A Kid With a New Box of Crayons

9/18/15 rainbow pencil

There’s no doubt about it – fall is here. Yesterday we had a good, solid rainfall, the trees are all turning, and I’m wearing socks again. I decided to give the change in seasons my personal initiation ritual, which was to sketch at Zoka Coffee.

It had been months since I’d sketched there, and even longer since I’d been to life drawing at Gage. To quickly get past that feeling of creakiness when I start drawing people again, I pulled out my new favorite toy: multi-colored pencils! You already know about the Koh-i-Noor Tri-tone colored pencils that I recently rediscovered. They are so much fun that when I saw some rainbow pencils on Amazon, I had to get a bunch of those, too. Seven colors are together in a single lead! I’m sure they’re intended for kids (the marketing information recommends them for party favors, Easter baskets and stocking stuffers), and I’m obviously the target audience – whenever I use them, I feel like a kid with a new box of crayons!

9/18/15 rainbow pencil

I’ve never been a fan of sketching with graphite, but colored pencils are something else entirely. I wish the leads in these multi-colored pencils were a bit softer (I’m used to the delightful softness of my favorite water-soluble Caran d’Ache Museum pencils), which would make shading easier. But they more than make up for softness with the fun factor. After a few sketches with these, I’d gotten over my creakiness, and I was ready for rainy-weather coffee shop sketching again (maybe I’ll even take these pencils to a life drawing session). 

9/18/15 Tri-tone pencil

9/18/15 Tri-tone pencil