PEN PARADE: A carrot dipped in ink

A throwback to my 2014 newsletter

My sweet mother had surgery yesterday. (It went great! She’s recovering well!) Since I’m busy fussing over her this week, I thought I’d share a throwback from my 2014 newsletter, Pen Parade. In each installment, I hand-wrote reviews of a drawing implement using the drawing implement. Pen Parade was my first ever newsletter, called “short-lived and extremely charming” by the esteemed Mason Currey, and I like to think of HALMAIL as its spiritual successor.

Back in 2014, I mostly reviewed actual pens, some of which are now discontinued, but this was the first time I reviewed a root vegetable. Enjoy!

❤️ HB

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Notes:

• To try at home: Grab some carrots and India ink and go to town on some printer paper.

• Pen Parade was transcendent! I’m proud of it still. It got a sort of cult following, and I know people were sad that I stopped. I didn’t officially end it, I just stopped doing it. (I do this a lot, I think I get bored easily. Remember when I was illustrating the dictionary?) Anyway, HALMAIL feels more sustainable. I haven’t boxed myself in, at all. Any format is allowed, any idea I have fits. I still geek out about art supplies all the time, but it’s just me being me. Here’s a few Pen-Parade-esque HALMAIL dispatches:

  • I bought some rubber stamps

  • The pen that started it all

  • Doing bad, drawing anyway

  • When your favorite pen is discontinued

• Currently reading Mason Currey’s new book Making Art and Making a Living and I’m loving it. I also just re-read Women At Work, which I want to write more about soon, but holy shit, it’s so great. As is Daily Rituals! All required reading for creatives.

• Shop my prints and cards.

• Shop my books. Mother’s Day is coming up and if you’re looking for a great gift, look no further than What To Do When I’m Gone. I posted a bit about the book’s origins here.

• I’m leading a journal comics workshop in Cincinnati later this month. Two hours! $65! A creative practice that’ll change your life! Join us.

• Write and make journal comics with me in Spain this fall!

• A nice thing to do: buy a great tee shirt, support important causes.