A few of my favorite things.

My annual inventory of tools, toys and inspiration

Here’s my annual inventory of the stuff I love right now. Some of it’s brand new this year, some of it are old favorites that still delight me. So I thought I would share them with you.

Note: This list is kinda long, and it might get truncated in your email. Just click on “View entire message” if that happens. It’ll be worth it.

Art tools:

Tempera sticks: It’s been over a year since I started using inexpensive tempera sticks to add color to my sketchbooks, and the romance has not faded. Jj laughs at how much I talk about these juicy lipsticks full of colo,r but I think they’re the perfect medium for me. They’re fast, they’re brightly colored, they’re rough, and they keep me feeling loose and spontaneous. I’ve always wanted the fluidity and boldness that I love in children’s art and outsider art, and tempera sticks have just made this a natural part of my self-expression. I’m less perfectionist, less persnickety, and I constantly surprise myself with the things that I make. The process is often hit-or-miss but that’s fine with me; it’s all about experimentation and discovery and I still feel like I’m saddling some sort of wild animal when I open up my rainbow box. Link

Big watercolor set. I got a really large set of Winsor & Newton’s Cotman watercolors (45 pans!), and they’ve made my watercoloring even more of a consistent part of my arsenal. At first, I thought that having so many pre-mixed colors was cheating in a way that I should be mixing my own blends and hues. But the fact is, sometimes I want to just grab, say, a green, and if I have six choices sitting in my palette already waiting for me, that’s even better. Link

Uglybooks. I started using these inexpensive sketchbooks with colored paper last year, and they’ve been so much fun to play with. The paper is not of the highest quality, but it works perfectly well with ink, color pencil, or other dry media. Each page provides a bright hue as the starting point, and from there, I can work in just ink or add a white pencil for highlights and maybe a grey Tombo brush marker or unleash the full spectrum of my tempera sticks. I have about eight of these books in various colors, and they are a constant delight. Link

Venezia Sketchbook. I’ve been using the Venezia line of sketchbooks from Fabriano for the last 15 years. They are beautifully bound in three different sizes, but I prefer the middle one, which is 5x7” and fits into any bag just like a hardcover book. The mixed-media paper is sized on both sides of the page and is excellent with ink or colored pencil, and can take watercolor pretty well too. Link

Lamy colored refills. I’ve been using Lamy Safari fountain pens for quite some time, but I’d never realized the range of colored ink cartridges that are available. I went on a spree and bought myself a dozen different colors, and I put them in different pens. One effect I really like is to switch the color in the middle of a drawing so it slowly goes from red to blue or brown to purple. My favorite discovery is the bright yellow ink, which is an unusual ink to find in a pen of any kind. These inks are not waterproof, but I just love mixing up the palettes when I’m drawing or writing without using any other wet media. Link

Carbon ink cartridges. You can’t put regular India ink into a fountain pen; it will just destroy the works. But there are a few choices of waterproof ink that are made with lacquer so as not to gum up their delicate mechanisms. The best I’ve found is a bottle of Carbon ink from Platinum, but I never liked the fiddliness of using a converter. Then I discovered that Carbon disposable cartridges are available. Now I use my Lamy to write and draw so much more because I dont have to decide in advance if I’m going to be using wet media. I can just draw. Link

Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen: These are the pens that people ask me about the most. That’s because their lines are flowing and expressive, easily going from thick to thin like you rarely see in a technical marker. They come in hard and soft nibs and are absolutely waterproof. I love them, and I hope you will too. Link

Acrylic ink markers: I’ve always been reluctant to use certain media in my sketchbooks. Alcohol-based markers in my sketchbooks. First of all, they smell pretty terrible. But even worse, they also have a tendency to bleed through the page and sometimes through several pages. It can be a disaster. This yea,r I started using Arrtx markers filled with acrylic ink. They have all the vibrancy and color range of alcohol markers, but they are far more opaque, and they can be layered. They cost a lot less than professional alcohol markers, too. Best of all, they don’t bleed through the page. Link

Dip pens are just an indispensable part of my art kit. And I think that anybody who likes drawing should give them a try. It can take a little experimentation and experience to feel completely comfortable with them. But the flexibility of a good nib and the freedom to use any type of ink is something you’ve got to try.

I’ve discovered that the springy and flexible G nib from Zebra is my go-to. Because they were designed for manga cartoonists, they work well for both drawing and lettering, unlike most calligraphy nibs. G nibs are very inexpensive, a dollar or two each when you buy a boxful, and I change them often. A fresh nib is much less likely to clog, and will always draw crisp, reliable lines. Link

Drawing Inks. Winsor & Newton makes two types of wonderful ink. Their Drawing Inks are dye-based, and come in dozens of brilliant, transparent colors. If you plan to frame your art and hang it on the wall, be forewarned: when exposed to light for too long, it can fade (which is never really a problem in a sketchbook). W&N Calligraphy Inks are pigment-based, so they are more permanent, lightfast, and often more opaque. They come in fewer colors (and frankly not ones that I love for drawing or painting), but they’re great for lettering, and if you want extra pizzazz, check out their metallic gold and silver inks. All these inks are great for dip pens and brushes but none is waterproof (except for the India ink) so be careful if you combine them with wet media. Link

Free inspiration.

I have walked away from social media platforms with three exceptions: Cosmos, Reader, and YouTube.

I hate Pinterest with its endless ads for skeleton sweaters and weight loss and AI slop, and then I learned about Cosmos: an art sharing platform for and by artists. It has incredible technology that makes it easy to build a visual library of stuff I love, and it has learned my taste so well and is constantly surfacing new ideas and artists that inspire me even further. It’s free and ad-free and amazing. Link

I subscribe to dozens of newsletters —reading them has replaced traditional media and magazines. Reader from Readwise keeps subscriptions out of my email box, lets me skim and decide what to read, saves my highlights so I can find them again, summarizes, and makes me a more efficient reader. It is an indispensable tool for any writer — and reader. Link

YouTube channels that inspire me.

YouTube is an incredible resource for learning and finding inspiration, and I also love making videos to share there. Link

David Choe is a creative madman who became famous for accepting Facebook stock instead of cash for painting murals at the company’s early offices in 2005, turning a $60,000 commission into hundreds of millions of dollars when Facebook went public. He makes wonderful creative pep talks on his channel, and I come away from every one wanting to be looser, wilder, and more like Dave. Link

Chris Piascik is an illustrator whose work is slick and hilarious. His way of talking about art is so relaxed and authentic, and his illustrations are like a jar of jellybeans and bubble gum cards. He works exclusively in Adobe Fresco and has helped convert me into a fan too. Link

Rajiv Surendra is the most charistamtic and charming man on YouTube., his topics are about life well lived, whether it’s how to watercolor or iron a shirt, throw a pot or ride a bicycle. Watch just one video, and I promise he will make you love him and life. If you like my friend Prashant Miranda, you will love Rajiv Surendra. Link

Little Tiny Egg: Kristen Vardanega is a Utah artist who makes monthly videos about life in her studio. She documents her projects, her inspiration, and the ways she makes a living making art. A lot of artists vlog their lives, but few inspire and move me like Little Tiny Egg. Link

Kelly Boesch: I know how much controversy there is around AI tools, but every so often, I discover an artist who is making true art with MidJourney and Sumo. Kelly makes videos that are instantly recognizable as her own — she has managed to tame the AI beast and make it serve her style, taste, and vision so completely. Link

Your pal,

Danny

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