When I went to art school it was drilled into me that my art materials had to be of the highest quality. Anything else was crude and beneath the status of a high caliber artiste.
While I agree that your drawing paper, mats and backing board must be acid free, I don’t agree about things like pencils and pigments. I am happier and more relaxed with a set of cheap markers than I am with a set of expensive ones. I bought my last Rapid-O-Graph years ago. There are wonderful alternatives like Sekura Micron or calligraphic pens.
I have found since leaving school that successful artists are getting away with all kinds of innovative art materials. I even heard of someone using shoe polish.
But I really want to talk about pencils. I haven’t bought a “professional” pencil since art school. I really haven’t. I collect pencils and pens when I go to public events. People will always have them as giveaways and I will sometimes take a couple or three: one in every color.
I don’t even know where I got most of my pencils. Some say “Vote yes UAW organizing department.” I don’t even know what that is. Some say “Texaco” “Machinists Union” or “Diversity Day 1994.” And I have a lot of those number 2 yellow pencils. Don’t even ask me where they came from.
I must admit I have bought some novelty pencils that had unusual attributes like a hologram design or a fridge magnet taped to them. And believe it or not, I still have some Ebony pencils from 20 years ago. I just don’t have a use for them so they stay in my pencil box.
Maybe for old time’s sake I will buy a few B and 2B pencils from the art store. But as long as the non-artist pencils will do the job why spend more money?
cheap pencils
When I went to art school it was drilled into me that my art materials had to be of the highest quality. Anything else was crude and beneath the status of a high caliber artiste.
While I agree that your drawing paper, mats and backing board must be acid free, I don’t agree about things like pencils and pigments. I am happier and more relaxed with a set of cheap markers than I am with a set of expensive ones. I bought my last Rapid-O-Graph years ago. There are wonderful alternatives like Sekura Micron or calligraphic pens.
I have found since leaving school that successful artists are getting away with all kinds of innovative art materials. I even heard of someone using shoe polish.
But I really want to talk about pencils. I haven’t bought a “professional” pencil since art school. I really haven’t. I collect pencils and pens when I go to public events. People will always have them as giveaways and I will sometimes take a couple or three: one in every color.
I don’t even know where I got most of my pencils. Some say “Vote yes UAW organizing department.” I don’t even know what that is. Some say “Texaco” “Machinists Union” or “Diversity Day 1994.” And I have a lot of those number 2 yellow pencils. Don’t even ask me where they came from.
I must admit I have bought some novelty pencils that had unusual attributes like a hologram design or a fridge magnet taped to them. And believe it or not, I still have some Ebony pencils from 20 years ago. I just don’t have a use for them so they stay in my pencil box.
Maybe for old time’s sake I will buy a few B and 2B pencils from the art store. But as long as the non-artist pencils will do the job why spend more money?