One year of UI Design – Day 9
April 13, 2014Last week I was doing some research for new pens, since I’m sketching more these days. I found this nice list and ordered various different ones so I can compare them. Earlier this week the first package arrived. It was the Pilot G-TEC C4. I grabbed a piece of paper and made a quick sketch. From the first line I felt the difference. This pen is a lot sharper than the one I used so far and enables to work far more detailed. Of course I still have to improve my sketching skills, but having a pen as nice as this one helps a lot.
More packages with pens arrived this week and so this morning I decided to try them out. After making a few quick sketches I was realising: ‘I wish I had payed more attention to the drawing classes in high school long ago.’ Back then I wasn’t so interested in drawing, probably because of the lack of natural talent, but these days I wish I was better at it. Becoming better at something is often just a case of doing it a lot and that’s part of this UI Design challenge. Improving my skills designing digitally, but also physically with making sketches.
I tried all the pens a couple of times and found that the Pilot C4, which arrived first, is one of my favourites. The pens I tried are different from each other in thickness and in softness. I tend to like the more thinner and harder pens, since they allow you to work more detailed. The C4 is the hardest pen of all the ones I tried, it’s actually a bit scratching the paper and that forces you to deliberately draw your lines.
I’m absolutely not a pro at this, but I just wanted to have a pen that suits best with the kind of sketching and drawing that I do. One thing I know for sure now: I’m waisted for regular pens. Once you’ve tried all those professional drawing pens, you don’t want anything else anymore. Now I have the right tools and can continue learning and improving my design skills.
Categorised in: Sketch, UI Design