Re: Drawing tools (was: Re: How did you become "Paleo Artist?")

[John Conway <john_conway@mac.com>]

On Tuesday, May 21, 2002, at 04:20  AM, Brett Booth wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Pencil hardness is what the artist feels comfortable with. In 
> California I
> use a 3H-4H (for ME the B's are too soft and smear, I use the H's for 
> both
> my Dinosaurs and my Comic Book/Illustration work.) In FLorida, because 
> of
> the humidity, 4H is too hard so I use 2H. I used to use a mechanical 
> pencil
> with a .03 lead (or .3 I can't remeber now) now I use a drafting lead 
> holder
> a kneaded eraser and a vinyl eraser (one of those click pen things.) You
> don't need to spend alot of money to get good supplies:)

Your style is unusual, you use sharp lines with no shading in the pencil 
work I have looked at. For shading purposes, soft pencils are better. 
This is not MY theory, it is how drawing is taught. (In fact, they make 
you draw with charcoal at every opportunity in art-school.) As for 
expense, I never spend more than 70c (40c US) a pencil, and use the same 
erasers you do. :-)

> I beg to differ. Alot's in the paper. HP GSP uses special paper to get 
> that
> look. I prefer a plate bristol, very slick surface, at least 2 ply. 
> Again
> it's all up ot the artist and what he feels comfortable with:)

Again, for shading, rough paper and soft pencils are the best. Hard 
pencils will not give a good effect on even the roughest paper. I'm sure 
GSP does not use Hx pencils. For underdrawing coloured work, hard 
pencils are more useful because they won't be picked up by whatever 
medium you are using for colouring. So I will soften my stance a little: 
for pencil-only drawings, the softer the better.

> For colors I scan the completed pencils into the computer and my lovely 
> wife
> does her amazing work with photoshop 6.0.1. It's a team effort!

Then you picture are not really graphite, they are mixed media 
computerized images (please don't take this as an insult - it isn't 
meant to be). If you were shading, and using pencil only, then you would 
need to use soft pencils.


John Conway, Palaeoartist

"All art is quite useless." - Oscar Wilde

Protosite: http://homepage.mac.com/john_conway/
Systematic ramblings: http://homepage.mac.com/john_conway/phylogenetic/