my tools

Hero Fountain Pen

Some of you asked me about the Hero M86 fountain pen that I use for my sketches.

The pen may come with a different reservoir when you purchase them on-line or from a shop. I remember when I first bought the pen from our art shop here, they advised me to replace the original pump with that of a reservoir with text that said "made in England". See image.

The current one I am using is the second pen that I bought from the same shop and it came with a new type of reservoir supposedly an improved version with text that said "HERO". See image.

What I normally do when refilling the ink is to pump the ink very quickly up and down twice and then very quickly fill it up, it will eliminate the air bubbles and fill about 3/4 or almost full in the reservoir. See image.

Hope this helps.






Brush Pens

top - Pental, not available in SG. But can buy in a set of watercolours from Art Friend.
top 2nd to 4th - Zig, lousy with back flow problem! from an art school directly opposite Art Friend
5th - China brand, I think it is from Diaso, not tested yet but cheap and looks good.
last three - my earlier set, very good, no brand from some local old bookstore and scrapbook store in Singapore. Forget where, these shops come and go.
Holbein is not here.. from Straits Commercial - go get, the best!



Moleskine

Moleskines are expensive in Singapore, it is S$25 (US$18) per book. Friends will get a few copies for me when they travel.



Seawhite Concertina Sketchbook

After USK Symposium Manchester in 2016, I started using Seawhite Concertina Sketchbook. It is not available in Singapore and the shipping cost is 4 times the cost of the book so friends will get a copy or two for me when they travel.