As I get older I get ever more comfortable with short pencils. My current sketchbook graphite drawing pencil is somewhere between stub size and ridiculous stub size right now. It gives my rough drawings on my sketch pad extra unplanned touches as lines bend every which way. Short pencils don’t have the same elegant balance that long pencils have, so instead of trying to over control them you just have to go along for the ride.
I used to do all of my sketchbook work with extremely fine tipped black markers. I have about a dozen of them in different sizes (all tiny, though, lol.) But over the past year or so I’ve become more hooked on the messiness and variability of drawing with pencils. Of course I had to try out a few different brands, and all of the different hardness levels – so I have a definite favorite type of pencil (Mitsubishi Uni 10B) and this incredible assortment of not favorites. The non-favorites are perfectly functional pencils, but my favorites are so “wow” that I have to force myself to use my non-favorites so that I eventually use them up and have only favorites left.
I actually find that drawing with non-favorite pencils has me spending even more time drawing in sketchbooks, because it is so satisfying to watch the pencil get shorter and shorter and shorter.
When I was younger, I treasured my art supplies by trying not to use them up too fast. Now I feel better using them up. It feels good to luxuriate in using my favorites, and it feels good to celebrate using up my non-favorites. And along the way I end up with all of these cool little surprises from doing things just a tiny bit different each day. (Perhaps there’s a deep thought hidden in all of these thoughts, but I haven’t spotted it yet – so don’t worry if this just sounds kind of ramblie. 🙂 )
Here’s a slide show with my step by step slow coloring progress:
Today’s book: Transcend (Angie’s Extreme Mood Menders – Volume 4)
Colored with: Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and Derwent Studio pencils.