My poor Lamy has seen better days

My first Urban Sketching Pen was a Yellow Lamy

When I first started getting interested in urban sketching about ten years ago, I watched YouTube videos hosted by seasoned urban sketchers to figure out what materials they were using. I needed help deciding what art materials to invest in, to make me a fabulous sketcher! I can’t recall which urban sketcher that was, but they had a bright yellow Lamy Safari pen, and I fell in love and coveted it – no other pen would do. It was going to be the answer to my sketching prayers.

At the time I was living in rural England for an extended period and I wasn’t anywhere near an art shop so I ordered my Lamy Safari with a fine nib online, and a bottle of black Rohrer & Klingner sketch ink.

Sketching with a Fountain Pen

I just loved the idea of sketching with a fountain pen and waterproof ink and then applying watercolour on top of it. This approach to sketching and painting is probably the most straightforward and classic approach to urban sketching, and many urban sketchers start out with this style of sketching. It’s often referred to as pen and wash and line and wash.

Take a look at this pen and wash book review by urban sketcher John Harrison to get a good overview of this style of urban sketching.

If you’re just starting out and are looking for an affordable fountain pen, that’s reliable, and creates beautiful lines, you can’t go wrong with a Lamy Safari. They’re a fun looking pen and come in matt and shiny finishes, in a variety of bright and playful colours.

I’ve accumulated a family of them over the years, because it’s handy to have multiple pens with different inks or nib sizes to help you get different line weights.

They’re made of impact-resistant plastic and have an ergonomically shaped grip, and you can use them with cartridges or a Lamy converter.

Converting my Old Lamy to a Fude Nib

Just recently I decided to convert my faithful Old Yellow into a fude nib pen to see how easy it would be to convert. I have a lot of sentimental attachment to this pen, but I don’t really use it anymore, but I thought if I converted it, I might use it more frequently.

It was easy enough to get it to a 40 degree slant (as seen in the photo above), but as I was writing this post I found my pliers and continued to bend the nib to closer to a 55 degree slant. Now I just need to get some ink into the converter and see how well it writes.

Here’s a YouTube video from PEI Pen Guy about how he converted his Lamy to a fude Lamy.

The beauty of these Lamy pens is you can buy replacement nibs for cheap, and it’s easy to replace the nibs and swap them around your different Lamy’s. So if I don’t like the new nib, I can just replace it with another one.