I recently read an article in Oh Comely issue 10 about artists' favourite tools. In one double page spread, eight artists from various disciplines waxed lyrical about their favourite tool to work with, accompanied by photos of said instruments. I really enjoyed reading the piece and thought you might like to know what my favourite tool is.
I like pencils; the feel of drawing with them, the look of them on paper, the variety of line weight and the not-wholly-defined ambiguity of the marks. In my own work I often felt like inking ruined a drawing, like I was trying to pin down a butterfly with a nine inch nail.
I specifically like these pencils because they're black as opposed to the usual grey. The solid colour means they scan well and details aren't lost in the translation to digital. They do not, however, erase well. Once your mark is made it will probably stay there (over 100 years if it's kept in museum conditions) so I will often make a light initial drawing with a normal pencil and then work on top with the Pitt pencil.
They're soft and they wear down quite quickly, but I like to have a sharp point on it so I keep a good sharpener on hand. I use the extender so that I can keep on going to the last few centimeters.
For example...
I used one for my Nirvana line work along with Quink ink.
In my Austra illustration I used Photoshop to invert the pencil drawing and give the impression of light on dark.
In my Austra illustration I used Photoshop to invert the pencil drawing and give the impression of light on dark.
If you want to give them a go they're £1.60 each from Cornelissen in all weights, and they have the pencil extender too. I'm not getting paid for this by the way.
If you're an artist, what's your favourite tools to use? If you have a "real job", what's your favourite piece of equipment in the work place?
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