Monday, November 8, 2010

2nd Entry for Oct. 18, 2010




These are 5-minute studies, also done with graphite on sheets of 11 x 14 cartridge paper. I had found a mechanical pencil for carpenters that had a broad, flat lead, like a pencil fused with a box cutter. The shape of the lead had potential, I felt, in delivering a wide range of thin and broad strokes on a smaller scale than the Conte crayon I have been favouring, and I thought it might be ideal for a session like this. The popularity of the Sketchy's sessions mean that one has to work on smaller paper than the 24 x 26 sheets that I have been almost exclusively using.

I do fall prey a bit to the `magic bullet' fallacy - that there is a material or paper out there that will perfectly realise my desired imagery, or that it will magicaly improve what I am doing. When I try out something new, I often wonder if this might be `the perfect discovery'. Practically, it usually shakes out that each combination of drawing material and drawing surface have pros and cons to them. And with something new, if it is not terrible, or if I want it to work for me, I'll notice the pros and downplay or ignore the cons, until over time the cons become more apparent.

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