Thanks to you all I’m the proud owner of Blackwings (hard to get in the Netherlands). I love love how quick they go dark and how easy you can stay light. The looks of the pencils are amazing and ofcourse the eraser is perfect. Downside is when drawing with a regular pencil you think there is an eraser on the top of the pencil.
With Faber Castell Pitt Graphite Matt 14B I can get comparable darkness with a little more effort. The difference is the sheen as seen on the photo’s made on different angles. Funny!
The paper with portraits shown above has some tooth, which made it easier to go dark (harder to stay light). The Blackwing gave the silvery sheen as seen with a normal graphite pencil.
The following portraits were on smooth paper. Not only a different look, but also a different experience.
Thanks! All credit goes to France.
I’m still experimenting with paper. For drawing with a pen my preference is my recently acquired Moleskine. I can apply many layers of ink or ‘scratching’ for staying light without damaging the paper. It’s a delight to draw the portraits of the 20-Page Project part 2 in it.
For pencil more experimenting is required with different pencil and paper combinations. With smooth paper I can get more precise lines. With rougher paper I was shocked that when drawing slow, a straight line wasn’t possible. The pencil zigzagged from valley to valley of the paper. On the other hand the texture created nice skintexture as shown below.
I’m curious to know what everyones favorite paper-pencil combinations are.
I find myself using my mechanical pencils more often than not—because I like being able to get more detail with them. I love Moleskine paper, but I lean heavily towards the Strathmore toned tan and gray.
I agree with the mechanical pencils for the details. In theorie you can keep a nice sharp point on your pencil without sharpening, but I’ve never been able to achieve that. The only drawback for me with the mechanical pencil is the hardness of the leads. I love the softness of 6-14B and the Blackwing.
You motivated me to discover more about toned paper. Strathmore was not available in the craftstore, so I bought Fabriano toned paper Clay the other day. Of course sanguine and white pencils came home with me too.
I had a smile on my face while drawing and thinking of the film. It was months later that I looked at an angle and saw the spooky eyes made with the Blackwing pencil.
