Technical Pens
do$feratu
work and maybe some pen&ink drawings.
Are rapidographs the best?
If I pick up some used ones, are they easy to clean?
How hard is it to clean them? All the websites selling
Rapidographs say that they never clog, then then sell all sorts of
cleaning solutions and accessories.
--
Pat Lundrigan
change $ to s to email
Paul Mesken
<do$ferat...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Are rapidographs the best?
Well, I asked my father who is an architect and has used both
Staedlers and Rotrings (but uses a computer nowadays :-)
He says the Rotring Rapidographs are the best. You should use the ones
with the gold colored pens in them. There are also the stainless steel
pens. The gold colored ones are more wear free.
Rapidographs can clog but you can put the pens in a can of hot water
in such a case. Clogging is not the same as that the pen initially
doesn't leave a trace. Simply shake it then.
If the pen starts to leak (leaving a dot where you put the pen on
paper) then it's almost empty.
NightMist
<do$ferat...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I was thinking of getting some technical pens for some watercolor
>work and maybe some pen&ink drawings.
>
>Are rapidographs the best?
No, but they are among the least expensive.
I have a slim pack that was gifted me.
I have used them a bit, but when I want a pen and ink I usually get
out the nibs and the handles. I have heard that Staedtlers are the
best, no experience of them though.
>If I pick up some used ones, are they easy to clean?
Not really.
You have to soak them forever if they dry out, and then maybe
ultrasound them. Oh, and be careful of the really really fine wire
that makes them work.
>How hard is it to clean them?
If you clean them right after useing them (which means never leaving
ink in them) it is not so tough. A couple of minutes and an ear
syringe and they flush right out.
> All the websites selling
>Rapidographs say that they never clog,
They lie.
>then then sell all sorts of
>cleaning solutions and accessories.
I'll bet that some of those actually work, thus making the things
easier to clean.
One of the few things I have found out about them is the ink that they
sell for them sucks. I have had the best luck with Dr Martins, that
seems to seldom clog and is much more consistant throughout the work.
Barbara
--
"To repeat what others have said, requires education; to challenge
it, requires brains." -Mary Pettibone Poole
Erik A. Mattila
> On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 14:56:47 -0500, "do$feratu"
> <do$ferat...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>>Are rapidographs the best?
>
>
> Well, I asked my father who is an architect and has used both
> Staedlers and Rotrings (but uses a computer nowadays :-)
>
> He says the Rotring Rapidographs are the best. You should use the ones
> with the gold colored pens in them. There are also the stainless steel
> pens. The gold colored ones are more wear free.
Hmmm...I thought "Rapidograph" was a brand name, but over here the
Koh-i-noor is more popular. You can get jewel-tip nibs for long wear
(made for milar, actually). I've never tried Rotring, but they look good.
But Mars is a good pen (Staedtler). Like most pens, there are different
grades. I've used Mars and Koh-i-noor a lot, and I really couldn't hold
one above the other.
>
> Rapidographs can clog but you can put the pens in a can of hot water
> in such a case. Clogging is not the same as that the pen initially
> doesn't leave a trace. Simply shake it then.
If you're going to use them a lot, an ultrasonic cleaner is a good
investment. The larger sizes are easy to clean, but the #0000 aren't.
BTW, one trick is to never use old ink.
>
> If the pen starts to leak (leaving a dot where you put the pen on
> paper) then it's almost empty.
Also happens with tip wear. Paper is very abrasive.
As long as we're on "pens" here's a real sleeper (for artists).
Osmiroid Calligraphy pens. All things considered, a better choice for
artists than technical pens since these pens produce a much more dynamic
and beautiful line.
Finally, do you think there's any relationship between "Rotwing" and
"Rotwang," the evil scientist in Fritz Lang's "Metropolis"? :-)
>
Paul Mesken
<e...@nospamimpix.com> wrote:
>Finally, do you think there's any relationship between "Rotwing" and
>"Rotwang," the evil scientist in Fritz Lang's "Metropolis"? :-)
Hell, I don't know. But I might in a couple of days. I've ordered a
little book about German Expressionism "Haunted Screen Expressionism
in the German Cinema" by Lotte Eisner. It also analyzes Metropolis.
Perhaps the answer is in it :-)
Erik A. Mattila
Runner" and "Paris, Texas" once. Of course "Metropolis" set the stage,
and the others are spin-offs. Enjoy your book...sounds interesting.
Paul Mesken
<e...@nospamimpix.com> wrote:
>Hey, I did an comparative paper on "Metropolis", "Zardoz", "Blade
>Runner" and "Paris, Texas" once. Of course "Metropolis" set the stage,
>and the others are spin-offs.
I certainly see similarities between Metropolis, Zardoz and Blade
Runner (Pygmalion, "Man as God", social inequality stuff). But how
does Paris, Texas fit in? Of course, Harry Dean Stanton was in Alien,
which was directed by Ridley Scott who also did Blade Runner :-)
Erik A. Mattila
there's the top, sort of a technocratic utopia, and down to the
machinery level, then the worker's residence level. And beneath it all
there was the cave. Blade Runner did it too. In PT the whole story was
played out over a backdrop of the medieval allegory of the body (the
head of the church, the body, the arms and so on.) From Travis'
obsession with shoes, his conversation with his brother with a giant
billboard head behind them, his mindless walking in the desert. And the
robot...Lang's original, then the replicants in Blade Runner, Zed in
Zardoz (a product of the magician's genetic tampering). I can't
remember it all. But I do know I wrote it during the time that Peter
Greenaway's "The Cook, The Thief..." was released out this way.
NightMist
So why did you start with Metropolis instead of RUR?
Erik A. Mattila
What's "RUR"?
NightMist
<e...@nospamimpix.com> wrote:
>What's "RUR"?
R.U.R.
Rossums Universal Robots
Karel Capek 1920
It is a play, later made into movies (um, I think. see claification
below).
It is the literary vehicle that coined the term "robot"
"The word "robot" comes from the Czech word robota, which means
"drudgery" or "servitude"; a robotnik is a serf who performs menial
labor."
http://technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=336
It fits quite well into the qualifications of your choices and
predates Metropolis. Lang himself said that RUR was an influence in
creating Metropolis. Though I am uncertain as to whether a film
version of the play was made before Metropolis. The dates seem screwy
on what I have found thus far. For example a reference to a made for
television version dated 1938. In fact all references to a film
version of this play seem wildly divergent. I could have sworn that I
had seen a silent version, which is why I asked in the first place.
Erik A. Mattila
> On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 11:49:23 -0800, "Erik A. Mattila"
> <e...@nospamimpix.com> wrote:
>
>
>>What's "RUR"?
>
>
> R.U.R.
> Rossums Universal Robots
> Karel Capek 1920
>
> It is a play, later made into movies (um, I think. see claification
> below).
> It is the literary vehicle that coined the term "robot"
>
> "The word "robot" comes from the Czech word robota, which means
> "drudgery" or "servitude"; a robotnik is a serf who performs menial
> labor."
> http://technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=336
>
> It fits quite well into the qualifications of your choices and
> predates Metropolis. Lang himself said that RUR was an influence in
> creating Metropolis. Though I am uncertain as to whether a film
> version of the play was made before Metropolis. The dates seem screwy
> on what I have found thus far. For example a reference to a made for
> television version dated 1938. In fact all references to a film
> version of this play seem wildly divergent. I could have sworn that I
> had seen a silent version, which is why I asked in the first place.
>
> Barbara
be that I didn't know that. But Lang used the robot in several ways...,
or "levels" I guess. Rotwang announces his invention as something akin
to "a worker who never makes mistakes" but in the narrative it is also
used as one of the protagonist's alter-egos - just as Maria, the robot's
counterpart, is another alter-ego. Or at least Maria and the automata
symbolize Freder's inner conflicts. Well, the whole film is like a
Christian allegory re-written by Karl Marx.