My Kingdom for a Fountain!

This Libelle Alphabet Fountain is one of my favorites. It's got great weight and balance and feels good to draw with. The coating is a high gloss resin that's different from any other pen that I have. The description says it's perfect for "wordsmiths and crossword puzzle enthusiasts;" but they left out us type designers. I believe it's a Bodoni family printed on the barrel; looks great.

My Libelle worked through every page of a Strathmore pocket sketch. A nice little pair that I carried with me as I was reading "The Once and Future King" by T.H. White. 

Mine has a steel medium nib.

The only disappointment I have is with the cap. It posts fine, but the threads don't line up easily; you could easily cross up them up if your not careful. Other than that, it's a primo pen.

I usually use a converter for my fountains, but I used the standard Pelikan cartridges for this one, simply so I could do a quick refill on the road.

"The old man was streaked with droppings over
his shoulders, among the stars and triangles
 of his gown, and a large spider was slowly
lowering itself from the tip of his hat..."

"The Wart found himself almost hypnotized by by the
big words and hardly noticed that the big mouth
was coming closer and closer to him."

T.H. White's book is called one of the foundations of modern fantasy, I can see why. My only regret is that I didn't read this book as a boy!

I gotta try this pen with the converter, maybe with a Noodler's color...

Paradise Lost and a sketchbook found!

My most recent order from the Fountain Pen Hospital included this complimentary Libelle Leather ID Card Case. It's stitched leather with a snap enclosure and came with a little chrome ballpoint pen. To be honest, I really didn't have a need for it. It was too nice to throw away so I just put a few of my business cards in it.

I don't know what made me think to cut down a little scratch pad and slide it into the business card slot; but it worked perfectly. Then I replaced the ballpoint with the short nub of a General's Woodless pencil and I had a mini sketch pad that fits neatly into a pocket. Now I love it!

It really came in handy when I had a looming Penguin USA deadline for Milton's Paradise Lost. I spent some long hours in a hospital waiting room just before I needed to get some sketches off. This little book kept me occupied, and sane during that time; and I was able to knock out a series of thumbnails. With these done I knew I had the project underway in my head. 

Once again, some sloppy little drawings come to the rescue!

The little nubs from some General's Woodless pencils 

were a perfect fit for this new notebook. 

These are a couple of my finished paintings from my thumbnails. The art still needed to be scanned and the type design added.

Some other thumbnail sketches of my type designs and a

serpent design scrawled with crayon on a legal pad.

I used Apple Barrel liquid acrylics for these drawings. They're very loose, smooth and splattery and the bold primary colors are what I had in mind while I was thumbnailing.

These are the final layouts along with my type designs that I submitted to Penguin for approval. The whole project started with that little pocket sketchbook.

I think I might try adding nicer paper to this little gem of a sketchbook; it's the only thing that might need improvment.