Carla ordered these cheap Bic mechanical pencils. I tried one out and I actually like it a lot. The lead diameter is 0.9 mm and it has a number 2 lead inside. It also contains one extra lead in the barrel. A 24-pack sells for about $.25 a pencil. They are supposed to be disposable, but why not buy a bunch of 9 mm lead for cheap and keep using the pencil? You can even get colored leads! Read the rest
CJ Hendry creates large pencil sketches that mix hyperrealism with fantasy. After working mainly in black and white, she jumped to color in a big way with her series of colorful paint smears. Read the rest
AxiDraw is a computer-aided pen plotter that uses any writing instrument inserted in the device.
The latest and greatest demo hints at just some of the possibilities. Read the rest
Both of my daughters like to sketch, and so do I. One of our favorite things to do is sit around the dining room table and spend the afternoon drawing. The sketchpad I typically use is the 9 in. x 12 in. Strathmore Series 400. A pad of 100 sheets costs $(removed) on Amazon. I use a variety of pencils and brush pens, but I really like the Black Prismacolor colored pencil (PC935), which is what illustrator Mark Crilley uses to "ink" his pencil drawings. It produces a dark black line that stays put when you erase the pencil marks around it.
Here are a few of our sketches:
