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| Hard to predict | Sep 30, 2022 10:54 PM PDT | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Finally done! I guess it's kind of fun when the paint gets a little crazy. ^ ^_o
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The original 16" x 6.75" watercolor art for today's new A* page is up for auction on eBay. : )
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| Let's let it dry :P | Sep 30, 2022 1:27 AM PDT | url |
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Well I think I got the next page just about painted but it put up stiffer than anticipated resistance and I ended up doing an extra extensive revision. ; ] It's late and I'm bushed so I'm gonna sack out and get it all scanned and cropped and all that nice stuff tomorrow!
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| Pencils locked! | Sep 29, 2022 12:08 AM PDT | url |
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Pencils for the next A* page are done, tomorrow we'll see what happens when I try painting 'em! : D
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| DART impacts Dimorphos | Sep 28, 2022 4:07 AM PDT | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Surface of the asteroid Dimorphos seconds before impact, from the DART impactor:
image by Doug Ellison & NASA (Original) (source)
Dimorphos closely orbits a larger asteroid, Didymos:
image by NASA/Johns Hopkins APL (source)
The idea is to measure by how much DART's impact slows Dimorphos' orbit, as practice for some day deflecting much larger, Earth-threatening asteroids.
The Italian Space Agency has posted photos of the impact's many-tendrilled debris cloud, taken by their trailing LICIACube satellite. The South African Astronomical Observatory has tweeted an animation of the impact as seen by their ground telescope.
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The original 16" x 6.75" watercolor art for today's new A* page is up for auction on eBay. : )
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| Pencilled! | Sep 27, 2022 1:08 AM PDT | url |
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Pencils done-diddly-un for painting the next page tomorrow!
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| A* Episode 44, Page 74 | Sep 24, 2022 1:07 AM PDT | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Thanks and see you next page! ^ _^
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The original 16" x 6.75" watercolor art for today's new A* page is up for auction on eBay. : )
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| Penciling complete | Sep 22, 2022 10:42 PM PDT | url |
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Pencils for the next A* page are done. Tomorrow, I paint!
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| A new page : ) | Sep 21, 2022 11:30 PM PDT | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Page done! : D
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The original 16" x 6.75" watercolor art for today's new A* page is up for auction on eBay. : )
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| A head and shoulders | Sep 20, 2022 6:41 PM PDT | url |
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^ Pencil sketch for a reader supporting the comic through my Patreon campaign! Thanks to everyone helping with the comic!! : D
Got the pencils for the next page done! Really sketchy! = ooo Can I paint them??? Tomorrow????
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| Step-over | Sep 19, 2022 9:09 PM PDT | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:No bivalent booster yet for me; it IS in town but all booked up for appointments or long walk-in waits, so I'll give it a week or two. Actually encouraging there's a lot of demand in this rural county where vaccination rates during the pandemic have been pretty low—although it may just be the folks from the retirement communities right next to all the pharmacies over there on that far side of town.
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The original 16" x 6.75" watercolor art for today's new A* page is up for auction on eBay. : )
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| Fog walkin' | Sep 16, 2022 7:28 PM PDT | url |
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^ Pencil sketch for a reader supporting the comic through my Patreon campaign. Huuuuge thanks to everyone helping with the comic! = D
Pencils for the next A* page got drawn today, I think Monday I'll try to paint 'em! Unless hiking across town and getting COVID and flu shots ends up occupying a big chunk of the day. ^) ^
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| A* Episode 44, Page 71 is definitely done | Sep 15, 2022 10:23 PM PDT | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Done done done it's done I said so = o
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The original 16" x 6.75" watercolor art for today's new A* page is up for auction on eBay. : )
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| Don't burn your caboose | Sep 14, 2022 9:04 PM PDT | url |
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^ Pencil sketch for a reader supporting the comic through my Patreon campaign! Thanks to everyone helping me with the comic!!!
Pencils for the next A* page are done and will be painted tomorrow!
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| To the eraser dimension | Sep 13, 2022 11:41 PM PDT | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Boy, these new Ain Dust-Gathering erasers really do wear slow, and make hardly any shavings! How do they do it? = oo
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The original 16" x 6.75" watercolor art for today's new A* page is up for auction on eBay. : )
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| Don't get your cape in a bunch | Sep 12, 2022 7:29 PM PDT | url |
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^ Pencil sketch for a reader supporting the comic through my Patreon campaign! Huge thanks to everyone helping me with the comic!! : D
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Jeff Bezos' "Blue Origin" space flight company had its first launch failure today (APNews) when the booster carrying a capsule of microgravity experiments malfunctioned and crashed shortly after launch; the eject system on the capsule worked correctly, carrying the capsule away from the rocket, with parachutes deploying and landing the capsule in the desert.
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My new, phthalate-free erasers arrived already! Used one today for drawing the next A* page, which I'll be painting tomorrow! These Pentel Ain Dust-Gathering erasers have a softer touch than my previous erasers, I guess you could even do kind of soft eraser smudge effects and so forth with 'em if you wanted—but they're also really good at just plain erasing, which is what I use 'em for. ^ _^
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| Some Jetpens.com erasers not phthalate-free | Sep 10, 2022 1:52 AM PDT | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Important note: after running the tests below, I found a list of eraser details on Jetpens, showing that the Kokuyo erasers are not phthalate-free. Phthalates are chemicals used to make plastics more durable, and they are bad for you. So, I'm not going to be using Kokuyo erasers anymore, at least not until they make phthalate-free ones.
Instead, I'm falling back to the champion of Supermassive Eraser Round-up Round 1, and runner-up to the Kokuyo Campus B/HB in Round 3: the Pentel Hi-Polymer Ain Eraser - Dust Gathering (Large) (going with the Large rather than the Small I tested because they're slightly more affordable, also I've probably gotten used to that size, being similar to the Campus).
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With the Kokuyos disqualified, this Round 4 just becomes a test of how well a couple other new-ish erasers stacked up to my Kokuyo Campus B/HB stand-bys. Short version: they aren't as good.
Of course, this test is specific to the paper and graphite I'm using: 300 lb hot press Arches Bright White Watercolor Paper and H-grade Uni Mitsubishi Hi-Uni Pencil (ALSO currently out of stock on Jetpens—I'm trying an order for slightly less money from Amazon). If you're using different paper and/or pencils, your mileage will probably vary!
I'm not going to link to the non-phthalate-free Kokuyo erasers. The others here are the Sakura Sumo Grip—listed as the "Top Choice" at the top of that Jetpens eraser page (they also have their own extensive test results there), and the Tombow Mono—a modern non-latex version of the near-legendary original Mono (of which I did manage to scrounge up a sample for Round 2); although now it occurs to me that this may be simply a re-branding, or branding reversion, of what they were calling the "Mono NP Non-PVC" eraser for a bit there—came in a green rather than blue sleeve, and I tested that in round 2—although I said that one "felt awful," and this one wasn't so bad, so maybe it's different.
This Round 4 came up because the B/HBs are out of stock on Jetpens. = P Turns out Kokuyo makes a new eraser these days, the "Premium" Resare, which are slightly more expensive, and come in bright colors. They also have phthalates, and don't erase as well as the B/HBs anyway.
They all erased pretty much identically—except MAYBE there's a shade of very fine black particles left where I erased with the Sumo Grip.
And a surprisingly handling note: the Mono is markedly softer than the others, which made it harder to hold on to while erasing firmly; you can see my Mono line wobbles a good deal there. That wasn't great.
In terms of shavings, the Sumo and Mono leave tiny shavings (I think that thicker lump in the Sumo pile was probably a Campus straggler), which is messier than the fewer, bigger shavings of the Campus...but the Campus' phthalates make this a moot comparison.
The smear test, and some shocking results here. The Sumo pulled off the second-most graphite, but left small black particles everywhere—and the corner of the eraser (in photo) just busted right off! = o Yow. The Mono removed hardly anything, and left a big smear. Really poor. The Resare was kind of a disaster but who cares anyway, it has phthalates.
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Disappointing results from this new eraser crop. I'm glad I finally found out about the phthalates in Kokuyo's erasers...after using them for the past nine years. Ugh. Well, they're worst for kids or for having kids, and I haven't had kids in my drawing space, so hopefully not too much harm has been done. Better safe than sorry though, so I'm falling back to the phthalate-free old runner-up, the Ain Dust-Gathering; they're prone to occasional smears, but can clean them up no problem so I'll manage, I suppose. And they wear down relatively slowly, so maybe that'll help the ol' wallet a bit.
(Incidentally, with Pentel's phthalate-free, NON-dust-gathering "Hi-Polymer" erasers super-cheap on Amazon right now, I was on the verge of ordering a test pack of them until I thought to check and oh yeah, I did test them before, and they were weirdly oily, and not so great.)
And I sent a message to Jetpens via their contact form:
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I've been using the Kokuyo Campus B/HB erasers you sell for 9 years. Just noticed in a fold-out "details" section of your Best Erasers article https://www.jetpens.com/blog/The-Best-Erasers/pt/597#Details that most Kokuyo erasers are not phthalate-free. This brings up a couple questions:
1) Why is there no prominent phthalate warning on the product pages for those erasers?
2) Why are you still selling non-phthalate-free erasers, anyway?
You even still recommend some of those erasers in your Best Erasers article.
I've been buying these from you for nine years. With no health warnings. I'm glad I finally stumbled across a note about them tucked away in that article of yours, but still, I don't feel good about this. I think you could do better, and I think you owe it to your customers to do better.
Regards,
Ben Chamberlain
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The original 16" x 6.75" watercolor art for today's new A* page is up for auction on eBay. : )
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| Pencil stretch | Sep 08, 2022 10:07 PM PDT | url |
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Pencils for the next A* page are done, painting tomorrow!
More pencils! Here's a sketch I did for a reader for their support of the comic through my Patreon campaign : D:
Biiig galactic thanks to everyone helping me with the comic!!
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| They're in all different colors, too | Sep 07, 2022 10:40 PM PDT | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:My potential replacement erasers will arrive on Friday according to USPS, whew!
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The original 16" x 6.75" watercolor art for today's new A* page is up for auction on eBay. : )
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| Round 'em up? | Sep 06, 2022 11:22 PM PDT | url |
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Oops! The imported erasers I've been using for years are out of stock, and I've just about torn through my supply! But I see some new erasers have come on the scene—this may call for another eraser face-off!
Ooh and I erased an awful lot drawing the next A* page... Oh well the pencils are done, hopefully! Painting 'em tomorrow, one way or another! ; D
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| In theory it can always get better | Sep 02, 2022 11:06 PM PDT | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Repainting/freepainting faces is all the excitement I need in my life. = o ^v^
Taking Monday off for Labor Day, wooo
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The original 16" x 6.75" watercolor art for today's new A* page is up for auction on eBay. : )
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| Pencils shmencils | Sep 01, 2022 9:30 PM PDT | url |
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Pencils for the next A* page are done, painting tomorrow!
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