Brush Pen Hack? Refilling it with Ink

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I found a blog post somewhere about refilling old marker and brush pens with ink injected into the core to make them usable again. I wasn’t able to save the actual link to it but I found a similar page which showed various disposable pens and markers that were refilled with inks.

In my case, I have two Zebra brush pens which I’ve enjoyed using before and never threw away. Because my friend Diane gave me some Rohrer and Klingner Sketch Ink samples, I’ve filled one before with Lotte and now it’s a brush pen filled with Frieda.

How to do this?

Following the steps in the mentioned blog post, here is how I’ve filled my brush pens. My brush pens have a core which needed to be saturated with ink.

1. Take off the cap at the end of the marker/brush pen body (the flat one). I used a cutter to help me take it off.

2. Use an eyedropper, or in my case, a syringe, to fill the core with ink.

3. Cover the end with the flat end/cap again and it will snap into place.

4. Wait a bit for the ink to be absorbed by the core and the brush tip.

5. Test it out by writing.

Here’s a video summarizing the process.

My old Zebra brush pens have been with me for years and they've ran out of ink. Except that I read somewhere that one can take the seal and put ink in the core. Well, I'll see how they'd perform in the coming weeks, months. 😀 This is me refilling one with R&K sketch ink Frieda.

Originally tweeted by claircolors ♡ now on sh0pee (@claircolors) on May 21, 2022.

In the video, I also sprayed water over the writing test because I wanted to check if the sketch ink will stay on the paper and it did!

I am now hoping that this will help me with reusing these brush pens as long as the brush tips are still fine enough to use.

Do you also have disposable markers and brush pens that you’d like to keep on using? Why don’t you give this method of refilling a chance? Or if you’ve done something similar before, how did your pens and markers turn out eventually? How long have you been able to use them?

Girl Power!

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This month, one of my goals is to regularly practice using a pen and tablet as well as whatever software I could try out for doing digital art. I’ve also missed practicing lettering and calligraphy so I joined a lettering for fun challenge on Instagram. This is one way that I could have prompts to write. It’s not a daily lettering challenge but that’s fine. Since I haven’t been practicing it a lot lately, a list of prompts is definitely a good guide.

The lettering for fun challenge hosted by Tanya and Monique this March is full of puns and spring themed prompts.

In this one, I used Medibang Paint Pro. One of the default pen brushes is already pretty useful for lettering and calligraphy then I played with layers to create a glitchy like look. It’s not actual glitchy effect because I have no idea, I am just a newbie at digital art. For now I’m using the tools in the app to learn how they work, what settings can be tweaked and what will work for me.

Since the lettering for fun challenge is for the entire month, hopefully I can share some things I learned about the app and/or lettering and calligraphy using it later on. For now it’s just an image.

These days, I also post my work on RedBubble portfolio as Clair Colors. Since this is already a digital file, I’ve uploaded this artwork directly after creating it and you can get it on a shirt, a mug, or whatever thing you want to gift someone (or yourself!) from the online store.

Links:

Using what you have in your journal

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As you can see in the photo, the ring binder has a Pocky box as a divider. It’s because I realized that I only had two dividers but I’m effectively in need of one more section. The Pocky box is something I’ve kept for a while, thinking about possibly scrapbooking about snacks but I just had to test out the size of the Pocky box against a page of my personal size binder and it was good enough~! Good for me. And I am reminded of the happy day that I ate that Pocky as a snack.

Sometimes I wonder about buying dividers but I have been enjoying my own personalized dividers since art experiments with washi tape or stickers, even paper cutting became part of my journal despite not practicing washi art nor paper cutting regularly, a good reminder that I once made time for those things.

As for journal pages, using a ring binder is convenient for junk journaling and using scraps of paper that have been glued together to have a page as a refill. I could do that any time I feel like it.

Sometimes using ring binders feels so temporary, but I’m trying to practice archiving every month so that by end of the year or early next year, I could compile all the pages together with bigger rings that could hold the many pages. This is especially true for personal size ring binders because it easily gets chunky when I feel like writing so much.

Anyway, I digress but journaling and exploring my creativity has been such a fun experience. And a little of everything I put in my journal is a reflection of me or at least the state of mind that I had at the moment.

Finding time to write in a journal

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It’s been a while since I update my blog, but I’ve been writing in my journal. I revived the habit of journaling last year. While I can’t say that I write every single day, at least I’m able to do it on most days.

Yes, I know journal means “daily.” Despite the fact that I only get to write on most days, the habit has been helping me see the good things, the little things that I’m happy about or thankful for. It’s usually small things these days, especially because of the pandemic and the local scenario where our number of cases aren’t really dwindling.

Most of the time, my pages would only contain what I consider as the basic things:

  • my food intake
  • if I exercised or not
  • things that I’m happy about or thankful for

They normally fit in one page on my ring binder and that’s enough for me. Unless I’m feeling particularly strong emotions or pondering deep thoughts that day, I probably only have those three things in bullet lists.

Journaling for me is an activity that I tend to do in the beginning of the day and/or at the end of it. I don’t want to overthink it most of the time and if I skip a day, I tell myself it’s fine. Maybe it’s gotten easier to think of it that way because I’m using ring binders again. Ring binders make it easier to move pages around.

Another thing that I enjoy about journaling these days is that I’ve been using stickers and washi tape to come up with page layouts. Sometimes the page layouts reflect my mood at the time I’d be making them. Sometimes I just play around with stickers, tapes, scrap paper that I could find. There’s a joy in turning random old magazine pages with some notepads and stickers as my writing page.

I’ve encouraged some friends online to give journaling a try too. I find that I’m not alone in enjoying the act of writing down thoughts, ideas and feelings. And these days, I don’t feel pressured to always have “pretty pages.” I used to think that journaling should have a certain look and feel, but these days, I spend time just getting random tapes, stickers and papers then I tell myself, “Come up with something using these.” They’re not pretty half the time, but one thing’s for sure is that they’re mine and I find comfort in that.

Journaling and Tracking Habits

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Food and Exercise Journal

This year feels like one sad month sliding into the next one, a blur of things as we deal with the pandemic by being in quarantine. As such, it’s very easy to fall into finding comfort in napping, snacking or doom scrolling.

I am guilty of all three and honestly, I think that I came to the point of being tired of that but I’ve unconsciously done it throughout the months. It’s easier to feel isolated too because of that. Mental health takes a dive into the depths of self-loathing and if it remains unchecked, it probably will lead into a spiral that’s hard to get out of.

While journaling is something that I did do, it came to a point that I didn’t want to or felt like there’s nothing to write. But that is just possibly the escapist in me and so I’ve been consciously trying to write in my journal at least two to three times a week in the last month or so. Sometimes it’s easier to do this than to talk to another person, since paper is blank, non-judgmental. You can dump every fleeting thought, every randomness or those deep-seated fears. Therapy isn’t cheap and it’s not even easy to schedule a session either but journaling lets me reassess what goes on my mind especially when I am not in the mood to socialize or I don’t want to ramble to another person who’s probably carrying their own heavy thoughts.

Lately, I’ve also decided to keep a separate food and exercise diary. It’s been two weeks, more or less of doing so. I track what food I eat, how much water I drank, if I exercised. It’s not just because of the weight gain but how much I want to help myself get emotionally better too. It’s the release of endorphins. But also the sense that I am able to do something to help my body get the boost it needs.

It may not be the only thing I need to get into a better state of health physically and mentally but this is a start. Habits are hard to begin so I tell myself that if I miss a day I shouldn’t put myself down, but I should be kind in reminding myself that, I am only recording/tracking these new habits. Being non-judgmental about myself will be a challenge but something that I want to do by journaling these things. I don’t even have a very detailed set of things to track at the moment. I don’t want the pressure of having to be ‘perfect’ at the tasks. The goal is to keep going, not just starting.

Adventures in Coptic Binding

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Because 2020 is the year to go deep, use existing arts and crafts supplies, I took inspiration from dollicandy and made my own watercolor journal. When we met up, she showed us that she made one for her studies, etc. I hoarded a good amount of watercolor sheets and it was perfect for a watercolor journal. The goal is for me to start looking at my progress and also compile notes on the art I am making.

I’ve mostly used separate sheets of paper when I make artworks and so I lose them. This time, I am hoping that this journal would be thick enough for a year’s worth of artworks and notes.

Why coptic binding? The nice thing about coptic binding is that the you could lay it flat, making it easier/convenient for art practice. It takes a while getting used to it, I think. I have yet to make another coptic binding stitch journal to have a better grasp at doing it.  The journal I made has a weird spine because of the way I sometimes doubled the loop, and I also had to “fix” a mistake I made.

Things I learned about coptic binding:

  • Use a curved needle/mattress/upholstery needle so that it’s easier to maneuver.
  • Double check the signatures. Put numbers on the upper right corner so you know that they’re the upper side and also the order in which you’d sew them together.
  • Be aware of when you loop and the direction of the loop you make at the spine when you’re stitching.
  • Remember to NOT stitch the last signature normally. Double check the instructions for stitching the last signature and the cover.

Other thoughts about crafting this:

  • If you don’t have bone folder, maybe use the backside of the paper cutter or use a metal ruler to smoothen the crease of the paper for the signatures you will fold.
  • If you don’t have an awl, consider looking for an icepick or a nail to poke holes into the paper and cover. But do make sure you’re using a cutting mat or some kind of material that can take the punching of holes so you don’t ruin your table. Be careful not to puncture your fingers.
  • Make sure you have illustration board or something similarly thick to use as covers so that they’re sturdy.
  • Someday I hope to use my leather stash as cover for the journal. It would look so pretty.

If you want to make your own journal using coptic binding, here’s a link to the video I used as a reference.

Happy crafting!

Hello 2020! Let’s go deep

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Some friends and I have a group chat called “Use the Hoard” because we are crafters at heart.  Different hoards and stashed materials abound our lives and we’ve decided to encourage each other to proclaim 2020 as the Depth Year.

To quote the blog post:

No new hobbies, equipment, games, or books are allowed during this year. Instead, you have to find the value in what you already own or what you’ve already started.

You improve skills rather than learning new ones. You consume media you’ve already stockpiled instead of acquiring more.

In the last year, I’ve gotten back to crochet and got myself a beginner’s leather crafting tool set (and leather of course). So in terms of crafting, I think I’ve got that covered big time already. I have so much yarn and patterns as it is and even if my favorite shops have been updating their collection this month, so far I’ve been able to resist because I have my basket full of yarn I’ve bought and received from fellow crafting friends.

For art goals I am working on two things: lettering and illustration. I need to get back to that lettering course I started and seriously work on defining my lettering style. I think that I already have a style but it’s time to make it “more me,” so to speak. I have been using the same same exemplars as other people and so I can’t really say that my lettering is very unique. As for illustration, I sorely lack practice because I ended up focusing on crochet at the latter part of 2019.  I am participating in artist alley/events where most of my merchandise tends to be paper type like stickers, postcards and/or bookmarks. It would be great to have a steady design schedule and workflow. I have a tendency to cram my designs and it’s honestly tiring. If I could draw and letter often enough with the goal of using them as a pool of designs to use, it would be a more efficient use of my time. And I do have reference materials so it’s time to wipe the dust off them.

As for books, yes, I have a pile and I’d inch my way through them, slowly but surely.  Maybe a reading schedule would help me through them. I could probably start with the lettering and calligraphy books since I do want to define my style.

I met up with some artist friends over the weekend and she showed us her handbound journal. She says that she’s practicing a yearly journal so that she can keep track of the studies and sketches that she makes. It’s a rather thick journal using watercolor paper and I do have a stash here that’s waiting to be used.  Instead of loose leaf practice sheets, it’s something I could consider for myself as a way to focus as well as track progress. I am taking inspiration from her practice and who knows? Maybe could see some progress. I could continue using the sketchbook I drew on last December and have it as a jumping point. Instead of me wallowing in thoughts of “I suck” maybe it’s time to shift it to “I need practice” and take out the journal. It’s not going to be foolproof because my self-esteem right now is not at its highest but that shouldn’t stop me from seeking progress and seeking the beauty in the process of learning. This would also let me use my hoard of paper.

Another idea is a monthly update here on the blog as to how I am doing with my depth year. No new thing is hard to do because I admittedly am addicted to interesting trends but focus is something I need.  Thankfully I have friends who are encouraging and I am accountable to for this year.

 

On Anxiety

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I haven’t blogged for a while now.

I haven’t even been online as much as I used to either. I am now feeling a bit more comfortable speaking about things right now and so I will write.  The struggle is real and I don’t even talk about it with a lot of people.

Anxiety can be debilitating at times. It is not like a voice from outside you. It’s a voice within you and it’s not always loud. Sometimes it’s like a whisper that comes and goes many times. Sometimes it works its way to twist a small worry into a big one. I thought that I could handle these anxiety attacks because I managed them around the beginning of the year. But it turns out that around May this year, the anxiety attacks got so intense that I began to isolate myself. Social situations have been rough for me even if it’s just online interaction, honestly.  Even meeting with people face to face has been tough. It’s like I am back to my old self from many years ago: the girl who would want to go home all of a sudden when she learns that there’s going be more than five people attending a meet, a meet that has been planned even before. Even if they are people I already know, I have been panicking just at the thought of seeing so many. It’s irrational, I know. Nobody said that social anxiety is rational, right? I used to think that I was capable of handling that already, that I outgrew it. Well, it’s back with a vengeance and even if I hate it so much, I cannot just fight it all the time because it gets tiring. I am learning ways to deal with it and if I need to speak with someone about it, I try to reach out. It’s a work in progress, that reaching out thing. But one has to start taking baby steps, right?

Just last week, I had this realization that my mind is like a hank of yarn.  You need to unwind/unloop it then wind it into a ball, skein or cake of yarn it so that you could use it for a crochet project.  If you just use it directly from the hank, you’d end up tangling the strands. That’s not fun at all.  Am I saying that my mind is loopy? Well, in a sense it is.  It keeps on looping back into the worries, the fears, and everything that gets me so stressed out.  So right now, I am learning to observe myself by logging my daily mood, food intake, exercise, etc. As well as taking note of things that I am working on, need to work on.  The latter part is hard for me lately because I cannot focus at all. Sometimes I work on something and then I stop because I am worried about how bad it will turn out.  It’s like working with a hank of yarn when that happens – I pull at an idea and work on it but it gets tangled with the worries and so I end up stopping in the middle of things.

One of the things that has been sorta helping me get back into things is crochet.  I think that the repetitions in the patterns have been helping me see that maybe there’s a pattern to things, that they are workable, just take it one row at a time.  Having a tangible output makes me feel that I accomplished something usable and that contributes to the good mood. I used to avoid working on shawls but I realize now why people like making them: the repetitions are predictable, and when you are done after so long and you’re using the shawl, it feels good to see what you have done.

I am still not ok but I guess by making this post, I am asking for people to be patient with me. I am sorry for being absent but I will try to get back into the world slowly, integrating myself with people.

 

Refreshing the self

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Every person has ups and downs. Sometimes we feel so drained and we’re just going through the motions of daily life. Or just wanting to sleep through the day. It happens. It is normal to feel that maybe sometimes life is overwhelming.

Honestly the past month or so has been like that for me. Maybe it’s because of certain days reminding me of regrets that I have harbored all this time. It’s been blocking me from doing things. It’s been a source of feeling overwhelmed, to be honest. I couldn’t even do simple things like logging the number of hours I slept, the food that I ate, my mood. My planner has been blank because I couldn’t be bothered to list down the things that are supposed to matter. So yeah, I totally needed to refresh my mind. It so happened that I was sick last week. And I was so down, physically. I was mainly lying in bed for how many days and my sister made sure I had water and soup accessible. It was that bad.

Today I am feeling better and so I went out and sought counseling time. It’s something I knew I needed to do but I didn’t have the push to do it. I was actually sick when I called up the center to ask for an appointment.  I guess being sick made me realize that I needed to do this for myself. I think I might try writing more about my mental health experiences in relation to how it affects my general state, my art practice, etc. I am truly affected by downtimes and my moods.

In a span of two hours, she asked me a bunch of questions. Those questions made me realize that:

  1. I am still stuck in my bubble of regret. Or I am reminded of that bubble of regret recently.
  2. Some of the ideas that I grew up with are haunting me and prevent me from moving forward.
  3. I do not need to keep on thinking of what I could have done at certain points of my life. I need to accept that those things have happened already and that I should not put all the blame on myself.

Going out to see a counselor and speak with her today has been a refreshing experience for me. It’s been difficult to bring myself to talk with anyone about all these things that float in my mind because I am often afraid of judgment. I am not ready to speak with people who know me and may have certain ideas and expectations of who I am, so in that sense, talking with a person that I don’t know from before is somehow freeing.

Maybe this being the first week of the month makes me feel like that I can have a new beginning as well. And I do need this fresh beginning. Sometimes we do need to give ourselves the permission to begin anew. It’s not easy, and there are no set guidelines as to how this would work for anyone, but we can try to set our own parameters as to what is a new beginning and when it will happen.

So yeah, this is me restarting my journey into self-care. That includes my physical well-being, aside from my mental health. Mind and body affect each other after all.  I am still looking around for tips on what people practice to refresh themselves when tired or overwhelmed. If you have tips, send them my way? 😀

 

 

Regular practice through prompts

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It’s been a while since I wrote about habits and I was honestly struggling with integrating them in my life again. Mostly struggling except maybe for art practice using prompts. This month, I’ve had three sets of prompts:

Some days I skipped, some days I was able to catch up to prompts. It’s not a perfect daily habit for me yet, but I try to keep up so that I could get enough practice every day.

For the lettering challenge, I wasn’t able to focus on fancy flourishing but I was able to use pastel colors on black paper. And I played with style variations on faux calligraphy and serif lettering. It’s not always pretty but I tried to reflect on the text and match the mood with the style and colors I’ve picked for each day.

For the mermay challenge, it’s my first time to draw more than one mermaid so I am happy that I found odnatamyra’s prompts. It had only 14 items on the list. I actually didn’t post the one I made for “ghost” because I wasn’t happy with the output, but I really did push myself to do every single prompt. I was able to try coming up with designs based on references I found in stock photo galleries and some image searches too.

Lastly, that Iron Strange week event wasn’t complete but I was able to make some artworks. Not the best stuff but I had something.

This month, I am reminded that my drawing skills are a bit rusty and so I need to push myself further if I am to make new sticker designs for the latter part of the year.

There are times when I find myself lacking the energy to make anything, honestly. But when I have the inspiration or drive, I try to get on it and work on things.

For June, I already have a couple of lists I need to work on so I at least am sure about getting enough lettering practice. But what kind of artworks will I produce this time around? Who knows? I actually enjoyed mermay. I hope to think of a theme if I can’t find a nice prompt list to draw this June.

Here are some of my favorite artworks from the prompt lists I followed: