Calligraphy

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 150

Refillable Manga medium

Copic Markers

Copic markers are Japanese-made markers that have been used for years by Manga and other artists in Japan. Though generally relegated to that purpose, they’re a very functional medium, an alcohol-based, refillable marker that can also be used with an airbrush. They are initially expensive to buy, but because they are refillable and so versatile, over time they prove to be less expensive than Prismacolor markers. Because they are alcohol based, they are also blendable; similar to watercolor in application, but much more convenient.

Copic markers are somewhat limited in application, and not something generally as versatile as acrylic- or oil-based media. The advantage in my case is mostly portability. For anything larger than an 8 1/2X11″ page, they wouldn’t be practical. Think of them as more for cartooning than fine art. I do a lot of caricaturing and figure drawing, for which they work well. — Stephen Young

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For indelible writing on dark glossy surfaces

Metallic Sharpie

The Metallic Sharpie is a vast improvement over other metallic pens out there — no shaking the pen before use, and the ink doesn’t puddle up. It dries permanent and shows up great on dark surfaces as well as light ones. It became favorite art tool in my arsenal when I was able to write a friends phone number on a freshly opened, ice-cold beer bottle. Seconds after jotting the number, it was indelible. I try to take it everywhere — it’s good for men’s room graffiti, VHS tapes, I even labeled various keys on my key ring. You can get metallic sharpies at Staples or Office Max. — Chris Sperandio

There’s almost no other way to easily write on slippery surfaces. The metallic sharpie uses silver ink, which has remarkable contrast against both light and dark surfaces. For writing on black plastic or enamel (there is more of it around than you think) nothing else will do. — KK

I have managed to accumulate dozens of small transformers over the years. Those black plastic “wall wart” things. They get unplugged from the device and usually they are totally generic in their labeling. Whatever they powered has gone away, but the transformer remains.

I grabbed one and wrote the product the new transformer belonged to in silver ink on black plastic. I’d tried grease pencils and tags and such stuff before, but they just never worked out. This seems to be the fix. I am so excited about this discovery, I just had to share it. — Norm A.

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Fine point performance

Sharpie Twin-Tip

Sharpie markers are well-known for being indelible, particularly on plastic, glass and metal surfaces. Folks in labs, movie sets, and hospitals who need to mark things permanently use Sharpies. If the ink goes on, it won’t come off. What’s special here is that the other tip of these pens is an ultra-fine point Sharpie, fine enough to write like a ball-point pen – but permanently — when you need to. The “industrial” version of Sharpie ink will even resist chemicals and scrubbing. Since more writing surfaces seem to be plastic-like, I find we use Sharpies all the time now. — KK

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Learning to hand letter

Calligraphy • The Calligrapher’s Bible

Calligraphy: A Course in Hand Lettering is the best book for teaching yourself calligraphy, which you can do on your own. It’s how I learned. The book is spiral-bound to lay flat and includes transparent guide sheets for practice. You write over its pages. The course is structured simply and will teach you the basic Italian cursive hands. I prefer it over other guides because it focuses on getting the basics right, without intimidating you with a lot of fancy work. By the end of this course you’ll be able to do a passable wedding invitation, envelope, or framable quotation.

If you want to move onto additional scripts, the Calligrapher’s Bible (also spiral bound) will show you how to hand write over a hundred of them. The directions for each hand are clear and concise. This will last you many years. — KK

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Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

08/11/25

K-Pop Demon Hunters/First apartment tool kit/Charting wholeness

Recomendo - issue #474

Fun animated musical

For lightweight family-rated summer entertainment, try K-Pop Demon Hunters. It is an animated musical fairytale in the manner of Shrek or Frozen, but with Korean-American characteristics. In this fantasy, the battle is over fans, who are the scarce resource. Catchy K-pop songs score the fast action, which also delivers an emotional payoff. The film streams on Netflix, and is getting a lot of attention. It’s the meme source for this summer. — KK

Perfect first apartment tool kit

I got this Workpro Home Tool Kit as a gift for a relative moving into his first apartment. We used it to assemble flat-pack furniture, mount a TV, and install blackout curtains. The 12V cordless drill/driver, bits, wrench, pliers, level, utility knife, hammer, and tape measure handled everything we encountered. I’d add a socket set to round it out, but the kit contains all the essential tools a first-time apartment dweller needs. Everything stores in the included tool bag. — MF

Charting Wholeness

This chart, “A Guide from Pain to Presence”, explores how human expression changes when it is a reaction to past loss, future fear, or present discomfort. It also offers alternative expressions that stem from wholeness and embodiment. For example, personal boundaries may become forms of control or avoidance when motivated by past loss or fear of uncertainty, but when rooted in wholeness, boundaries express a healthy authority based on inner clarity. The language can be a bit jargon-heavy, but I find the framework helpful for shifting from old, anxious patterns to more intentional and grounded action. — CD

A creative follow

My favorite current New Yorker cartoonist is Roz Chast. I love her whimsy, childlike drawing, inventiveness, and silly sweet humor. But she creates more than cartoons. On her Instagram page, she posts weird painted eggs she makes, her marvelous embroidered dreams, her arrangements of Japanese matchboxes, her block prints, her photographs of New York shops at night, and more. It’s the most refreshing definition of being creative. I get inspired every visit. — KK

Smart scale for easy health tracking

My old bathroom scale was giving inconsistent measurements, so it was time to get a new one. I wanted something inexpensive, highly rated, with an easy-to-read LED display, and that could sync with my Apple Health app. The Fitindex Smart Scale checked all the boxes. The scale measures up to 400 lbs in 0.2 lb increments and runs on included AAA batteries. — MF

50 Ways to Unplug

The Analog Life: 50 Ways to Unplug and Feel Human Again offers a great list of practical ways to go old-school and become less screen-centric. I love the advice to use devices that do one thing well, such as an e-reader, record player, or kitchen timer. My crystal radio—tuned to one station and one station only—is one of my favorite and most nostalgia-inducing possessions. All these tips help to reclaim a more intentional, analog way of living—like allowing days to go unaccounted for and enjoying experiences without feeling the need to document them. — CD

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08/10/25

Gar’s Tips & Tools – Issue #202

Access to tools, techniques, and shop tales from the diverse worlds of DIY

Top-o’-the-Top Modeling Tips

I’m so happy to see my modeling articles in the latest issue of Make:, the “Props, Models, and Miniatures” issue. I did a piece on “trashbashing” (making hobby models out of kitchen trash) and a collection of modeling, painting, and weathering tips. Bill of Bill Making Stuff has a wonderful sidebar in there, too, with his own trashbashing and modeling tips. These articles present many of my top-level takeaways on modeling for tabletop gaming. Here are a few tippy top tips:

One Brush to Rule Them All — New modelers get sucked into the idea that you need half-a-dozen different miniature-painting brushes, from sizes 0, 00, 000, down to ridiculously small ones like 20-0 and 30-0. These brushes have so few hairs that, by the time you introduce the paint to the model, it has already started to get sticky and dry. It’s best to learn how to use a single brush to do the majority of your miniature painting work. A Windsor & Newton Series 7 Size 1 brush is a perfect go-to brush. Use the very tip of it for fine detail work, apply more pressure for medium coverage, and even more pressure for full coverage. It’s made for water colors, so it can hold a lot of paint. It just takes practice to master. Keep it scrupulously clean and pointed, and it will serve you for years.

The beauty aisle is your friend — There are all sorts of tools and materials for modeling to be found in the drug story beauty aisle (or beauty supply stores): nail polish agitators (paint mixing), nail polish racks (hobby paint holders), fluffy make-up brushes (dry brushing), nail polish remover (acetone), cotton pads and plastic cotton swabs, and much more.

Chop up and recombine — In my trashbash piece, I talk about developing an eye for seeing models in your trash (and how I turned a single crudites platter into a derelict sci-fi outpost town). In Bill Mullaney’s sidebar, he talks about further developing your ability to see specific shapes or textures within those pieces of trash. You don’t have to use the piece as-is. You can cut-up and recombine. Super glue and baking soda go a long way to “welding” all of these recombined pieces together.

Quick lens and canopy effects — Painting a lens or glass canopy white and then glazing it with a colored glaze or art ink of a suitable color (blue, yellow, red, green, etc.) effortlessly creates a pretty convincing glowing lens effect.

Micro-pens for eye pupils (and other tiny details) — You can use fine tip India ink pens to add pupils and other super-fine details to models.

Use art pencils and art chalks — Edge highlighting a model can be hard and takes a steady hand. One way of cheating this is using art pencils. You can draw on edges and raised areas to introduce highlights. Just be careful not to scrape off the underlying paint with the pencils. Cheap art chalks can be ground up and used for dirt, dust, mud, rust, and other weathering effects. Just wear a mask when grinding and applying. That dust is not your friend.

DIY Precision CA Glue Applicators

In more hobby news, this video offers a number of really great tips and tricks for using CA glue in model-making (and beyond). The real aha tip for me is the idea of making your own precision super glue applicators by stretching the barrels of plastic cotton swabs (there’s that beauty aisle again). Plastic stretching is a modeling skill unto itself. I can’t wait to try this out.

Impressive Guide to Woodworking Screws

Joseph of Five Duck Studio presents one of the best primers I’ve ever seen on wood screws. It’s practical, funny, clear, and no-nonsense. He breaks down why not all screws are created equally, how the tip, thread, shank, and head each play vital roles in the screws engineering, and why things like cam-out, wood splitting, and screw “jacking” happen. You’ll learn why drywall screws are woodworking’s guilty pleasure, when to pre-drill, and how to avoid crushed fibers or failed joints. Bonus: He introduces the “screw with the mullet.”

The big takeaway: When in doubt, pre-drill. When you don’t, you’re gambling with your time and materials.

Engineering… IN MY MIND!

Well, I guess this issue has taken on something of a modeling theme. I’ve been working on a trashbashed spaceship for the tabletop miniatures game, Stargrave. There are dozens of non-trivial construction issues to resolve. It’s covered in weird angles, and there are structural challenges and constraints imposed by the scrap materials I’m working with. I’ve been finding that most of the design work isn’t happening at the bench. It’s happening in my head, while in the shower, going to sleep, taking out the trash, etc.

This mental workshop, where aha moments happen before the glue ever hits the scrap plastic, is a place of true joy and discovery. It’s quiet, recursive, sometimes obsessive, and deeply satisfying when a plan comes together. By the time I sit down to build, my hands are just catching up with what my brain has already figured out.

Concealing Layer Lines in 3D Prints

Via Donald Bell’s Maker Update comes this clever video about how to design various textures into your 3D prints to hide the tell-tale layer lines of FDM 3D printing.

Shop Talk

Tips & Tools readers join in the conversation.

Michael Butler writes:

Sadly, this doesn’t work on typical amber prescription bottles, but works a treat for OTC meds like Tylenol and other granular things with the “safety sealed for your protection” sheets stuck on top. Use a utility/X-Acto knife to remove half or less of that sheet, and voila, you limit how many pills get dumped out at a go. I find this handy in general and suspect it’d be especially helpful for people with certain mobility limitations or difficulties such as tremor. I know it helped me when I was recovering from a stroke.

My old Make: colleague, Michael Colombo:

I saw the piece about Japanese hardware stores in your newsletter, and it reminded me of this piece just released in the New York Times about French hardware stores. I thought it may be of interest to you.

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Hal Gottfried sent a link to this piece by Mike Smith, on his journeys through ham radio. I like Mike’s emphasis on the idea that ham radio is less about chatting and more about learning, tinkering, and building resilient systems that work when the internet doesn’t.

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Consider a Paid Subscription

Gar’s Tips & Tools is free. But if you really like what I’m throwing down and want to support it, please consider a paid subscription. Same great taste, more cheddar to help keep me in Walrus Oil. Plus, I’ll occasionally pick paid subscribers at random and send them little treats, tools, or tip-related treasures.

Your support keeps this whole Rube Goldberg contraption lovingly cobbled together and running…smoothly (enough). Thank you!

Special thanks to Hero of the Realm members: Jim Coraci, Donobster, Peter Sugarman, and Will Phillips for your generous support.

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Gar’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales is published by Cool Tools Lab. To receive the newsletter a week early, sign up here.

08/8/25

RyanAir Bag Spies/Kuhl Sun Hoody/Bike Route Planner

Nomadico issue #165

Incentives for Hitting You With Extra Bag Charges

In case you didn’t have enough reasons to hate Ryanair, the Irish budget carrier added a big one this month. It turns out they’ve been handing out bonuses to their employees for flagging your bag that doesn’t slide right into the sizers. The employees who are definitely not “at your service” aren’t getting much for ratting you out at the gate—€1.50 per oversized bag. That seems like a stingy commission on gate fees that start at €75. Another report said that EasyJet is doing the same but paying the employees even less.

Sun Hoody for Skin Protection

I never enjoy slathering my whole body with sunscreen and the goop comes with a lot of baggage, like water contamination, questionable chemicals, nanoparticles, and high prices in foreign vacation destinations. It fills a need, especially at the pool or beach, but often swim shirts and sun hoodies can accomplish the same thing. I’m especially liking the one I packed for California and Florida this summer: the Kuhl Engineered Hoody. It’s lightweight, cool, and odor-resistant. Plus it’s flattering on my non-gym-rat body so if you’re more pumped up, it’ll look fantastic. Get it direct at that link or at REI.

Veloplanner for European Bike Routes

If you’re planning a road cycling trip in Europe, you might want to check in on Veloplanner to see what the routes and distances are like. Although more limited in scope than hiking sites/apps like AllTrails and Wikiloc, there’s a helpful depth of information on established rides, from a one-day circle around Lake Balaton in Hungary to the 1,101km Ciclovia del Sole where “cyclists will climb 9,275 meters and descend 10,103 meters.”

Paying Tolls in a Rental Car

In this age of virtual toll scanners you drive right past or under, it’s easy to miss a toll you’re supposed to pay when you’re in a rental car in the USA. Mark F. from sister newsletter Recomendo highlighted a hack via The Toll Roads website that works for southern California, but unfortunately there’s no universal solution for other geographies. The best I’ve seen is this Uni device that works in 19 states and will cover you up the entire East Coast except for South Carolina, which doesn’t have many toll roads to work around.

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A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

08/7/25

What’s in my NOW? — Cat Milton

issue #219

I have many grey hairs, each symbolizing a career: photographer, writer, hypnotist, AI consultant, media strategist. Despite being an introverted recluse, I’m driven to share the “good stuff.” Living quietly in the north of Ibiza, I find happiness in solitude, surrounded by nature, wind, sun, and silence. — Cat Milton

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PHYSICAL

• Amazon Kindle Paperwhite: I was stuck in a helluva queue the other day—one of Ibiza’s biggest hardware stores, peak summer. Our tiny island of 142,000 residents suddenly swollen by 3 to 5 million tourists, with infrastructure snapping under the strain. Queues like this? A full-body test of patience. I grinned, reached into my bag, pulled out my Kindle Paperwhite—and got lost in Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It.
• Anker Soundcore Space A40 Earbuds: Cicadas start singing above 28 °C—these days, they’re at it before sunrise. By the time I step out to work the land, the heat’s brutal. Sweat streaks white on skin and clothes. Even ears sweat. I like to catch up on podcasts while I work, but most earbuds haven’t survived my summers—until the Anker Soundcore Space A40s. Brilliant sound, unbeatable battery, and sweatproof enough for Ibiza. Bonus: noise-canceling so good, I forget the cicadas exist.
• Apple iPad Mini: Each morning, I check messages from friends around the world—fellow animal carers, often living alone and off-grid. These check-ins matter. If something went wrong, the animals would suffer. So we message morning and night, sharing news, stories, and quiet reassurances. I press play on my iPhone, pick up my iPad Mini and Pencil, and scrawl notes as I listen—fast, paperless, and grounding. It’s the first of many ways I use my iPad Mini each day—for journaling, photo edits, and staying connected. But it starts with knowing my friends are safe. And letting them know they’ve been heard.

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DIGITAL

• Routinery: We wear a lot of hats—family, work, home, life admin, pets, plans, people. It’s a lot. For me, it’s also six-plus projects a day. A schedule built for burnout—if not for Routinery. Designed for ADHD brains (mine isn’t), it’s hands-down one of my favourite apps. My day starts in it—make bed, feed pets, make coffee, write—and ends in it. Every time block, every task. No wobbling plates, no dropped balls. Just flow.
• Readwise: I read eBooks and paperbacks, annotating like a magpie hunting gold. When I find a nugget—a line that lands, a thought worth keeping—I don’t toss it aside. I store it in Readwise. eBook highlights sync instantly; paperback quotes I type in by hand. Revisiting what once stopped me in my tracks is one of the best parts of my day.

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INVISIBLE

“Do the next right thing the right way.”

My life is built upon two guiding principles. The first—impossible to achieve but wonderful to aspire to—is “To help; not to harm”. But in moments of overwhelm, of doubt, of confusion, “Do the next right thing the right way” steers me true.

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08/6/25

Coloring DC / Digital Painting Techniques

Issue No. 78

DC REPRINTS THE CLASSIC BATMAN/HARLEY QUINN STORY MAD LOVE AS A COLORING BOOK

Coloring DC: Batman: Mad Love Featuring Harley Quinn
by Paul Dini (author) and Bruce Timm (illustrator)
DC Comics
2016, 7.5 x 11.5 x 0.4 inches (softcover)

Buy on Amazon

Over the past few decades the dynamic duo of legacy comic book companies, Marvel and DC, have introduced hundreds of new characters. Most have failed to catch on (sorry, Adam-X, the X-Treme!), and while recently many new characters have garnered acclaim and small cadres of devoted fans, the new Ms. Marvel and Prez have yet to become the next Wolverine.

2016 has seen two major breakthroughs that may pave the way: Marvel’s Deadpool and DC’s Harley Quinn. Both were created in the 1990s and have suddenly become the superhero equivalent of rock stars, with T-shirts and tchotchkes available at every Target and Hot Topic in America. One of them even has their own make-up line (I’ll let you guess who). My dad in his 70s now knows these characters, which I find equally amusing and eye rolling.

Which brings us to coloring books. Okay, maybe not directly, but the ascension of Harley Quinn as a character and the recent popularity of coloring books for adults has created a perfect storm, and now we have Coloring DC – Batman: Mad Love Featuring Harley Quinn, a coloring book written and drawn by her creators Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. This oversized tome contains a few extra stories of DC heroines and villians on the undercard, but the prime material is a reprinting of the terrific Harley story Mad Love.

While she was originally created for Batman: The Animated Series, no story has defined her as much as Mad Love. Her origin as both a gymnast and psychiatrist is laid out, her love for the Joker in all its complicated (and icky) glory is explained, and most importantly it showcases her as a real character. She’s not a sidekick, she’s not the Joker’s girlfriend, she’s someone who’s been searching for something and now that she thinks she’s found it she’ll do anything (and kill anyone) to get it. Oh, and there are fights and piranhas and Batman being smart and everything else you could possible want in a Batman story. There’s a reason it won the Eisner Award (the comics’ equivalent of an Oscar) and is still being reprinted more than 20 years later. The story is fast-paced, funny, exciting, and disturbingly sweet. It’s the perfect Harley Quinn story and it’s fun to read.

One thing about Harley is that she can comfortably fit in a story for kids or adults, even if she sometimes sports lingerie (“It’s just her pajamas,” I told my nephew). Kids can enjoy Harley and the Joker’s antics and Batman’s heroics, while adults can read the story and understand the sadness and sickness that lies beneath it and makes the Batman world such an oddball creation. Plus with this version you get to color it!

I haven’t colored anything since I was maybe 10 so this was a new experience for me (my son is a year old and hasn’t quite developed enough Crayola patience), and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Even quickly scribbling in colors made me appreciate Timm’s smooth lines and minimalist artwork. He can define body language and convey attitude with the merest of curves. No line is wasted and no line would improve it. It’s amazing work and getting to savor the panels through coloring gave me even greater appreciation for the art of comics and the talent of Bruce Timm.

Even if you’ve read this story I highly recommend experiencing it a different way. There’s no racing from speech balloon to speech balloon, no jumping through panels to get to something that caught your eye as you turned the page. You can slowly pour through the book and experience what I think is easily one of the best Batman stories (plus you’ll soon realize how incredible the work of a comic book colorist can be and how much skill it takes). There’s no escaping Harley Quinn this year, so succumb to her charms, grab a box of crayons, and test your coloring mettle against a great story. You’ll have as much fun as Harley and Mr. J blowing something up for no good reason, I guarantee it. – Rob Trevino

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DIGITAL PAINTING TECHNIQUES – ART TUTORIALS BY MANY DIFFERENT ARTISTS

Digital Painting Techniques: Masters Collection Vol. 1
by 3dtotal
Focal Press
2016, 288 pages, 8.8 x 11.2 x 1 inches (softcover)

Buy on Amazon

At first glance, Digital Painting Techniques appears to be a step-by-step tutorial book. It is … in a way. This isn’t a follow-along/how-to-draw book where you copy what you see. Rather, it introduces you to both the techniques and styles of many artists and the steps that they take to accomplish goals. It’s really more liberating this way – you’re free to work on any subject matter while still following along with the tutorials.

Digital Painting Techniques focuses on essential basics like creating custom brushes, speed painting, creating environments, nailing key human characteristics, integrating photography, and more. Some of the artists have even provided free resources (brushes, images, and artwork) that can be downloaded from the Focal Press website for free.

Filled with more than just great tutorials, the book is filled with inspirational artwork that will get your creative juices flowing. The only downside is that you will want to try to replicate the artwork, and then you will feel discouraged when it fails to meet the same quality as the original. For this reason, I highly recommend applying the methods and techniques to your own original creations. This book is for beginner and intermediate digital painters, and great works of art are not going to come pouring out of the computer right away. But, with some practice, you can be on your way to creating your own unique paintings and illustrations. – Robert Nava

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Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

08/5/25

What’s in my NOW? — Cat Milton