Drawing with TECH PENS again after someone explained this to me:
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- Опубліковано 21 гру 2022
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Thanks to Spiraling spiral for the very lengthy email about tech pens that got me to use them again. Really what I learned about the non-ISO versions and being able to hold them at more of an angle isn't as crazy as it seemed to me at first, but I think I was already wanting to use pens like these again and so this pushed me over the edge.
In the past I used them so much, but they just kept getting clogged up and the bodies (of specifically the Rotrings) kept dry rotting and cracking, and eventually the frustration built up to a point where I just stopped using them for a while. It could be argued that I just wasn't providing proper regular maintenance to them, but in my opinion, a pen that is so fragile and requires such fastidious care-taking to continue working can be discouraging.
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damn, you actually followed through and made a video, i feel so honored!
Ha, I saw your comment at the exact point he said your name! Enjoy your 15 minutes (16:08 to be precise) of internet fame! 🤣👍
Just want to thank you for pointing this out to Peter, and for Peter sharing it, because I also didn't know, and need to get back into technical pens (that are non-iso) now. Thanks so much.
The basis for where the ISO line widths are derived is based on the square root of 2 (1.4145362), which also happens to be the same ratio used by the ISO paper sizes (A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, etc.), and is exactly why the ISO specification was developed, back when manual drafting was a thing, it was for proportionality among ISO paper sizes.
for those curious, the ISO technical pens come in the line widths of:
0.13, 0.18, 0.25, 0.35, 0.50, 0.70, 1.00, 1.40, and 2.00 millimeters. (fun fact, the 1.40mm one is actually the square root of 2 but rounded down)
@@spiralingspiral72 Many thanks (again!) - it's just as interesting to learn the relation between the pens and the paper.
I’ve had the same concerns with technical pens, and am delighted to know of this distinction between ISO and non-ISO nibs! Thank you for pointing this out; I had no idea. Now I’m more likely to use them again! And it’s hard to beat a technical pen at it’s best. I’ve found the disposable versions satisfying, but don’t like disposable things in general, so haven’t used those for a while either. Anyway... thanks!
Nearly 45 years ago I had a mute friend that I worked with who loved to draw using those pens. However instead of lines he would draw really complex and detailed drawings using dots. I used to have one of his drawings of Winnie the Pooh at a picnic drawn on A4 and the page was covered edge to edge and from three feet away it looked like a newspaper photo. He was very precise and very talented and a drawing would take him days to do. So I just wanted to share that story with you and thank you for reminding me of my friend who I haven't seen in nearly the same amount of time.
This technique is called Pointillism or Stippling.
@@DaveW74TVN Thank you , though I am aware.
Stippling is so insane to me. People who are really good at it produce seemingly inhuman results. Definitely a technique for the patient and those with forearms made of steel.
@@dogassofficial that used to be my forté. Did a dragon, and all of the shading was done by stippling.
not sure why you mention he was mute.
I don't like to make emotional texts but you are my inspiration to draw things like yours. Thanks for being this awesome person Peter.
Guak guak 3,000! 😅 jk…
I know my engineering notebook is full of impossible gizmos and gadgets drawn in alien text. He’s an awesome inspiration
Yea same here Peter and his approach to art is a big reason I got into art
I used to be a draughtsman and used these pens exclusively. The problem I think most people have is they are meant to be used on a drawing board and are used at a 90 degree angle to the paper (due to the angle of the drawing board which is almost vertical) This way you get lines that are an accurate width. The paper used was like tracing paper (so you could take a blueprint from a dyeline printer) and it had a smoother more hard wearing surface. When drawing on a table it’s difficult to hold the pen at 90 degrees, so you don’t get the accuracy and the nibs scratch the paper and don’t perform as they should.
Interesting “point”.
I used them on CS10 board or paper for both camera-ready and keyline artwork. The 90° angle is the only way to use them and not destroy the tip and it’s hard to maintain in illustration.
Man, I remember really enjoying drafting as a kid. That was really at the beginning of the widespread introduction to cad which I didn’t enjoy so much. Does anyone even draft at a drafting table with the horizontal contraption in wires that make it slide up and down parallel and triangles and such? I think I had an arm of some sort that carried a horizontal bar as well… hell idk. Been a while I guess.
@@invictusbp1prop143 That’s exactly how it was when I started drafting. Sadly now it’s all CAD. I was walking past a university about 10 years back and they were giving away all their A0 drawing boards. They used to cost a fortune especially for the best ones and these were the best ones.
Ps. Just had a look at how much an equivalent A0 board to the one I was given by the university is to buy, £1200 (wish I’d known that when I got rid of it). I guess the fact that these drafting drawing boards are still for sale means somebody is still using them 🤷♂️
@@popscratchie3985 Bespoke artesanal draughting. 😂 I shouldn’t laugh, it’s probably a real thing among the ludicrously wealthy.
The ISO pen thicknesses are in a specific ratio of Square root of 2 (1.414). These work with with the standard metric paper sizes A0, A1 etc that have sides in the same ratio. This was to suit microfilming of drawings. If an A0 drawing is reduced to A1 size a 0.5mm line thickness reduces to 0.35mm, 0.35mm to 0.25mm etc.
There's something special about the lines made by technical pens. Those pens are so temperamental but there's just nothing like them. Thanks for the drawing and the video.
In the old days those technical pens sat straight up for drafting (before CAD). They sat in a mini tripod thingy called a scriber that was used to make perfect lettering. A point fit into the lettering grooves on a ruler with the whole alphabet on it. The pen translated the letters/numbers to the paper/mylar to "write" perfect letters. Then the mylars were able to be printed on a blueline printer. Anyway that process is ancient history. Those pens were never held at a slant. We got quite good at it and fast.
It looked exactly like this: ua-cam.com/video/GZRvQDMBEOE/v-deo.html
Leroy...yes, one couId become quite fast :)
I still have a technical drawing I made over 25 years ago for Ford in Germany with a Rotring Isograph 🥲
And you would store them in special stand in which you could screw them in like you would screw them in the cap but in the bottom those stand had container and you filled it with water so humidity would prevent pens from drying
Yeah, I caught the tail end of board drafting in the early 90s and worked with the only two guys who were "authorized" by the company to make ink dwgs (and these were J-sized for airplane/drone wing profile layouts). They were amazing draftsmen. Never a smudge. I never reached that level of drafting skill before they moved us all into the new CAD lab, where the paradigm of skill sets was swapped 180* and it literally slowed those guys down to the point of being redundant. It was sad to watch. Like watching Rome burn, ya know?
@@jmakc3541 ...yep...l was in that era. FortunateIy, l was abIe to pickup computerized drafting fairIy easiIy. l do miss the oId ways, but then, l am on the old side...IoI :)
I laughed so hard when he started to actually search for magnifying glasses to buy 😂 ❤️
Love the shirt 🤩
why?
@Ichiro Fakename the sudden sound of him typing on the keyboard was funny to me! I totally understand the urge to burn random things, though!
I was just thinking the other day that you hadn't used a technical pen for quite some time. I used them a lot in the 70's and 80's doing mostly stipple drawings of wildlife. Those pens were a major pain and all I had to use in them was India ink. Anyway I eventually went to oil painting, then airbrush. Years later while doing taxidermy it became apparent that I saw and thought in 3D, I began doing sculpture and eventually ended up doing woodturning based art. I still keep a doodle going all the time but have settled on using Pentel energel 0.5 which remind me of the tech pens but work better. Mostly I use Pilot G2 pens for my doodles. I seem to ramble on sometimes.
India ink is a great way to ruin a stylographic pen. Use a ruling pen instead.
I went to trade school for drafting in 1986 and used the Kohinoor Jewel tip technical Pens for ink drawings. The ink and the tip you use as well as the paper or vellum make all the difference. I can honestly say the Jewell tip Kohinoor pens are awesome. Very consistent pens and ink
Kohinoor makes only the best products!!
Back in the early 80's I worked as a draftsman. One job I had required all work done in ink. Most common of these pens were the metal tipped nibs, such as you have. We usually avoided these as they scratched the volume and were inconsistent, as you are noting. We used the pens with the jeweled nib. These were much smoother and over time wore down a bit to where you could hold them at an angle. I would suggest these if they're still available.
Thanks Peter- I didn’t know about the ISO tech pens! One reason I [used to] draw with tech pens over fountain pens is the ink. Tech pens accept India ink better (in part because of what you said - they need to be cleaned almost after each use) and India ink will pretty much wreck any fountain pen. There are also jeweled tipped tech pens (like sapphires used in nice old watches) that last much longer (the wire inside wears out, especially when used on rough Mylar surfaces).
In my younger years I worked at a manufacturing facility. I wrote the procedural documentation so the company maintained their ISO certification. So, that's true about the ISO. To get those letters, there are written procedures of each step to manufacture the product so it is done exactly the same way each time, & quality checks are set in place (i.e. every so many pieces is visually checked) to make sure the product is within tolerance; meaning it's assembled exactly the same way each piece and works (or at least it should be). Thanks for sharing! You're such an amazing artist! Plus, I always enjoy your videos!
Your hair is looking immaculate my artistic king 💪🫶
This drawing just boggles my mind! And I learned something new about technical pens today! Thanks, Peter!
I went to an outdoor Grateful Dead concert, back in the 1980s.
There was a plywood floor put on the ground, that we all sat on.
The guy next to me, put on 3 pairs of sunglasses, and began burning a picture into the plywood, with a magnifying glass.
By the end of the show, he had produced a most wonderful drawing.
Thanks for reminding me of that beautiful day 🎶☮❤
Fun fact: when I was at the German Bundeswehr in 1982 (when they actually had stuff that works) these technical pens were my 'primary weapon'. OK that was supposed to be a Heckler&Koch G3 but my 'job description' was 'tactial drawer' (i.e somebody who draws stuff while beeing shot at - that's a joke OK ?) and I had to draw stuff with Rotring Isographs. After ruining some of the Bundeswehr Isographs (because I had no idea how to use them) I bought myself two Staedler pens (.5 and .25). Then I had to draw the 'Quartalsausbildungsplan' for the battallion and lots of certificates for brigade shooting competions :D
OMG I’ve been using technical pens since 1978 and never knew this! Thanks spiraling spiral and you Peter. Dig the drawing. Merry ISOMAS
I found you again after so long. Seeing your reviews and the beautiful drawings at the end of them always intrigued me when I was younger. Thank you for doing what you do
Fantastic yellow fingers. Thank you for another enjoyable experience :)
I used Rapidographs for maybe 20 years. The jewel-tipped ones were best, because the abrasiveness of the mylar substrate didn't wear them down. Yes, you had to maintain them. the finer the tip, the more maintenance required. I always left them stored overnight tip down, to keep the wire fully into the nib. Then in the morning, I could just tap the butt of the pen on the table to jar the needle back, give it a couple of shakes (you could hear the wire plunger going back and forth) and get to work. It was never an issue once you figured out how they needed to be handled
I am really glad that you had a video with technical pens again. You are the reason that I got into them. I learned a lot of techniques on how to clean used ones from Ebay that people didn’t know what they were getting into.
I'm in my early 70's. When I was in second grade my teacher would whack me on the back of my hand and angrily yank my pencil out of my hand and force my pencil into my other hand and close it tightly in my little fingers and admonish me for having being born left handed. So now my penmanship is like that of a four year old. For the rest of my school years I was plagued with D's & F's at Report Card time in "penmanship". I was left not being able to write cursively at all and my block-writing locks like I'm a 1 and a half yearold.
How beautiful and effortlessly you guide you hand when drawing. Your lines go where you want them to go. When drawing parallel lines, they are actually parallel. I bet your writing and printing of letters & numbers are the same height and width. I admire you so much. Just beautiful! Beautiful!
I'm sorry your teacher did that to you.
Always love your artwork. It's absolutely amazing to watch you draw them, especially in just typically one pen.
I just found you & I wanted to say I love your work! So whimsical, yet precise. Can’t wait to go explore more of it 😊
Man Peter growing up I got into graffiti and I love art later on I got in trouble for putting my art where didn’t belong and I had gave up I Recents after watching your video today I’m searching for my sketchpad that has been put away for decades I am inspired! You are by far one of the best artists I’ve come across
These are what we use back in the days of our Architecture years 40 years ago and I still use them today for my artworks.
you are such an artist been watching ya for years! thank you for giving us this content! never stop being you!
I made a knife from part of a sentimental tree branch about a year ago (don't ask why it's sentimental), and I used a magnifying glass to burn an inscription into the handle. With a tiny bit of practice, burning text or images into wood with a magnifying glass can have an awesome, ancient rustic look.
After our first meeting Bob had a bunch of business cards printed up with ISO and he didn't want to have to pay for new cards. So we've been covering for him for 37 yrs.
I SO like your untechnical drawing of an Ant Burner. It’s so large it makes people look like ants. It must have a very precise focussing mechanism for the high energy beam. Apropos feeding plants, you might enjoy little Tillandsia plants. They live on air and blessings!
Hullo Peter, Awesome Drawing! You have an interesting commentary too. You flung me back to the year 1977 where I was standing in line at the ultrasonic cleaner in drafting class trying to get my routring isograft drafting pen cleaned! I remember our instructor telling us how we had to hold the pens completely vertically otherwise they would not work correctly and our lettering would not look correct and vellum would not except the ink through the pens triggering mechanism if held onto any kind of angle and this was what was so difficult with inking drafting drawings, drawings were usually his pencil at the beginning of drafting class to be advanced you had to learn to ink! I am glad they have decided to create technical drawing pens with rounded tips they may be held not perfectly vertically and still distribute ink, how exciting! I do enjoy your videos thank you again sir and happy holidays to you and your family!
That need for writing with the pen vertical to the paper (back in the day!) was why the drawing boards were mounted at an angle (usually adjustable) so as you held the pen at an angle that was natural for you it was vertical to the paper. Most draftsmen worked standing or perched on a high stool. Thanks to CAD I think the only thing that remains from those days are the drawing cabinets for holding (up to) A0 size drawings flat. The last time I had an office with one of those cabinets I used the top drawer for keeping the tea, coffee and biscuits!🤣🤣 Wish I had it at home now because it was beautifully made of wood. They were always tall enough so that you could lay a drawing on the top and examine it at a comfortable height.
I rarely need to use drawing pens these days so I have a set of Mecanorma pens (I think they are now marketed under a different brand name) as the filling system allows you to add as much ink as you estimate you will need. Some of the other brands use cartridges so it is all or nothing.
Hey Peter, love the yellow paint pen fingers btw.. it's amazing to see ur progression threw art, lights me up. Don't stop ever.
I remember getting a few of them back in the late 1970s, after seeing what an artist friend did with them. Now there are a lot of good disposable alternatives.
Love your videos. Been watching since you started making them, and pleased to see your progress, and still making them. You inspire me to do more, and be more creative.
Thanks for sharing your world, and best wishes for your continued success.
Happy New Year everyone 🎶+🎨=🌎☮❤
Peter got me into fountain pens and now I'm learning to draw slowly but ill get there or not but I enjoy it thanks Peter I love your videos
I’ve had the same concerns with technical pens, and am delighted to know of this distinction between ISO and non-ISO nibs! Thank you for pointing this out; I had no idea. Now I’m more likely to use them again! And it’s hard to beat a technical pen at it’s best. I’ve found the disposable versions satisfying, but don’t like disposable things in general, so haven’t used those for a while either. Anyway... thanks, to both you and SpiralingSpiral72!
Dude, I've been trying to find your page for 3 years lol finally!!!!
Hey Peter,
Two things.
1. It's pronounced as "frenel" lens. The s is silent.
2. For plant food, it's helpful to mix up a 1 pint or 1 gallon amount and store it in a water bottle or something. Then you can use it to supplement some of the water when you change it out. Like 1/4 plant juice water and the rest regular water.
Scrolled through to see if anyone else had already pointed that out, im off the hook
Well sir, you’re a trip! I loved the banter and your art isn’t shabby either! My best to you👍👍
finally, plants! a thing I know things about! if you don’t want dirt, you should check out growing in leca! it’s like small clay balls, they better support a growing plant in water so you can get bigger and happier plants, and they just need some simple fertilizer in the water occasionally.
I am pleased by the diffusion of the dots.
LOVE the stippling, nice job on that. I don't know I really like this art piece!
Speaking of plants, maybe you should try some pond stuff if you like just water plants.
And if we're still talking about being sick (which I hope your better now), I used to get ear infections all the time and then we would have to drive down the mountains to the city to get to the doctors to get medicine and the pressure changes on the way back up the mountain always put me in tears.
Merry Christmas Peter! 🎄
I love the neurotic directions your thought processes seem to take. I feel no longer as isolated as I did 30 minutes ago. Thank you.
I for one am so 😊 grateful for this vid. This is important. Each illustration tool comes with its own set of pros and cons lol.
I'm a new subscriber , I look forward to creating with you this year ✨️ 💖
Thank goodness for Spiraling Spiral!!
I really missed your drawing videos with technical pens. Back when you were using them nearly exclusively was when I fell in love with your channel -- and the art you created around that time still to this day was my FAVORITE era of your art.
I would never want to push you to explore art in a way that deviates from how YOU want to do it, but it makes me very happy to see you use technical pens again! If you have problems semi regularly, perhaps get a little ultrasonic cleaner? I have heard they work wonders cleaning out even the most heavily clogged technical pens.
I just discovered your channel after researching staedler mars matic pens and how to get them to work. I feel like I've hit the jackpot! You are phenomenal!!
Wow! 100% epic drawing, Peter!!
Excellent work
ISO is also the light sensitivity setting on cameras, which at one point was standardized and had something to do with that organization but now I think it's anyone's guess... Nice drawing!
There used to be 2 competing film ratings for film: ASA American Standards Association and DIN (some European name). ISO replaced them with a single number which happened to follow the ASA rating.
Hey, I didn’t know that, thanks!
I design scenery and before CAD I actually used technical pens to draft ground plans, sections, and design elevations which showed the front, top, and side views of the scenery. The drafting was done on vellum paper; you couldn't make mistakes and you had to be careful that a blob of ink would not spew out of a pen by mistake. It behooved you to first draft light pencil lines using a #3 pencil and then follow with the pen. The lines were crisp and always the same width, depending on your nib width. When I would turn in a set of technical drawings and transfer letters for labeling to the shop, people would swear I had used a CAD program.
The pens were idiosyncratic. Yes, if you left them for too long without cleaning them, the ink would gum up. After a while, it was too hard to clean them and you would have to throw them away. It was always good to use them right away and clean them thereafter. They were expensive and could cost you anywhere from $15 to $20 a piece. I still have my own set stored away. I now use a CAD program to draft and maybe one day, I will take them out and perhaps draw or sketch with them.
One of my best medium pens.
Good to see you use it 👍
Your art work is awesome !
Terrific stuff, sir! 👍🏻
Thanks for the useful information about technical pens. I didn't know anything about ISO being something specifically having to do with the line consistency and how you have to position the nib while writing/drawing with it. I'll be sure to remember this when I look at buying new pens.
i have a rotring isograph .20mm, I love this thing and it never has wronged me. unlike my koh-i-noor rapidographs .18mm which have all failed on me for no reason! i think i've gone through 3! i absolutely love my isograph tho
Hi Peter, I happened to discover your channel today. You are such an outstanding drawing artist that I admire.
Fantastic drawing!
Loved the little trivia on ISO :) That artwork came out gorgeous, each time I see one of your paintings I want to draw stuff like it too. Then get discouraged cause I'm just not that detail oriented and it ends up looking weird.
I know how discouraging that can feel, for sure. But just keep at it; keep drawing, try different styles, or focus on learning a specific technique or something that's clearly "just practice" so your brain doesn't get as sad that it's not looking like the final product you have in your mind's eye. Eventually you'll find your style
Great video, keep up the amazing work man😌✌🏻
Immediately upon starting this video I saw that you had painted your nails yellow and I realized my nails were woefully unpainted so I grabbed my yellow and did them up all nice. The drawing is really cool :)
Used these back in the 80s before computers. They give a constant line thickness for graphic artwork, architecture and engineering drawings, so designed to be held vertical unlike any other pen, pencil or brush. The small sizes are very fragile, don't lean on them, and need maintenance. A colleague started all his pens first thing every morning even if not needed till later so they wouldn't clog up. Don't know if that saved time or wasted it! I have used them for art drawing to challenge myself to gain expression without being able to vary the line weight/thickness in the way you do with every other drawing tool. Still made I think, not cheap. Certainly worth trying. Thanks for the vid.
Wow pretty crazy how life works. The person who inspired me to doodle for the past 10 years banned me from his Instagram account because I’d tag him in my posts. I’m really disappointed Peter considering I’ve been following you the past 10 years. Thanks for the inspiration and motivation.
Love the Yellow nails
There seems to be a quality to your drawings when you are using a technical pen that always gets my attention, nice drawing! :D If you can, let us know if these Mars matic are easier to clean than the Rotring.
I'm here just as much for the string of consciousness narration as I am the mesmerizing drawings.
Thanks for the information and the video. I'm back using pen's again after twelve years of using everything else but pen's. I just wish I had half of the talent that you possess, because the older I get the harder it seems like I have the time and or even the interest of being creative, which is just sad. But after seeing the passion that my grandchild has whenever I bring out my art supplies it reminds me of how I used to feel when I was a much younger man. I hope he never loses that spark or quits improving with his art because in my life nothing has give me so much pleasure...💯👍
"Why not just have it go with the fake acronym? Then it could be a real acronym."
Your drawings are just as great as your narrations 🖤
Cool, always adapting.
God bless.
Merry Christmas PD
Hey Peter, you’re a cool person, hope you have a great year!
Beautiful drawing
the yellow nails + the yellow lines on your finger *chef kiss* looks amazing
Its funny what you said, but that reminded me, I have a 42 inch Fresnel lens behind my couch. I take it out about once every 5 years, on a sunny day.
Some plants get used to where they are, and if you move them they will be sad, and then grow new leaves, configured for the new lighting conditions. But then - seasons.
Upvoted for discussion about acronyms. I found a kindred spirit.
Put a drop of water in the cap to keep them from drying out as fast. You can also put them in a jar with a little bit of water, with the nib in the water. Once the type of India ink these pens use dries hard it’s pretty much over. Never tried it but you could probably put regular fountain pen ink in them, and even if it does dry it will wash out.
Love your nail/hand art. Also technical pens are the best.
Dude, this video is wild. I could listen to you go off on a tangent forever. Hope you have fun with your magnifying glass.
I recently got my first technical pen after looking for a good drafting pen and wanting one that took short fountain pen carts, this vid found me just in time because I use the iso calibration on my technical drawings
I cut my proverbial drafter’s teeth on rapidograph pens back 1980. We used vellum, linen and mylar sheets for our map drawings. It helped to have “pounce” drafting dust rubbed into the surface for a nice smooth line. We hand lettered most small stuff but used Leroy lettering (which I still have). Electric eraser and drafting machine is also in my collection.
Awww dang it ... I'm gonna have to go get one just to try this now
your drawings always remind me of the exterior of Howls Moving Castle, so many intricate parts and so interesting to look at!!
You can grow virtually everything without soil if you have all the other light, temperature and nutrients conditions met. I grow a lot of things with Coco coir which is the fur on a coconut, because it holds water well, spaghnum moss is also a common growing medium.
Mixing nutrient for one plant is a bit of a pain but I mix mine by the half gallon and just dose it over time, though I don't know if a pothos is as picky. They might even have pothos specific nutrient mixtures, like they do with cacti and succulents
Also, neat pens!
For me what made things actually grow is I changed the water I was using but my area's water is pretty rough.
Its pretty crazy how fast you pump out these drawings
These videos are good for learning English, conversational English
Genuinely one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen
I really like your nailpolish/ finger paint
Another awesome video 👍👍👍
I like your nails and hand art Peter!
Very cool drawing, digging the dot patterns, reminds me of dithering in pixel art.
Very CRUMB like. Keep on trucking.
Or, you can use disposable technical pens with same pigment inks and fiber tips. Rotring also makes refillable fiber tip technical pens. If you hold them vertically they produce ISO compliant line width but if you use them like you usually do, they still write well and they do not require that much maintenance. And, the reason there is ISO mark on .18 .25. .35 .5 and .7 pens is cos these are standard line widths for technical drawing according to ISO standard
great intro bro keep em coming
Thanks for bringing up this topic and showing us how you use these pens. I used them in college in the mid 1980s and still have my originals. However, I didn't understand how fine the middle pin is inside the barrel and bent the pens while attempting to clean them. Now I know and have sonic cleaners. have you ever used the predecessor to technical pens called "ruling pens?" They operate more like quills in that the line thickness is adjustable but has to be fed with a paintbrush. They make really precise lines but have to be refilled frequently.
This would make a neat relief carving. I would enjoy carving this sort of art on a CNC machine.
Technical pens feels like home. This reminds me I need to give my Rotrings a soak.
It's been mindblowing watching your skills improve so much over the yrs. PS I hope ants don't steal your plans to wipe us out for revenge.
i have a 0.7 rotring isograph and i can use it at a decent angle although it does not work quite as well. I also use speedball indian ink that flows really well and i think that helps