There's More to Life Than a #2 Pencil!

I've been drawing a lot more lately, between children & pet portraits or graphic designs for a T-shirt company. Drawing with graphite pencils has to be one of the most relaxing things for me. It seems so simple, but there's more to life than a #2 pencil!

When children begin school, they're instructed to have plenty of #2 pencils. Whether they're doing class work, homework or artwork, the faithful #2 pencil is what they use. I was definitely that child too. In art class, I learned how to shade with a #2. In fact, I  didn't know that pencils came in anything else except a #2. Then I entered high school and had the most awesome art teacher who taught me the difference. I learned about soft and hard leads. I learned to "lift" highlights with a kneadable, gum eraser. I learned the miracle of blending with stumps and tortillons! Oh, and don't even get me started on all the paper choices! 

So if you're interested in getting back to the basics of drawing, make sure to explore your options. Remember, there's more to life than a #2 pencil!

Grandpa's Pencils

While I sit here sharpening my pencil to draw, it brought to mind a treasured memory of my Grandpa Bull. Grandpa was a very tall man with long arms and giant hands. He was a Texan and always wore his Stetson hat and cowboy boots, not the fancy ones, but the working man's boots. I loved him. I spent a lot of time with him on his farm feeding animals and watching westerns on TV. At this moment, though, I remembered his hand sharpening pencils with his knife and handing them to me to draw. He'd say, "draw me something good." Those were always the best pencils. I can't seem to get my pencils to come to as sharp of a point as he did. I miss my Grandpa's pencils...

Here's what I've been doing with my sharpened pencils, though not the same, these days...

Work in progress!

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