A LITTLE NOSTALGIA

It is no real secret........... I love doing pencil drawings, to me the pencil is the KING of all traditional art tools. I have just recently ( today ) finished a drawing that brings back a lot of memories and nostalgia as it were to my brain.

In college, I had a studio class where we were not allowed to use a pencil sharpener. We had to use a knife to sharpen our pencils, and nearly thirty years later, I tried it again..........it is pretty cool, and am not sure why I ever stopped doing this.

What got me to do it again was sort of a silly little thing I saw on Facebook and was honestly quite happy to obtain as well ( thanks Brian ). It was an old Tarzan pocket knife. More so than just an old Tarzan pocket knife, it is exactly like my art hero Frank Frazetta  used to sharpen his pencils...

Franks knife
photo Doc Dave

Once I got the knife ( actually two of them ) a little drawing thing came up in which I got the opportunity to do a drawing of Vampirella......something I always wanted to do, but never really had the time nor inclination to do, but now seemed to be a good time to do so, AND what better way to do her than to do a pencil drawing and to try something I hadn't done in years as well as a sort of homage to tradition and to do her in the way that her creator did.......... I got out my Tarzan pocket knife and sharpened my pencil. I did use a 2B for this and not a 3B .

Here is what I learned along the way: 

when sharpening a pencil with a knife, you retain more lead if you leave it with a more or less blunt tip. 

the blunt tip gives you a softer ore organic line and as you use the pencil, you tend to make sharp spots on it for more finer detaily parts

the softer more organic line is easier to erase and smudge........which works well with the way I draw

the only real thing I didn't like was that if I wanted a really REALLY sharp point I would have to work a bit harder at getting it by scraping the lead down and I am a bit too lazy to do that a lot, so I went back to my brass bullet and another pencil and sharpened it for a fine point.

Will I do this again.........not really sure, but maybe, but it was fun to go back to something I hadn't done in years, and to sort of pay tribute to a Master.

the tools of the trade

the final piece