This is a sort of tangent. In addition to ulana lauhala, I have a "print studio" called Kamahiunana Risography with an Etsy store, KamahiunanaRiso. So far I only have two sets of notecards for sale and slowly working on adding new items. Lauhala has kept me very busy. I was going to do a lauhala themed notecard set but decided to go back to a project I had started in the 1990s. It was sidelined due to teaching, grad school, life in general. My next Risograph print project will, hopefully, be a pa'u coloring book inspired by pa'u riders representing the islands. The coloring book I wish I had when I was a little girl. I haven't been sketching regularly and it's very much a eye-hand coordination thing. So to get back into "practice" I'm trying to sketch again.
I've recently gone down the rabbit hole of "fountain pens used for sketching." I used to love drawing with black India ink but the dipping pens were messy and not conducive for on-the-go-quick sketches. Since the 1990s there have been HUGE developments in ink art tool technology! Inspired by calligraphy brushes (fude), the Japanese developed brush tipped fountain pens. Then they developed "fude" nibs for fountain pens. GAMECHANGER! www.jetpens.com, a California based company that specializes in Japanese stationery and writing tools, was the opening of the rabbit hole and I completely fell down it with urban sketch artist blog Fueled by Clouds & Coffee.
To help decide whether I'd even like using a fude nib before investing in a nice fountain pen, inspired by this blog, I picked up a pink Jinhao Shark fude from Akamai Art Supply. One can see in the photo above that the nib is bent. Line width ranges from extra fine to about 3 mm depending on the angle one holds the pen. I truly enjoy sketching with a fude nib because the line variation allows for more expression than a regular tipped pen. And I can get the juicy dipped pen effect without the fear of spilling a bottle of ink. The Jinhao Shark (pen #993) has hit & miss reviews. Mine works just fine and I was very happy with it until my Franklin-Christoph fountain pen with a Mark Bacas nibgrinder.com fude nib came in. OMG. Now my pink shark will live in my purse for sketching instead of scrolling my phone when I'm out in the world. The Franklin-Christoph will be for "serious" sketching. LOL.
Regarding Inktober2021... Inktober is a sketch artist challenge started in 2009. Since then, during the month of October artists around the world virtually participate. 31 days, 31 drawings. Artists can use the Inktober theme of the day or they can do their own thing. The goal is to make an ink drawing to develop skills and habits and post it online. I'm getting psyched up to participate for the first time this year. I'll be using my Franklin-Christoph fude pen. I was going to follow the prompts but now I'm inspired to use my Inktober2021 time to sketch all things lauhala.