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| 11/1/24 Revolutions Coffee, Green Lake neighborhood |
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| 11/1/24 |
The ink had barely dried for InkTober when I sharpened up for Pencilvember! Unlike last year, however (and recent InkTobers), I have no theme, no consistent format, no rules – heck, I may even go wild and skip some days (but you all know me well enough to know that’s unlikely to happen 😉). With all the markers I’ve been using this year, I just miss my beloved pencils, both colored and graphite, and this month will be a good way to feel the woodcased love again.
Lazy as I am about drawing challenges lately (and my time and attention preoccupied with downsizing), I know that the easiest way to work on this challenge is to simply make it part of my daily-carry and use pencil on my walks and while sketchwaiting. In addition, ever since my 30-day challenge a couple of years ago, I haven’t gotten back to compositional and value studies, which I’ve missed. A tool as basic as a pencil is ideal for studies as basic as composition.
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| Faber-Castell Pitt Graphite Matt in 14B (sticker from Rickshaw Bags -- just in time for November) |
The pencil I’m starting the month with is a Faber-Castell Pitt Graphite Matt in 14B. Despite the grade, it’s only as dark as maybe a 6B among the Japanese graphite brands I’m more accustomed to. I’m not a fan of the way Matt pencils feel when being applied compared to traditional graphite, and it’s weird for a pencil of that grade to be so hard – I can make several small sketches without having to sharpen. On the other hand, it has no shine, even in the darkest areas, which makes photography easy. And even more beneficial is that it hardly smudges at all, which means I can use both sides of the page, just as I do with markers.
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| 11/2/24 Maple Leaf Park (I'm experimenting with adding a marker border or not. I like the red border on this one.) |
Speaking of pages, I probably spent more time picking out a sketchbook for the month than I did a pencil. That’s because I always find the paper/pencil match-up more important than the pencil itself (in terms of the overall experience). For a while, I considered using one of many random, pocket-size notebooks that contain papers too thin for any other media but dry pencils. Eventually I decided on a white Uglybooks. As much as I love colored Uglybooks, the strong hues are a bit too aggressive with graphite, but I do enjoy the paper’s mild tooth with all pencils. Then at the very last minute, I decided I didn’t want to give up the white highlights I love so much and switched to a tan Uglybooks instead. The tan color makes me work a bit harder to get the darkest darks, but it’s worth it to be able to use white, too. In any case, it’s now my daily-carry book, so I’m committed to it until it’s full.
Who’s doing Pencilvember with me?
Huzzah! I'm in, of course. I also went around about what paper to use. I liked the orange ugly book last year with colored pencil, but not with graphite. I wanted enough tooth for colored, so my Ottergami was out. But not too much texture, so WC papers were out. I am keeping my sketches small, so no A4 size. That left Canson vellum or Strathmore colored pencil paper. The Strathmore has more texture than I like for graphite, but I'm using it anyway. I'm posting periodically, since several days will go on each sheet. It's always an experiment! Anne HwH
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