Skull and markers

[avram]

Went in to Manhattan today to do some banking and wander. I checked the stationery store on Sixth near 11th, next to Game Show, the place where I’d found the grayscale Faber-Castell Pitt brush markers, and discovered that they have the various colored ones as well, but decided not to buy any. The Pitt markers are waterproof, and while I prefer my black markers, the ones I use for outlines, that way, I like the colored ones to be water-soluble.

I’ve got two 12-packs of Tombow water-soluble brush markers, and I’d been thinking of getting the third pre-packaged set, but when I got down to Pearl (walking to Canal, for exercise and to save the trainfare) I discovered that the 12-packs aren’t significantly cheaper than just buying twelve individual markers, and the third 12-pack contains at least two markers that I’ve already got from the other sets, so I just bought eight individual markers. I’ve now got a pretty good set of low-melanin fleshtones. Greens remain under-represented, as do purples.

I also made an amazing discovery in Pearl’s paper section: Watson-Guptill watercolor blocks (ten sheets, 10x14 inches, 140 pound weight, rough texture) for $2.88 each! That’s an outright amazing price for watercolor paper, even a low-end brand. Even though I don’t use rough paper much, I picked up a block, ’cause hey, three bucks.

Walking back uptown, I noticed that the moldings on the building at the corner of Houston and Broadway look vaguely skull-like. I stood in the traffic island for several light cycles sketching, adding in the skull elements. These’d go great on the outside of a necromancer’s building.