A late merry chirstmas. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.
I am grateful for the cherished family and friends, and viewers I have.
Can't thank y'all enough.








Thank you for your continued support 
of Musings & Quips of an Artist 
and I will be back next year!
With new content.
Enjoy the Holidays. 
Happy New Year!
Take care!
-K







































The other week I got some art supplies from Blick . One of the things I ordered was 2 Various ink copic marker refills.

The instructions I have encountered in various sites were vague information. Until I practiced refilling in theory it seemed easy but let me emphasize the booster needle is ABSOLUTELY necessary. At first I did not bother to buy the needles thinking it was just a marking ploy like the tweezers.






So last week I attempted to refill 2 of my markers that have gone dry. The results for my 1st and 2nd attempt were abysmal and the 3rd  hit and miss. The 4th was the charm with much success.

With the first attempt I tried the drip method. This takes a long time and it is hard to gauge how much refill ink you put in the marker. This method was very tedious, and the ink was not refilling my marker.. This way one drips the ink one drop at a time on the chisel point and wait for the ink to absorb. Then I popped the chisel tip off the marker to fill directly to the well and that was where all the mess happened. The ink would fill in the well but would take time to settle causing the overfill. It so happened this was with the T10 toner ink which is a very dark grey.



Screenshot of Copic Australia's PDF instructions
Back of the booster needle bag
that had cleared instructions to how much
ink you need to refill. Only a little bit of ink is
needed to refill the marker.














Attempt number 3 I tried an empty squeeze bottle to fill the well. At first it didn't seem like I added much ink until I waited for gravity to take over and refill the sketch brush end as well. It was still messy but not as messy as the first 2 attempts.








A week later I had to order the booster needles from someplace else and it took about a week to arrive in the mail which I got yesterday. When I tested the Yellow 04 marker I refilled last week. That method was ok and the ink dispersed nicely on both sides. The marker I attempted to refill again was the T10.


Unscrewed various ink refill bottle

Attach the needle to the various ink refill bottle
Viola! It is done with minimal damage and mess.
I didn't have rubbing alcohol to clean the needle afterwards
but used Higgins Pen cleaner, which worked without the smell.
Also make sure you are in a ventilated area before attempting to do this.


I have alot of copic markers that I have bought used and new.
Artist Markers are one of my favorite traditional mediums. I collected
all 156 Prismacolor 4 in 1 chisel tip colors and even have several 
brush tip models.



Here are several marker artists that influenced me to take artist marker art seriously.






Takeshi Obata



Obata is known for his work as a mangaka for such manga hits as Death Note and Bakuman to name a few series he was worked on as the illustrator. Obata has drew some of the most dramatic artist drawing illustrations, especially inking.  


















Oh Great!

Despite doing alot of Ecchi work. Oh Great is an excellent draftsman, especially the foreshortened poses he comes up with.








Ecthelian

was an influence with mixed media. 



CKLUM

Superb realistic marker art done with prismacolor markers. 











Tite Kubo Bleach Series

In high school I was all over this. Too bad the series and the storytelling went to shiz after the saving Rukia arc. It became a typical stereotypical Shonen manga. Besides that the art and the tankoubon covers are very nice compositions. 




























Fei Giap


When I stumbled upon Giap's work in highschool I was instantly blown away. In my senior year I spent all of my christmas money to buy the 48 set of the prismacolor markers. He inspired me to attempt realism in marker work.








Toosan 

Too san inspired me to get copic markers in college. Although he is an excellent draftsman his career was ultimately damaged due to plagiarism in his work. He would heavily copy famous mangaka covers without giving credit. He does beautiful work but this destroyed his reputation and copic marker career.
































































I watch Youtube like it is cable. I don't have cable but I make due while watching it on my tv, computers or tablets.  One of the channels I subscribe to The Game Theorists has a show called Game Theory.

The conspiracies and the topics Mat Pat covers on Game Theory are convincing. Mat Pat calculates his theories and some absurd game facts with math and science. A lot of the show's dialog is pretty convincing. The things he finds echos deeply it reminds me when in school the English Literature classes demanded one to find the deeper underlying meaning in the text and the possible allusions.
















Here are a few of my favorite episodes.
I have watched a lot of Game Theory.


How Assassin's Creed Predicted the Future of Science

Surviving the Assassin's Creed Leap of Faith

Chun-Li's DEADLY Helicopter Kick (Street Fighter 5)

Why Final Fantasy is Anti-Religion

Is Link Dead in Majora's Mask?

--Watch (haha pun intended) the watch dogs ones and see if you can go to sleep at night!! O__O it makes you rethink some things.
Watch Dogs You are not safe! Pt. 1
Watch Dogs Death by hacking Pt.2
Hacker's are everywhere -Watchdogs 2

Beware Link's Hookshot in Legenf of Zelda!

Bowser's BROKEN HOME in Super Mario

Super Smash Bros TRAGIC Hidden Lore

Real Tips for SURVIVING a Zombie Apocalypse (7 Days to Die)


-Enjoy!




































I listen to a variety of music. Almost anything except the genres techno and country music. I have this weird story that I went to a country music concert...that I won't talk about online.  >__> It is an embarrassing funny story.

 The other day I decided to check up on one of my all time favorite groups is a Korean group called Clazziquai. It  means Classic Jazz group. Every time I get hyped about an album 
from a favorite artist  I get severely disappointed. 
I was initially excited for the album Blessed a few years ago and the 
only song I liked from it is was Blessed.

Or another time I was really looking forward to CYNE's All my Angles are Right, and then I only liked the songs they released for their promos. The only exception to the rule is Solillaquists of Sound. They are my favorite hip-hop collective and I practically like all of their songs. 
(They need to release some new tracks soon!! Please!)


With my basic research I come to find out I haven't checked any of their releases for a few years. I had two un-listened albums to listen to. I heard their most recent album Travellers and was instantly spellbound. I bought it after only listening to it half of the album. All the music and track list it just flowed. There was also Blink, and there was several songs I liked from there.

Finding the right music at times gets me into the zone to work. At times If I listen to 1 single genre for an extended period of time I get sleepy. Or if it is intense concentration mode I'll listen to 1 song for like and hour plus.




2. Dangerous
3.  #Curious
4. Sweet Life
A few of my favorite songs from there.

My favorite song so far from this album is 6. Make up Break up.I have no idea what they are saying but it sounds good. Unlike American songs where I have to listen to something maybe 30+ times to maybe just get a gist of the lyrics. I can listen to a foreign song a few times and pick up the lyrics. I'm not sure if this stems from that they don't mean literal words to me or the fact when my sister and I were younger my mom she spook Tagalog to us. Unfortunately  I just know words I am not supposed to...haha Don't piss me off! Or maybe it is a mix of both.