Cannot Be Unseen

 

8/6/26 photo reference

In addition to feeling oppressive, our days of unhealthy, smoke-filled skies were frustrating: What a waste of otherwise excellent sketching weather! During an abbreviated morning walk, wishing I could linger for a sketch, I snapped a quick photo of a stunning yellow-green tree. My intention was to sketch from the photo the same day: Maybe the immediacy would help me feel more like I had sketched it from life.

That didn’t work; I still felt like I was just sketching from a photo. Nonetheless, I enjoyed trying to capture the crown’s volume and that brilliant color. Although it wasn’t a conscious choice, I noted afterwards that the Stillman & Birn Delta sketchbook’s off-white paper captured the day’s smoky yellow light.

It was when I was putting the sketchbook on my scanner that I saw it: The tree was a green man’s profile. Auugghh!! Once seen, it cannot be unseen.

Bad Sketches

 

6/6/26 cloud study (photo reference)

Sometimes sketches just go bad. What can I learn from them?

Weather forecasters recently warned of rain, high winds and thunderstorms. The wind was real, but the rest was over-hyped. Walking through Maple Leaf Park, wondering if I would be caught in the impending storm, I saw a foreboding wall of dark clouds building to the south. I snapped a quick photo and hustled home.

Although I’ve tried painting clouds with watercolors, I’d never tackled them with Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons. Initially, I used my usual wet-in-wet “licking” technique. Then while the page was still wet, I went in directly and aggressively with dry crayons. I should have known better, but I used a Hahnemühle Akademie student-grade sketchbook, which doesn’t hold up quite as well as the 100 percent cotton version that I’m used to. The result (above) is not a disaster, but it’s not the look I was going for. I’ll try again sometime in the cotton book and see if that’s better.

The sketch shown below, made on location, was a mistake of a different sort. I was happy to see that the Green Lake Starbucks had opened their rooftop deck for the season. In the distance, these sunlit trees caught my eye. I was so eager to go straight in with color that I failed to think about the composition – which is nonexistent. Even as I began, I was already wagging my finger at myself: I should have done a thumbnail first! When I knew I was in irreversible trouble, I decided to distract myself by working on the murky area behind the trees – maybe the high contrast would help! HA!

6/12/26 Green Lake neighborhood

Someday I’ll go back and try that one again, too.

If I can learn even one thing, a bad sketch isn’t bad at all – just ugly. 😉

Caran d’Ache + Paul Smith Bicolors Special Edition

 

I succumbed: The Caran d'Ache + Paul Smith Bicolors Special Edition

I fell off the wagon. No judging, please.

During a week of high stress and anxiety, I saw that Goldspot Pens had the Caran d’Ache Paul Smith Special Edition Bicolors set in stock, and after months of resisting, I crumbled. Bicolors are my weakness! C’est la vie.

Like Cd’A’s first set of colored pencils in collaboration with British fashion designer Paul Smith (released in 2020), the latest bicolors set features Smith’s design palette and trademark stripes on the tin and sleeve. I must admit that the tin design appeals to me more than the palette. In particular, I like the thin, subtle strip of stripes on the lid’s lip on an otherwise solid black tin.

This is my favorite part of the tin -- the subtle strip of stripes on the tin's lip.

Unlike that first tin, which contained Supracolors, the latest edition contains bicolors – 12 water-soluble pencils (24 colors) and a small watercolor brush. Each pencil is stamped with “Caran d’Ache + Paul Smith” in silver. (It’s intriguing that the 2020 set puts Smith’s name first: Paul Smith + Caran d’Ache. I wish I’d been a fly on the wall when the discussion took place for that change.)

Before I even used the pencils, I was aghast by the factory sharpening: Very messy collars (that’s the type of thing I’ve seen on cheap pencils from China and India) – I don’t think I’ve ever seen any Caran d’Ache pencils that were as badly presented as these. And look at the big chip in the pink one on the left! Shame on you, Caran d’Ache.

Very sloppy collars and a huge chip

The Smith-curated palette is very . . . fashionable, I guess? Unsaturated and sophisticated, it’s a nice counterbalance to the Supracolor set, which has a more vibrant range. Although it’s not at all a range I would pick out for myself, it’s not bad for urban sketching, and it also has a good range of values (ever since my experiments inspired by the wacky Germanier palette, I find myself viewing hues as values as well as temperature). It’s not great for landscapes, though – it’s short on natural greens.

Swatches made in Hahnemuhle Akademie watercolor sketchbook. I used my Prismalo swatch page to identify as many colors as I could. 

Now let’s get to the all-important cores. A couple of months ago when the set was announced, a reader brought an interesting controversy to my attention (see comments at end of this unrelated post). Apparently the new Smith set, along with last year’s Alpine Frost holiday collection, contains student-grade Swisscolor cores. That would be a significant step down from all the previous bicolor sets, which were promoted by Caran d’Ache as containing Prismalo cores. (How insulting to Smith! Perhaps a reflection on the change in branding to put his name after Caran d’Ache’s? The plot thickens.) The reader later reported that when she asked the question directly to Cd’A’s Instagram account, she was told the Smith set actually contained Supracolor cores:

“Just to reassure you, these bi-colour pencils are actually made with our Supracolor leads, not Swisscolor. We hope you’ll enjoy their quality and performance!”

First of all, even without calipers, I could easily see that the Smith cores are too thin to be Supracolors. A few swatches were all it took to convince me that the marketing person who responded to the inquiry was sadly misinformed: These are definitely not Supracolor cores, which are much softer and creamier.

Smith bicolor at left, Supracolor at right: No way are these the same core!

The next question, then, is whether they are student-grade Swisscolor cores or, like the previous bicolor sets, the mid-grade Prismalo cores. I hadn’t used Prismalos in a while, so I refreshed my memory with a few swatches, and they are as I had remembered them: Much softer than the Smith bicolors.

My large set of Swisscolors was dispatched during my downsizing the past couple of years. However, I still have a small set that came with the kids’ travel kit I got a few years ago (a-ha – as silly as that purchase was, it came in handy after all!). I compared a few swatches.

Sample Swisscolor swatches from my large set

The bicolors’ hardness and dryness seem closer to Swisscolors than Prismalos. However, it’s important to look at the washes, not just the dry swatches. Often the pigment content of a water-soluble pencil becomes more apparent in its wash than in its dry state. When I compare the washed bicolor swatches to washed Swisscolors and Prismalos, they look closer to Prismalo. Since we can’t get a straight answer from Caran d’Ache, we may not be able to know for certain, but I’m unconvinced that they are Swisscolors.

Sample Prismalo swatches

Miffed by the drop in quality and Cd’A’s lack of transparency, I still had to make a sketch with them (below). Taking a cue from my recent experiments with trying on the themed Blick Neocolor II palettes, I challenged myself to use as many colors in the Smith bicolor set as possible. Even as an experiment, 24 colors in one sketch are a bit much, and I lost count at some point, but I used at least one side of each bicolor and several of the opposite sides, too. While that’s certainly more colors than I would ever normally use together in one sketch, they don’t look too bad together. I guess Paul Smith knows what he’s doing.

As for Caran d’Ache . . . one disappointment after another.

6/9/26 Paul Smith bicolors in Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook (photo reference)

Blick Urban Sketch Palette (Tina Edition)

 

6/4/26 Blick's Urban Sketch palette (photo reference)

Yesterday I emulated the “Blick Exclusive” edition of Caran d’Ache Neocolor II water-soluble wax pastels with the Botanical and Earth Tones theme. In today’s post, I recreate the Urban Sketch set (of course). As I mentioned yesterday, my Cobalt Blue (160) and Emerald Green (210) have gone missing, and both appear in this palette too, so they are absent in my recreation. I didn’t think Cobalt Blue was necessary since Ultramarine is included, but a green seemed essential, so I subbed in Phthalocyanine Green (710).

While the color range is wide enough for most urban scenes, it’s a bit heavy on browns and other earth tones for my needs, and including both Sepia and Black seems nearly redundant. I use Light Gray (intended for pavement, I suppose?)  so infrequently that I didn’t know what to do with it in my sketch. I ended up using it mostly to block in shapes that I colored over later with other colors. It’s curious that the palette includes Lemon Yellow, Golden Yellow and Orange while the Botanical and Earth Tones set includes only one yellow. (A-ha – the tin illustration shows a classic yellow taxicab.)

Phthalocyanine Green stands in for Emerald in my recreated palette.

With blue and green in the palette, I knew what I needed in my reference photo: Trash cans! Maybe I was influenced by the theme’s name, but I found this palette comfortable and easy to use. I only needed to take artistic license with the car’s color (yellow cabs are extremely rare in these parts). Not seeing an obvious way to use Vermilion and Carmine with this reference photo, I had to start a dumpster fire (ha-ha).

While Phthalocyanine Green is ideal for trash cans, I find it too unnatural for foliage. Using this palette taught me, however, that when warmed with Lemon Yellow, it’s not bad.

As I did with yesterday’s palette, I balked at too many colors being used for no reason – and then I reminded myself that no one said I had to use them all. In any case, I enjoyed using these palettes as a fun exercise in stretching my color vocabulary. It was relaxing, too, because I didn’t have to think about which colors to choose. I’ll add this to my doomscrolling prevention toolkit.

The two themes I emulated are each wide-ranging enough that they could be used as standalone sets. The Blick Exclusive series has two more sets – Fantasy Dreamscape and Floral Expressions. Fantasy Dreamscape is overly heavy on cool hues, and the floral set wouldn’t be adequate for urban scenes, making both less versatile. If I come across reference photos that might be appropriate for those palettes, I might try them someday.

In the meantime, I have a more pressing matter at hand: Where could my Emerald Green and Cobalt Blue be . . .?

Blick Botanical and Earth Tones Palette (Tina Edition)

 

6/3/26 A hot mess of 13 colors (photo reference)

Cruising casually on the Blick site one day (as one does), I came across a series of new products: Caran d’Ache Neocolor II sets with a “Blick Exclusive” label! At first my heart skipped a beat: What?? New Neo II colors that only Blick can sell?? It didn’t take long for my heart rate to return to normal; the colors aren’t new at all. Caran d’Ache has curated four themed palettes for Blick to sell exclusively. The 15 colors in each set are all from Cd’A’s standard Neocolor II line, the sets come in Cd’A’s standard red tins, and Blick’s name is on the sleeves.

It’s an interesting co-marketing play. I know that Blick is widespread in the US, but I wouldn’t have guessed that the art supply store is ubiquitous enough for Cd’A to put the store’s name on one of its bestselling products.

In any case, the most interesting part to me was looking at the colors that had been selected for each theme. I’ve found it to be an intriguing creative exercise to try on a palette that someone else has designed. The first time I tried it was several years ago with the Beya Rebaï Neocolor II sets. More recently, fashion designer Kévin Germanier’s surprising palette of colored pencils inspired me in unexpected ways (which led to my own palette-making discoveries that I’m still applying).

Since I own almost all the Neocolor II colors, I thought it would be fun to recreate a couple of the “Blick exclusive” palettes and try them. Today’s post is my version of the Botanical and Earth Tones palette. A couple of colors are missing here: Cobalt Blue (160) and Emerald Green (210). (I’m sure I own both, as my swatch page includes them, yet both have mysteriously disappeared from my studio. Annoying.) I thought the 13 I had were plenty, though, to make a sketch.

Two colors missing from the palette: Cobalt Blue and Emerald Green

While I do understand that no one is expected to use all the colors in the set in a single work, I gave myself that challenge just for fun. My natural tendency is to minimize my palettes to the extreme, but my recent bingeing of Colin Woodward’s YouTubes and taking his mini-workshop have pushed me to try being more maximalized.

Since the theme is flowers and plants, I dug through my reference photos to find one with lots of both, especially in the colors of the palette. The hot mess shown here is the result. The greens were all familiar to me, as I use them often (one is in my current daily-carry). I found it odd, though, that the set includes two olive-y greens that are so similar. I suppose the light blue was intended for the sky in landscapes, but the photo I chose had none visible, so I tossed it around at will. I didn’t learn much from this palette except that 13 colors were too many for this sketch, and I winced at the lack of palette cohesion. Making the scribbly mess was fun, though.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post when I recreate another “Blick exclusive” palette.

Bob Blast’s Painterly Tips

 

5/21/26 photo reference

Bob Blast’s YouTube channel recently came to my attention. Scanning through his titles, I can see that he is a painter, not a sketcher, but as I always do with painting instruction videos, I try to apply his approach to any medium I might use. That’s how I use oil painter Ian Roberts’ extremely informative videos about composition. It’s usually a little more difficult to use pencils, crayons or markers in place of paint, but I enjoy the challenge of attempting it anyway. And almost always, the exercise reconfirms that basic art and design principles apply to any medium.

In the video I viewed recently, Blast (Bob’s real last name is Burridge, but I like that he uses “Blast”) shows how he designs paintings around figures by putting the highest contrast around the area of the focal point. He also uses negative space to clarify and design shapes. Finally, he stresses the importance of showing the direction of light. His style is more abstract than I would typically use for urban sketching, but its visual appeal made me want to try it.

Using a reference photo I had snapped on a walk, I picked out some primary colors in water-soluble markers and crayons. My color choices were based on values, not the photo, and I grabbed basic hues so that I wouldn’t get distracted by trying to “match” what I saw.

Although this approach is very different from the way I usually think, I like the result. I’m especially pleased with how the dark negative space defines the left figure’s lighted side. (I would have liked the way the high-contrast negative space defines the dog’s lighted side if I hadn’t inadvertently drawn the ground shadows through its body!)

5/23/26 Statue of Lenin, Fremont

Anyway, this exercise was a lot of challenging fun. It motivates me to take more high-contrast reference photos so that I can practice this exercise again. 

Could I ever do it on location? It’s often difficult to find a high-contrast scene with ideal lighting that would make this exercise easier, but now that I’m aware of what to look for, I see more potential. Last week in Fremont, I was thinking about Blast’s tips as I sketched the statue of Lenin. Several dense trees are behind Lenin’s head. I made the tree on the left (the lit side of the statue) darker to have higher contrast against the focal point. On that overcast afternoon, I also exaggerated the contrast between light and shadow on the whole statue and made the direction of light more obvious -- something I became more aware of because of Blast’s videos. 

Neppy

 

5/22/26 Neptune (reference photo by Linda Lee)

From the many stories I’ve been told about the pets I’ve drawn, I gather that rescue pups are a hardy lot. They’ve already survived untold hardships before finding their forever homes. Once they know they are safe and loved, they have reason to keep on barking.

A Papillon and Chihuahua mix, Neptune lived to the ripe old age of 14, despite numerous health issues. A friend commissioned this drawing to give to her aunt, Neppy’s mom.

RIP, Neppy.

Where Words and Music Come Together

 

5/14/26 Ben Wheeler accompanies Cindy Williams Gutierrez as she reads her poems at Hugo House (quotations are from Gutierrez's poems or commentary during the Q&A)

Dave Nolet on bass 

I recently enjoyed a unique collaborative performance at Hugo House, a literary arts center for creative writers. Poet Cindy Williams Gutierrez read from her book, This Tender Geography, while classical guitarist Ben Wheeler and upright bass player Dave Nolet accompanied her. The interplay of poetry and music was rich and moving.

Here’s what made the evening extra special for me: Ben and I attended the same elementary, middle and high schools and had not seen each other since our 20^th Franklin High reunion eons ago! In addition, I attended the event with our mutual friend Marianne, whom I have known since kindergarten. All three of us were in the same second grade class! It was a fun reunion, and we vowed to get together again soon when we’ll have more time to catch up.

Reconnecting with people from my past has become very important to me, and I cherish every opportunity.

5/14/26 After the event, I went home and sketched from our reunion selfie:
Friends since second grade!

Abstract Colors, Abstract Shapes

 

4/29/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood (This house, which looks more like a beachfront hotel than a residence, is actually dark brown, but I had no problem turning it blue-violet, which has become a favorite dark in my palette. On the other hand, I felt compelled to color the trees around it in their natural hues.)

As Colin Woodward’s YouTubes have made me think more consciously about abstraction, I’ve come to realize that some types of abstraction come more easily to me than others. The textures and shapes of trees and foliage, for example, are easier to abstract than their hues, which I feel compelled to make as natural as possible (I talked about this a bit in yesterday’s post, too).

On the other hand, humanmade shapes likes houses and cars are more challenging to abstract, but it’s easy to use non-realistic (or non-real) colors to depict them.

5/3/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood (With some difficulty, I tried to abstract the cars as much as possible. The blur of foliage was easier to abstract by simply focusing on values.)

Strangest of all is that it’s easier to abstract both shapes and colors when I work from photo references (as below) than from life. It should all be the same to my brain, yet whenever I sketch from life, I feel I must be more life-like. (As is often the case, my brain can be annoying.)

4/15/26 photo reference (Both shapes and colors are easier to abstract when I draw from a photo)

Hacked flat waterbrush

In somewhat related news: Woodward, a painter in various media, uses many types of “real” brushes (he’s too polite to say, but I can tell that he eschews the waterbrush and keeps one around only for emergency use). One of his favorites is a flat wash brush. Although I have no intention of using real brushes on location, he inspired me to dig out a waterbrush I had hacked several years ago. It’s a standard Kuretake waterbrush with a flat edge that I cut (with some difficulty) at an angle. I goofed around with it at the time to make portraits, then forgot about it.

I’m glad I kept it! The point is finer than a Kuretake medium-size round waterbrush, which is my go-to, and it has come in handy a couple of times for details. More useful, though, is the angled flat edge, which enables activating a large area of foliage, for example, without getting the dreaded dab-dab-dab look that can occur when using a round Kuretake. (In fact, avoiding the dab-dab-dab look was what led me to start using a spritzer to activate foliage years ago.) It might just be a novelty, but I’m keeping it in my bag for now.

Eph’s Towing

 

5/6/26 QFC parking lot, Magnolia

Shortly after I had pulled out of the Fishermen’s Terminal parking lot last week, I knew something was wrong: The Miata’s clutch would barely engage, and shifting into each gear was a struggle. I pulled into a nearby QFC lot.

Eph’s Towing, recommended by Chuck’s Auto, came to my rescue. When I told Ephraim how questionable the car’s operation was, he decided to maneuver the car out of the parking space and align it with the tow’s flat bed by hand! I was impressed and relieved to see him treat my 30-year-old baby with such care.

Many towing services won’t allow the owner to ride along in the cab, but Eph was happy to take me along. It turned out that we are both Seattle natives and Franklin High grads (although he was probably four decades behind me)! I enjoyed hearing how he got into the towing business and how grateful he is for the flexible work, which enables him to spend more time raising his two young kids. Currently renting a house in Burien, he and his wife are saving toward buying a home. Despite Seattle’s well-known unaffordability, they like it here and hope to stay.

Eph securing my baby to the tow bed (photo reference)

As he dropped me and my Miata off at Chuck’s Auto, I wished Eph well and later left him a five-star review on Google (which he had requested in response to my words of gratitude).

Epilogue: The faulty clutch cylinder was the one that had been replaced just under three years ago (another towing incident that had required a much longer sketchwait than this one), so it was still within warranty. Whew! An automotive bullet dodged, and the Miata rides again!

A Larger Demo

 

A practice demo I did at home using markers on 9x12 paper.

My second in-classroom workshop for ArtSpot was on drawing animals with colored pencils. Since the brush pen workshop had focused on pets, I broadened the second one to include any animal, but the chosen subjects were all pets anyway. As I’ve found with my own commissions, pets are always an endearing subject!

After my first workshop, I thought hard about how I could improve my demos. The issue was that since I typically work on small paper, it’s difficult for the students to see my work in progress. Yet trying to use colored pencils on a larger scale would be time-consuming. I decided to use a 9-by-12-inch sketchbook at an easel to demonstrate the drawing methods (scaling, measuring, the drawing sequence) using bold markers. I felt that students could grasp the concepts that way, then apply them to colored pencils.

I think it worked out better, and the students all did really well. It’s always rewarding to interact with hard-working, motivated students!

Demo sketch on how I might use bright yellow to imply highlights that are
difficult to see in the reference photo.

An urban sketching-style group selfie!

Photo courtesy of ArtSpot

Photo courtesy of ArtSpot (I'm holding the demo I did with markers at the easel)

Two Tree Studies

 

4/27/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood through an upstairs window

I’ve been wanting to practice sketching multiple layers of trees and foliage with varying textures and hues. It’s the type of scene I love, but it can be overwhelming to sketch on location. Initially I was going to head out to a park to look for the right scene, but I found exactly what I was looking for through an upstairs window (top of post). Although I’m sure I sketched it at some point during the pandemic when I sketched out of every window in the house many times, this scene doesn’t have an interesting composition. It perfectly served my purpose, however, as a study. I used a limited palette of five Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons (plus one Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle pencil for the sky).

Another thing I’ve been wanting to practice is dogwood trees. In past attempts, I felt I had failed to capture the airy transparency of dogwood blossoms. Unlike cherry trees, which transform into thick cottony clouds of pale pink, dogwood branches are sparsely covered, even at their peak. A photo of a dogwood I had snapped recently (I showed it a few days ago) made a good study for the sketch below.

4/27/26 photo reference

It also gave me an opportunity to practice a strategy I had talked about a while back but keep forgetting to use on location: Mixing water-soluble and non-soluble materials to the best advantage of each. I wanted the background house to be visible through the transparency of the blossoms without being cluttered with detail that detracted from the tree. I first tried using an Olive Earth Derwent Drawing pencil to draw the house, but it was too pale, so I switched to Ivory Black. Then I used five colors of Neocolor II crayons for the blossoms and foliage. I spritzed the page lightly with water. Finally, I used the black Drawing pencil to draw the branches and continue darkening the house behind the blossoms.

This exercise was, for me, the ideal use of a reference photo: To practice the kinds of techniques I want to use on a specific subject on location (which I hope to do soon).

A strategic mix of media

Getting My Teaching Chops Back

 

4/12/26 

4/12/26 Dexter

After being away from teaching for 15 years, I was feeling rusty going into my ArtSpot workshop last Sunday. As soon as I sat down with my enthusiastic students (a full class), though, my confidence returned and anxiety vanished. It was good to be reminded of the pleasure of interacting with creative, motivated students, which I had enjoyed for many years in my previous life.

Drawing pets with a brush pen was the topic of the day. In my supply list and in the email I sent to students several days prior, I reminded them that the single-most important thing they must bring to class was a high-quality reference photo (several to choose from, if possible). Drawing from a tiny phone screen is less than ideal, so I encouraged them to bring a tablet or iPad or, even better, large prints of images. I was relieved that everyone heeded my recommendations.

I gave the students an opportunity to try drawing from an upside-down
reference image, an exercise I learned from Betty Edwards' Drawing on the
Right Side of the Brain. I drew Teddy upside-down along with my students.

In fact, although I had come prepared with my own images to use for demos, some students had such great photos that I used them to demo with (and gave away the results). Each demo was in response to questions that came up. For example, the mom of the grumpy cat (the only cat! Whaaat??! Of course, I have a preference for dogs, at least to draw, but I was certain more would want to draw cats) asked about how to show the catchlight in light-colored eyes and shading on very pale-colored fur. Although I feel strongly about showing the catchlight, in this case, I concurred that it was difficult to do with a brush pen. Instead, I showed her how to subtly shade the fur on one side.

I sketched Roxy from life as she rested in a sling.

My favorite sketch wasn’t a demo at all: It was a live sketch of Roxy (at left), who spent the class time in a sling around the neck of shop staff member Viani. What a sweet, quiet model she turned out to be.

My learning for the day was to figure out how to do future demos that will be easier to see. I’m not sure I know how to demo on a large scale using an easel, but maybe I need to learn.

Overall, I had a blast, and I hope my students found it rewarding, too.

Maisy and Sammy

 

4/6/26 Sammy (reference photo by Tom Constantini)

3/21/26 Maisy (reference photo by Natalie Taylor)

Although I haven’t been doing as many commissioned pet portraits lately, I’m happy for the opportunities to practice that keep coming up. Last month when I was an ArtSpot featured artist during Art Walk Edmonds, I demo’d a few pet portraits for visitors who had photos on their phones. I started Maisy on the spot, but then more people came by to chat, and I felt too distracted to finish. I told Maisy’s mom that I’d finish at home and give it to her later. Drawing Maisy with a brush pen gave me a good opportunity to include a stepped-out example in my workshop handout. (My brush pen workshop is tomorrow! I’ll report back soon on how that went.)

The calico was a sadder event. A friend posted on Facebook that his beloved Sammy had just passed away at a ripe old age. It’s always a joy to sketch a beautiful animal, and I hope the gift brings some comfort.

The Original Fude Pencil

 

3/25/26 Uni Mitsubishi "brush pencil" in Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook (photo reference)

After thinking about the Uni Mitsubishi “brush pencil” and talking about it in yesterday’s post, I couldn’t help but pull it out – it had been ages since I last used that amazing pencil. Indeed, it is the fude of graphite pencils – ultra smooth, 10B graphite combined with a thick, thick core.

I made the same types of swatches I did with the Derwent Drawing pencil in yesterday’s post: the side of core, with the point in multiple, lightly applied layers, and a high-pressure application with the point. With firm pressure, it’s so dark it looks almost like a marker. What a pencil!

Uni "brush pencil" swatches made in Zeta sketchbook

Yet is it more of a fude than a Derwent Drawing pencil is? I think not; they are equally fude-esque. And the Drawing pencil has the added benefit of not smudging nearly as much as the Uni “brush” does. Graphite or colored, any pencil can compete for the fude title – but it’s not easily earned. I’d welcome other contenders! I certainly don’t own any others!

Its title is stamped right on the barrel: fude enpitsu ("brush pencil")