Pencil Love!
There is something sensual in the way pencil and paper dance with each other. It happens when you’ve chosen the right match between the the softness of the pencil and texture and firmness of the paper. It’s a marriage that either works beautifully or struggles to deliver your vision. There’s a pencil for every drawing subject—figure drawing, botanical studies, children, landscapes. We can choose from charcoal to fine graphites. In the colour pencil ranges there’s never been more to choose from than there is now. I’ve always enjoyed drawing, even as a young child. In 2008 when I was invited to become a registered artist with Derwent—the UK’s best known pencil brand—I was delighted to extend my experience of different pencil media through their extensive range. You’ll see examples below of Derwent’s Inktense, Coloursoft, Tinted Charcoal, Pastel Pencils and Graphite.
Other favourites of mine are Germany’s Faber Castel Polychrome and Pitt Pencils (Charcoal) and Staedler’s EE Pencils. In the gallery below, illustrations from The Children of Gaia are marked by * and from Once in A Blue Moon (Random House NZ 1995) by **.
‘Digital Sepia’ means a colour formula has been applied in a computer to turn a ‘grey’ graphite drawing into a sepia colour. I used this technique to turn graphite pencil drawings into sepia for The Children of Gaia so they all matched and toned harmoniously with the coloured pictures.
Life without pencils would be so much less exciting and joyful!
Single click on any image below to view all as a slide show.
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