Hi there,
I just wanted to reply here as well to a reader’s mail and their disappointing experience with their Pitt Artist pens.
Should the colour apply plotchy /stripey/ bleed on the paper, the chances are very high that you might be using the wrong paper.
From my experience they work e.g. on Hahnemühle Nostalgia Sketch paper, Hahnemühle Bristol (I preferred a more cicular application here or wiping over the surface right after to smooth the application),and the most beautifully – I love to put them on watercolour (or mixed media paper): of course, you have to look out that the paper does not have such a texture that it will be like sandpaper to your pens (e.g. like canvas, which will 100 per cent grind your pens down) and they might “drink” /absorb more of your pen. What I love to do with them is also to apply them to paper and immediately go over the application with e.g. a waterreservoir brush. It moves and dilutes the colour and when it dries down it goes to its waterproof state.
Don’t forget, you can also mix your Pitt Artist pens, like you would do your watercolours. You can apply them onto a white porcelain plate, dilute and mix them. I also put the brush tip of my watertank brush onto the pen for colour application (I am not telling you, you should do that, it is just what I do).
In case, the paper isn’t your problem but the pen itself: if it has gotten drier due to age / or what you have put it through, don’t throw them away! You now can shape them /be rough on them and use them for texturing; e.g. leaf cluster, flower buds, grass … ; if they truely have nothing left in them, keep a couple of spare caps/lids, so you have one in your hour of need, when they miraculously disappear and you’ll find them weeks or months later. This goes of course for all your pens and markers.
Anja (Ansho)
Here is my latest Faber-Castell entry.