one blog post. https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-05-22-Plein-Air I've avoided dabbling in ink drawing without drafting with a pencil underneath because the thought of putting ink on the page without a plan fills me with irrational dread, but that changes now! (The avoidance is changing. No guarantees on the irrational dread.) This is also my first time doing plein air drawing, so there's excitement all around. https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-04-22-WIP-Blanket-Box I found a prompt list on Pillowfort: The Creative WIP Project Blanket Box. "Blanket Box" is a Pillowfort-specific term, but I admittedly don't use my account for much, so I'm setting up my blankets over here instead. I will be talking about Earth 2 because it's my baby even though it doesn't even have a real title yet. https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-04-21-Pizza I've had a fixation on making good pizza since the COVID lockdown. I, like many other people, decided that the best way to weather a pandemic was to bake bread, so I made a sourdough starter and quickly had to find ways to use up the discard. There are a lot of ways to do that — I've experimented with banana bread, pancakes, waffles, and cake, to name a few, but my favorite way to use it is pizza, because pizza is good. I am now a real pizza connoisseur and can no longer deign to get takeout pizza because the homemade stuff is just so much better. But I'm also a generous pizza connoisseur, so here's what I've learned after obsessing over pizza for 4 years. https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-04-15-Whole This is a reprint of my submission to Salad Magazine issue 2. Check out the other cool stuff people did too! https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-03-29-Platinum-3776 I like Platinum pens. I have a few, and they've all been great and reliable and I use them very frequently. The affordability is a huge plus (Platinum's budget pens all clock in at under 20 USD), but if you're looking to burn a little more money, there's the Platinum 3776 Century, a pen that retails in the US for around $200. https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-03-27-Zorn I always mix my own paint colors as a rule — I've owned only cyan, magenta, and yellow (plus black and white) for years — but I've been really into nontraditional primaries lately. It's an interesting challenge that produces interesting paintings, and the Zorn palette is a particularly... limiting limited palette. https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-03-25-Bug-Legos I'm not an adult Lego connoisseur by any means, but I've received a handful of the adult/collector sets as gifts over the years. I was pleased as punch to see that they released a collection of realistic insect models consisting of a Chinese mantis, a Hercules beetle, and a blue morpho. I thought they were sold separately, so I spent a long time agonizing over which one to buy until I found out that all three came in a set! https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-03-11-Tiny-Palettes I love tiny palettes. They're the type of thing that I see and swear I'm going to do [x] (paint) more because I have [y] (a tiny paint palette). I thought really hard about getting a fancy small wooden palette, but decided against it in favor of engineering one out of a mint tin. I also love putting random shit in mint tins. I already keep my small cross stitching projects in one (you would be shocked at the amount of embroidery floss you can stuff into one Altoids tin). https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-02-16-Art-Cart A few years ago, I got one of those carts everyone and their mom seems to have. I don't use it as a cart 99% of the time, but it's easier to move around than a shelf if I do need to move it. I recently got the impulse to consolidate most of my art supplies onto it for easy access, so I am here to share the results of that organization with you, the audience. https://blog.kalechips.net/post/2024-01-21-Travelers-Notebook I bought a Traveler's Notebook cover last year, mainly because they released an olive edition and I needed it. I liked the idea of a modular notebook, though, so I swore I would figure out how to use it. I continued liking the idea and doing absolutely nothing else with it for 6 months. But it's a new year with a corresponding new me, so here I am! Using it!