Isograph Vs Rapidograph

[South Line]

I recently purchased set of Variant(discontinued), Isograph and Rapidograph pens. All still working

 

It got me thinking, how many people are still using these and which do you prefer the Isograph or Rapidograph?

[pagama]

To be totally honest, my Steadtler equivalent are sitting in a box in my wardrobe. I doubt very much ANYONE who used to use them, including myself, would ink them again for what 3D designing can offer today (I used Autodesk Inventor)

Once upon a time, design work with these was an artistic skill. No longer true I'm afraid! I miss using mine. I don't miss having to clean the 0.18 nib though

Edited April 18, 2015 by pagama

[inkstainedruth]

Never used an Isograph, but I probably still have my set of Radiographs in a desk drawer someplace.

It wasn't till I got to college that I found out they were for doing stuff like ruling lines (isometric drawings, etc), because the first person I knew that had some used them for drawing. So I mostly did as well. A guy I knew kept telling me that the Koh-i-noor ink was really bad and I should use something "blacker" but I liked the grayish line I got from that ink, especially for drawing.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[pagama]

My Staedtlers, now resting in peace.

Edited April 19, 2015 by pagama

[South Line]

To be totally honest, my Steadtler equivalent are sitting in a box in my wardrobe. I doubt very much ANYONE who used to use them, including myself, would ink them again for what 3D designing can offer today (I used Autodesk Inventor)

Once upon a time, design work with these was an artistic skill. No longer true I'm afraid! I miss using mine. I don't miss having to clean the 0.18 nib though

 

Oh well, I'm not surprised that fewer people are still using them. Everyone is moving on into the digital age

Edited April 21, 2015 by South Line

[pajaro]

I had a set of Staedtler years ago. They got lost in a move. I recently bought a Koh-I-Noor and replaced the nib with an Esterbrook nib, a short one. It works as a curiousity.

 

I think pens might be replaced by digital items, so you should save all the collectibles you can stand. They are interesting to look over. As pens fade into disuse you can muse about them and remember the fun and also the hassles you had with them.

[Manalto]

I doubt very much ANYONE who used to use them, including myself, would ink them again for what 3D designing can offer today (I used Autodesk Inventor)

Once upon a time, design work with these was an artistic skill. No longer true I'm afraid! I miss using mine. I don't miss having to clean the 0.18 nib though

 

I'm the exception that proves your rule. I do landscape design drawings using Rapidograph with sepia ink and colored pencil on vellum. My clients seem to find them more appealing and a few have told me that they framed them. 3D designing would be enormously useful to help clients visualize a plan, but somehow the combination of handwork and imagination outweigh the benefits.

 

I'm now learning calligraphy to make more interesting titles and labeling.

[pagama]

I still know of Architects that use them. I have no problem using them myself, only that my drawing board/machine are no longer with me, and the stores that sell them, price them like they are gold! Rip off in my opinion. But that's my bugbear!

Easier to use 3D as I have the licence at work. And I still do Architectural work on and off, but find the 3D much easier to "manipulate"

[RyanM]

I bought the entire set of the Rotring Rapidograph. They now sit unused. Revit taking their place.

[Teacher Man]

 

I'm the exception that proves your rule. I do landscape design drawings using Rapidograph with sepia ink and colored pencil on vellum. My clients seem to find them more appealing and a few have told me that they framed them. 3D designing would be enormously useful to help clients visualize a plan, but somehow the combination of handwork and imagination outweigh the benefits.

 

I'm now learning calligraphy to make more interesting titles and labeling.

 

I'd be interested in what sepia ink you use. Do you ahve any experience with non-Rotring inks in the Rotring pens? I am very interested in using inks from Rohrer & Klingner's Antiktusche range (and possibly some of the drawing inks) in rotring ArtPens and Isographs. While the Rohrer & Klingner website seems to suggest that is possible, people on this forum seem to believe that acrylic ink is the enemy of all pens. Any thoughts?

[sidthecat]

Oh well, I'm not surprised that fewer people are still using them. Everyone is moving on into the digital age

My sister, a very talented artist, is a committed technical pen Luddite. I feel for her, since neither the pens or the paper she uses are what they used to be.

[dogpoet]

Never used an Isograph, but I probably still have my set of Radiographs in a desk drawer someplace.

It wasn't till I got to college that I found out they were for doing stuff like ruling lines (isometric drawings, etc), because the first person I knew that had some used them for drawing. So I mostly did as well. A guy I knew kept telling me that the Koh-i-noor ink was really bad and I should use something "blacker" but I liked the grayish line I got from that ink, especially for drawing.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

That's the main thing they're still used for these days,Ruth. Cadcam has more or less killed off drafting pens for technical drawing, but they're still popular with a lot of commercial artists, particularly in the comics field. Letterers who still fill in the balloons and boxes by hand generally use drafting pens, and there are inkers who like the precise line from a drafting pen a lot more than the variation from a brush or dip pen.

There's also one of the more famous fantasy artists who's been associated with using a rotring both to add detail to his paintings and to provide obsessively detailed, grainy monochrome pen and ink art since he started his career in the '70s.

http://fridayillustrated.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/artianmiller.jpg

http://johnguycollick.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/greatoldone.jpg

[sidthecat]

This is the sort of thing my sister does with her pens: