Doodling with Zig Art & Graphic pens

Welcome Back

In today’s post a peek into my art journal, where I’ve been doodling with my new Zig Art & Graphic pens.

Rock n Roll Flowers with Zig Art & Graphic pens

Pens used; Zig Art & Graphic set of 12 Muted tones.

Sketchbook Used: Daler Rowney; Ebony Sketchook 

If you haven’t already, you have to try these pens! They are unlike anything else, but truly wonderful. The Art & Graphic pens work beautifully on the 150gsm acid free paper in the Daler Rowney sketchbooks.

Best wishes and see you soon

Billie

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Rock n Roll Flowers with Zig Art & Graphic pens

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In today’s post I’d like to share a picture of a little ATC created using Zig Art & graphic pens and my own Rock n Roll technique blended with Chinese brush painting techniques.

Rock n Roll Flowers with Zig Art & Graphic pens

To find out more about how to create these flowers check out my Rock n Roll Flowers: video tutorial.

Best wishes and see you soon

Billie

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Tutorial: Rock n Roll Flowers with Zig Pens

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In today’s post a video tutorial to show you some techniques using Zig pens to create beautiful flowers.

Zig products used in the film:

• Writers
• Brushables
• Wink Of Stella
• Calligraphy markers

For suppliers and colour ranges, see the link at the end of the post.

After just a little practice you too could create flowers like these;

Rock n Roll Flowers with Zig Art & Graphic pens

 

In this ATC I used the Zig Art & Graphic pens with the techniques shown in the film. The Art & Graphic pens have 80 beautiful colours in the full range. So far I’ve bought the Muted and bright tones, the rest are definately top of my wish list.

Do give the techniques a try and I’d love to see your results.

Links

For full details of colours and pen types available, please visit the Kuretake website.

Best wishes and thanks for reading

Billie

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Review: Zig Art & Graphic Pens

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In today’s post I will be reviewing; Zig Art & Graphic Pens

Zig Art & Graphic pens

Product Details

• Manufacturer/Brand; Kuretake/ Zig Art & Graphic
• Item number TUT-80/12V Muted
• RRP at time of writing: £23

Reason For Buying

I had tried the Brushables and really enjoyed using them, however there is a much larger colour pallet available in the Art & Graphic range and wanting to paint flora and fauna these looked a good idea.

Pros/Cons

Pros

• Twin tipped.
• Water based dye ink
• Xylene free & no smell
• Rubber brush tip, HIGHLY flexible
• Fine nib fiber tip at the other end.
• Really juicy
• You can scribble on to acrylic block and pick up the colour with damp brush to water-colour larger areas
• Colour direct to rubber stamps for multi coloured images
• Even though it is a large brush you can still get to fine point for fine detail

Cons

I haven’t got any, I love them. Perhaps a finer version of the rubber brush nib at the other end would have been good but the bullet nib is great for fine detail.

Build Quality

Superb, the lids are well-fitting but not too hard to remove. The pen colour number is printed on the pen barrel so if you need to replace a colour later on you will still have its details. The rubber nib is amazing, really flexible and the ink flow is perfect.

Value for Money

Fair for the quality. They may not be the cheapest pens around but they sure do earn their keep.

Would I buy it Again?

Yes, after ten minutes with this set, I ordered the brights and I’m looking out for the pastels set too. (All in sets of 12). For the rest, well I’ve a big birthday this year so guess whats going on my wish list.

Summing up

You just have to try them, they are amazing. The rubber nib is unlike anything else, it makes for a true brush like experience, even to the fact that the ink colour varies depending on the amount of pressure you put on the nib. As you lift off the pressure the colour lightens.

Links

• Kuretake
• Zig Art & Graphic pens

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Video Tutorial: Zig Calligraphy Markers

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Today a video tutorial featuring the Calligraphy markers by Zig. I’ll be showing you around the pen and then some techniques for using them.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Review of Zig Calligraphy Markers

Welcome Back

In today’s post I will be reviewing;

Zig: Calligraphy pen

Product Details

• Manufacturer/Brand; Kuretake, Zig Memory System
• Item; Calligraphy

Reason For Buying

I was lucky enough to be sent some samples of these new pens, from Kuretake to try out.  I have been doing calligraphy on and off for years and have seen these pens on TV and was excited to get to try them.

Pros/Cons

Pros

• Acid Free
• Archival
• Pigment ink
• Double Ended; 2.0 mm and 5.0 mm
• Plenty of colours in the range
• Small nib great for larger projects and the smaller nib perfect for adding sentiments to the inside of cards or smaller projects.
• Works great on; Smooth card, like the Rhymans card
• Superb ink flow
• Great nibs, not scratchy
• Great range of  colours
• You can watercolour with them
• Co-ordinate with other pens in the Zig range

Cons

I tried to find some, but haven’t any complaints.

Build Quality

Excellent. These pens have well-fitting lids that are easy to remove. Stored flat the ink flows well, they write beautifully and if anyone is nervous of using traditional ink pens for calligraphy, I highly recommend these. So far I’ve been using Berol pens for calligraphy projects. These Zig markers are light years better than those,  a joy to use and so many colours to choose from.

Value for Money

Excellent. They are fairly priced for the quality of the product.

Would I buy it Again?

Yes!!! I need lots of these

Summing up

I really enjoyed using these pens, they work well and are reliable. There are so many lovely colours that you couldn’t get board with them. What I hadn’t expected was that you can even water-colour with these pens. So if you like colouring in stamped images you could do that with these, as well as writing a beautiful sentiment.

I had seen demos on TV, where they let the ink flow from a darker colour calligraphy pen, into the nib of a paler one. I was scared of wrecking the pens but I was brave and tried it. WOW the results are superb, really effective, and just like they showed on TV if you scribble on scrap card the dark ink will run out and you get back to the original colour scheme.

Try them, either a pack or just one, but do try them. Great quality, great value and great fun!

Links

• Kuretake UK; Manufacturers of Zig Memory System products.
• Zig Calligraphy markers

Come back on friday, to see the video demo I made for these pens and some techniques for using them.

Many thanks to Kuretake for giving me the opportunity of trying these pens, they are superb and I look forward to using them for more projects.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Video Tutorial; Zig Brushables

Welcome Back

In today’s post I’ll be sharing a video tutorial featuring Zig Brushables. These are brush tipped markers, I’ll show you around the pens and then share some techniques using them.

I’ve really enjoyed using these versatile pens. I do hope you will give the techniques a try, they are quick and simple and I hope effective. For more information on the pens, do check out this earlier post where I wrote a review of the Brushables. Please use the links below to find a stockist near you.

Links

• Kuretake The UK Website with full range of products. You can download a catalogue which will show you entire product range with visual of the entire pallet of colours in the range.

Here are some tutorials, (not by me) that I found on the web.

• Zig Brushables This is the Brushables page on the Kuretake Website. It includes a video demo of lettering
• Lettering Demo; Featuring Brushables

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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